What is coaching?

Coaching is a profession that works with individuals and teams to help them achieve results and sustain life-changing behavior in their lives and careers. Professional/personal coaching addresses the whole person – with an emphasis on producing action and uncovering learning that can lead to more fulfillment, more balance and a more effective process for living and working.

Why have a coach?

Individuals and teams come to coaching for lots of different reasons but the bottom line is change. Coaching doesn’t remove problems.  Rather, coaching helps clients turn problems into challenges and draw upon unknown internal resources to overcome them.

Coaching creates a context where people regularly work on the most important issues of their lives.  It is a powerful relationship for people making important changes in their lives.  Coaching helps people become more effective, resourceful, satisfied and productive in their lives at many levels.

Coaching moves clients forward to success, balance and fulfillment, aligning goals and visions with core values.

Unlike counseling or therapy, coaching begins with the fundamental belief that the client is whole and perfect just as they are.  Coaching focuses on moving people forward – on what the client wants.

How does coaching work?

Generally a coach meets with a client 3 – 4 times per month at the outset.  These meetings can be in person or on the telephone.  One of the unique aspects about coaching is the ability to conduct sessions on the phone to save time.  A coach’s briefcase is comprised of a variety of tools.  Sessions may be conversational or, when appropriate, the coach may suggest an experiential exercise to assist the client in a new and creative way.

The length of a coaching relationship varies from client to client.  Generally a client will commit to a three-month initial session.  From there, clients may continue at the same rate, change the frequency of calls or terminate the relationship.  It is not uncommon to have a coaching relationship that stretches over a one to two year period.

Each coaching relationship is designed with and for the individual client.  Coaching understands that each person has his or her own path.  Our coaches work one on one with people to get a clear understanding of their ideal life by asking compelling questions and challenging them to take action each week.

The Language and Behavior Profile (LAB Profile) is a way of thinking about people and groups that allows the coach to notice and respond to how they get motivated, process information, and make decisions. The LAB personal profile tool is an interview process that makes it possible to examine personal behavior styles and tendencies that flow from them. It is invaluable to building rapport and credibility in a coaching conversation.

Introduction

Our affiliates have had extensive training in many different aspects of conflict management and collaborative communication.  As professional mediators and educators in the area of conflict management and effective communication, Deines & Associates offer a full spectrum of services that will enhance the performance and effectiveness in your organization.

What is Mediation?

Mediation is defined as a collaborative dispute resolution process in which the negotiations between two or more parties are assisted by a neutral, impartial, and independent mediator. The mediator’s job is to move the parties through the mediation by ensuring complete, balanced, and respectful communication. Parties decide to settle when an identified option meets their interests acceptably. The parties also consider the need to create a binding agreement and how the agreement will be monitored and enforced.

What is Online Mediation?

Online mediators conduct mediation using technology. We at Deines & Associates are inspired by Mediate BC's 6-year Distance Mediation Project which confirmed that distance mediation can increase access to justice safely, affordably, and effectively. The online environment offers an innovative, relevant and powerful learning experience designed to assist mediators and parties in taking advantage of technology in conflict resolution in order to meet today's needs.

Online mediation is about using technology as a communication tool (e.g., as with web conferencing), rather than as a dispute resolution tool.  Deines & Associates mediators are clear of the value of using a ‘multi-tool’ approach to mediation and our mediators have seamlessly incorporated online mediation, face-to-face meetings, tele-conferencing (audio) and video technology in their practice. 

What is the Mediator’s role?

If mediation is the process that the client chooses, Erika and her associates, either independently or as co-mediators, will act as mediators and together with the parties determine the guidelines they will follow, the time frame for the mediation, and follow the mediation process of clarifying the issues that need to be resolved, with parties discussing their specific interests and concerns regarding the identified issues and exchanging necessary information to better understand their issues. With our assistance, the parties identify possible options for solution, develop criteria for evaluating them, and create an action plan or agreement for resolving the problems.

