Effective Feedback

Module #3
Effective Feedback Using compassion & truth for powerful coaching results.
Reflection and Application
When and how might you use role-play with your clients?
I have used role-play within a session on two occasions. The first was when my client was having a problem communicating with someone. I played my client and my client played the person in question. We played out the conversation, which my client felt would happen. Then we switched the roles around. At first I just repeated what my client had said in that role. From this angle we were able to allow my client to prepare for this very possibility. By really listening to the forecasted conversation, we were then able to discern if the responses given by my client would elicit the results my client was after. We then played it out again; I was still the person in question with my client as them self. Only this time I expressed what the person in question might say in the form of feedback for my client. In this particular scenario my client felt that the person in question had no heart or feelings. So I turned my client’s own feelings and response into that of the person in question. The comment I got was “Is that what I sound like?” The exercise was successful – it opened my client’s eyes into taking responsibility for being part of the communication breakdown, thereby relieving pent up hostilities and removing the strong emotion to make way for a rational discussion.
Of course the other bonus of this exercise was the confidence it gave my client to be able to put it in motion.
The second occasion we used role-play was in preparation for an upcoming performance review. The client played out the visualization of presenting the facts for a merit increase. The role-play was effective as it helped to remove the emotion of the situation, allowing the rational side of the client’s case to come forward. The merit increase was rewarded.