Training teaches leaders to coach

By Rosalva Zimmerman

A group of ministry leaders gathered Jan. 19-22 for a 2+2/Coaching Skills and Coach Certificate Training at the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention office in Scottsdale. The event was led by Terry Walling, author of Stuck! and The IDEA Coaching Pathway and founder of Leader Breakthru, an organization that trains individuals to coach the lifelong development of others.

The training was divided into two separate sessions, a two-day Coaching Skills Training designed to empower individuals to advance their coaching abilities, and then a two-day Coach Certificate Training that focused on both personal and lifelong development of leaders.

“If a person is interested in growing in their ability to equip leaders, or influence leaders, coaching is a skill that allows you to … help [people] more readily see how God is speaking in their life,” said AZSBC Ministry Leadership Facilitator Keith Henry.

Leader Breakthru utilizes a dynamic experiential learning approach based on the IDEA acronym:

Identify with the person and clarify the core desire.

Discover the backstory and surface the challenges.

Evaluate how God is at work and pinpoint the issue.

Act on the insights and affirm the takeaways.

According to the IDEA Coaching Pathway, this strategy is “a new way to structure a coaching conversation that gets to the heart of God’s shaping work in the lives of those you coach.” It is designed to help the coach build trust, promote discovery and responsibility, develop discernment, provide focused input, identify core issues, and then assist the person being coached to move forward with strategic action steps.

According to Henry, it is a very relational approach.

“Rather than telling a leader what they should do, rather than teach them a certain principle or discipline, instead you use active listening and open-ended questions to help them discover what God has already placed within them or wants to reveal to them,” Henry said.

Twenty-one participants from a variety of leadership positions, ranging from pastors to evangelism/missions directors and church planters, attended one or both of the sessions, and 18 received their coaching certification.

Henry said future plans include another training, which will likely be held in the spring of 2017. Those interested in finding out more about IDEA Coaching may contact Henry at keith@azsbc.org.