Have you heard about ADR?

Perhaps you have heard about “adaptive dispute resolution”, ADR for short. The ADR program provides an opportunity to discuss concerns, work towards mutually agreeable solutions and achieve greater satisfaction for the parties involved in a dispute. The word “adaptive” was chosen to reflect the wide number of dispute resolution options available. It also reflects the nature of a process that provides the opportunity to develop local solutions to local issues and to choose the right option for the right situation.

Regardless of the best intentions, conflict does arise.  The question is – how to handle it.  Certain types of conflict will be handled seamlessly between two or more individuals or, in the case of a business, within the organization.  There are many more types of conflicts that arise in our personal lives or within the work place (both internal and external) that can be handled in a variety of ways.

What are the main ADR options?

People in conflict may choose which option seems most suitable. Some give the parties direct control over the process to find a solution and make final agreements. These range from processes in which agreements are reached voluntarily and collaboratively, with no outside involvement (e.g., negotiations) to facilitation and mediation involving a third-party neutral.

Other options include arbitration or going to an administrative tribunal (e.g., a hearing or the court system). These involve established, formal procedures, with decisions being made for, rather than by, the people in conflict.

Who helps you to get started?

Any party in dispute may call on a neutral third party, such as a service provider or a mediator. We have years of experience providing these services and have a referral network of professional mediators in specialty areas to whom they can refer clients.

Service Provider

When conflict arises between or among businesses, there is often confusion about what method should be chosen to handle the dispute.  As service providers, Deines & Associates Coaching and Mediation can assist by assessing the parties’ willingness to use ADR. We can deliver logistic, convening, and administrative services and assist in preparing for collaborative discussions. We also have business agreements with numerous mediators and other ADR professionals and are able to assist in selecting a mediator.

A unique and innovative feature of the ADR program is the opportunity it provides to parties in dispute to attend a “Preliminary ADR Meeting” (PADR) to explore whether ADR options, such as mediation or arbitration, would be appropriate to their situation.

What happens in PADR?

The purpose of the Preliminary ADR Meeting is to bring together all potentially affected parties to discuss the nature and extent of their dispute, as well as their rights, and to develop a plan for mediation, arbitration or another process for resolution. We assist the parties to determine the issues requiring resolution, the level of authority the parties will need, the role of advisers, identification of facts relevant to the situation, how to select an ADR professional if appropriate, and other logistical questions such as handling of confidentiality, disclosure of information and privacy and willingness to continue to participate in mediation or another process.

Do You Offer Custom Designed Communication Workshops?

In today’s fast paced world, most people don’t take time to really communicate and many more don’t know how.  People think they hear what a colleague or business associate is saying but don’t realize that their understanding is filled with assumptions and interpretations.  Similarly, the likelihood that the message you are trying to communicate is understood in the way you intended is extremely small. 

Effective communication leads to effective people.  Effective people result in personal and business success.  We will tailor a program for individuals, teams and organizations geared toward enhancing both personal and business performance.

What is Conflict Management System Design?

Whether your organization is one that has not had the need for or made the time to develop a system to handle conflict, or whether your organization does have a formal or informal system in place, an objective analysis of your current system could save your business time and money.  As the diagnostic tools will show, conflict has a price tag – usually much larger than would be suspected. Although there is a cost attached to conflict in the workplace, rarely do organizations set aside a budget to cover preventative conflict management measures.

Using diagnostic tools, interviews and meetings combined with their own experience and knowledge, Deines & Associates offer a comprehensive analysis of existing procedures to handle conflict in the client’s organization.  The findings of that work are then analyzed and recommendations are made to the organization.  In order to ensure a successful implementation, we offer continued involvement, usually follow-up meetings and “coaching.”

Organizations that have taken the time to develop and implement conflict management systems reap the benefits of enhanced productivity, cost savings from reduced employee turnover and the many intangible benefits from a collaborative work environment.