ICP ICP Professional Coaching Skills & Conversations 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: What is the purpose of 'championing' a coachee in Agile coaching?
- Selecting the best performer on the team
- Acknowledging and affirming the coachee's strengths and potential, often when they cannot see it themselves (Correct answer)
- Promoting the coachee to leadership positions
- Advocating for the coachee's ideas in team meetings
Correct answer: Acknowledging and affirming the coachee's strengths and potential, often when they cannot see it themselves
Championing means the coach holds a vision of the coachee's capabilities and potential, reflecting it back even when the coachee is doubting themselves.
Question 2: What does 'acknowledgment' mean in a coaching context, distinct from praise?
- Confirming receipt of a message
- Recognizing who the person is being—their character and inner qualities—not just what they did (Correct answer)
- Approving of the coachee's decisions
- Formally recognizing team achievements
Correct answer: Recognizing who the person is being—their character and inner qualities—not just what they did
Acknowledgment in coaching goes deeper than praise by recognizing the coachee's character, qualities, and who they are being, not just their actions or results.
Question 3: What is 'reframing' in Agile coaching conversations?
- Changing the physical layout of the workspace
- Offering a different perspective or interpretation of a situation to expand the coachee's view (Correct answer)
- Revising the sprint goal
- Restructuring the team's composition
Correct answer: Offering a different perspective or interpretation of a situation to expand the coachee's view
Reframing offers an alternative way of seeing a situation, helping the coachee break out of limiting perspectives and discover new possibilities.
Question 4: How should an Agile coach handle their own emotions during a coaching session?
- Suppress all emotions to remain professional
- Express all emotions freely to model authenticity
- Notice and use emotional data as information while maintaining equanimity (Correct answer)
- End the session if strong emotions arise
Correct answer: Notice and use emotional data as information while maintaining equanimity
Agile coaches use emotional intelligence to notice their own feelings as data while maintaining professional composure and using that awareness to serve the coaching.
Question 5: What does 'bottom-lining' mean as a coaching technique?
- Focusing only on financial metrics
- Asking the coachee to get to the core of what they want to say or the heart of the matter (Correct answer)
- Setting a minimum acceptable standard
- Summarizing at the end of a session
Correct answer: Asking the coachee to get to the core of what they want to say or the heart of the matter
Bottom-lining interrupts lengthy explanations to invite the coachee to cut to the essence of what they are trying to express, often unlocking deeper insight.
Question 6: What is 'intuition' used for in professional Agile coaching?
- Predicting team performance outcomes
- Making decisions without data
- Sharing a felt sense or hunch about what is happening to open new areas of exploration (Correct answer)
- Replacing structured coaching frameworks
Correct answer: Sharing a felt sense or hunch about what is happening to open new areas of exploration
Coaches use intuition—a gut feeling or noticed sense—as a hypothesis to offer to the coachee, inviting them to confirm, deny, or explore further.
ICP ICP Professional Coaching Skills & Conversations 2
What is the purpose of 'championing' a coachee in Agile coaching?