Coaching Demo with Pam Ross: Master Leadership Development Using the Blues & Oranges Feedback Model

Transcript

Full transcript, edited for readability. Every timestamp jumps the video to that moment.

Tobi: Have you ever seen feedback go wrong because it was a plain sandwich of critique? Or have you experienced it as a powerful driver of change? My guest on last week's episode, Pam Ross, built a leadership development agency called Blue Rebel Works, where she trains leaders to adopt a coaching approach. One of her main tools there is the Blues and Oranges Feedback™ model that she developed herself. When I asked her about it in our interview, we accidentally ended up running a small coaching demo, where Pam gave me feedback and coached me on hosting this podcast. So this part of the conversation turned out to be a nice glance behind the scenes of the Making of a Coach podcast, and also a powerful demo of how the Blues and Oranges Feedback™ model combines SBI feedback, situation, behavior, impact, with the GROW coaching model. While producing the previous episode with Pam's business building story, we found these 20 minutes so useful that we are testing a new kind of episode here. A quick dive into a coaching demo. Let's go. Tobi: Can you take us into that four step feedback model? How does it look, and why is it important? Pam Ross: Sure. Our four step feedback model is called Blues and Oranges. Blue is also in the name of my company, Blue Rebel. Blue is the color of trust and freedom, if you look at the research on color, and the rebel part is disruption and change. Let's try something new, let's innovate, in a trusted way. That is why we brought the blue into the rebel. In almost everything we do we are thinking, how is trust and freedom a part of this? How are we disrupting or challenging ourselves? That is really what the Blues and Oranges Feedback™ model is. Picture a two by two framework. The left hand side is the blue side. These are the things people have freedom to work in, because this is the positive feedback. This is where we recognize them, where we build confidence in those skills, where they are doing great. On the right side is the orange side. That is where someone might be having a challenge, or where there is an opportunity to learn more, a new skill. So blue is on the left, orange is on the right. Along the top it is a questioning style, so we always ask first. Step one is the blue question. We use something called focused open questions, FOQs for short. Focused because we are focusing on something that is going well, and open because we want an open question. So I might say to you, Tobi, tell me, what are you really proud of accomplishing over the last couple of weeks? And you would tell me something.