VOL & VOLF

Week 7 (6/4 – 12/4)
Managed to complete and submit the final draft of the dissertation. What a relief! Keeping my fingers crossed and hopes that my supervisor will accept it. At this point of time I think that a pass would be sufficient, getting results better than B would be a bonus. Don’t think that I could extend my completion of studies anymore, think that its getting more difficult as the year progresses.

Started to think about the coaching practice now, since time is virtually running out. Had approached the coachee regarding the exercise and explained to her what my intention is. Had a short talk to her about the coaching exercise and informed her that there will be 3 sessions that I had planned. Not sure about the outcome yet, “fingers crossed” about it. Got to go through the notes and the references that I managed to compile regarding the coaching exercise so that I would not stuffed up.

Gone back through the notes since need to have a refresher on the correct way to coaching. Main items to be observed or noted are:-

Experience during request for permission for coaching;
Observations made of the coachee during coaching session;
Actions to be taken;
Commitments made.

The coaching session was undertaken for approximately 20 minutes on 10th April 2009 at my office. The purpose of the coaching exercise was explained to the coachee since she was initially uncomfortable about the coaching subject when informed previously. Although the coaching exercise is part of the requirements for the MBL course, I also made it clear that my intention to coach her was genuine. The main difficulties encountered was for the coachee to build the trusting relationship since the subject matter brought up was too personal in nature and since I am her superior. I had shown her my blog in order to show her that the prior commitment that I made ie not revealing her name in my blog was done. Didn’t manage to get far although 2 subjects were brought up by the coachee ie in terms of career direction and personal financial matters. Will try to get further inroads into the coaching aspects so that I will manage to progress further. In this aspect, I sincerely think that building the mutual trust would be essential so that this exercise would not be considered “forced upon”. Had looked through the sample questions in the notes and also done further reading in order to learn the necessary coaching skills required. I still think that why the first coaching session did not go that far was due to my lack of skills in coaching.

Just an update, PR won both Bukit Selambau & Bukit Gantang seats while BN won the Batang Ai seat. Most of the people that I met were not unduly surprised by the results, though some expected PR to win all 3 seats. Hmmm… politics, can’t live with them, can’t live without them.