Coaching (CCL)
CCL's coaching model rests on three things held in balance: real assessment data, a genuine challenge to stretch beyond comfort, and enough support that the stretch doesn't tip into threat.
Three cards sit side by side, none of them meant to work alone.
Reach for this when…
- A newly promoted leader is avoiding exactly the conversation the role now requires.
- Feedback keeps landing as either too soft to change behaviour or too hard to hear.
- You want a coaching engagement with a defined start, goals and a formal close.
How to run it
- Gather assessment data - self-report, stakeholder input, and observation.
- Agree specific developmental goals with the client.
- Challenge deliberately - push past what's comfortable.
- Hold support steady so the stretch doesn't become threat.
- Close the engagement with a formal review against the goals set at the start.
A worked example
Situation. Ingrid Berg had been promoted from front-of-house to general manager at Hotell Berg, a boutique hotel in Gothenburg, Sweden, and was avoiding every difficult conversation with staff who used to be her peers.
Applied. Stakeholder interviews confirmed it wasn't a skills gap. Her coach kept support steady but raised the challenge deliberately, pushing her to finally hold the redundancy conversation she'd been putting off for two months.
Result. She ran it, badly in parts but honestly, and kept the team's respect. Turnover stabilised the following season.
The catch
Get the balance wrong and it fails in one of two predictable ways: all support with no challenge produces a pleasant engagement that changes nothing, and all challenge with no support reads as an attack and shuts the client down. The model tells you to balance the two; it doesn't tell you how much of each a specific person needs, which is the actual coaching skill.
If a client leaves every session feeling good and nothing else, check whether challenge quietly dropped out.
Origin: Center for Creative Leadership