Team coaching isn’t like any other development that an individual will have experienced. The agenda is co-created by the team and the coach and there isn’t any taught content. Team members may have worked with (some of) the team for some time, but they won’t necessarily be ready, willing or able to say what is
Tag: coaching
Commuting, reading, transitioning, new routines
It’s amazing how change upsets our routines and our rhythms. I no longer commute and so, I have lost my dedicated reading time. And I have lost that transition into and out of work time…
In coaching, it’s the little things that make a big difference
As I have been mentor coaching coaches recently (observing their coaching and giving them competency-based feedback), we’ve realised that small changes in language make a big difference to the way a question or an observation is received by the thinker. It might only reach their sub-conscious, but even then, it will get in the way
What they say they want is not always what they need!
I’ve been tussling with something for a while now. If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that I come from an employee experience background. As such, I believe that we should ask employees what they need in order to have a phenomenal career experience, rather than assuming we know what they need and providing that
Getting unstuck
It’s not uncommon for people in coaching to get stuck. They might get lost in their thinking, or they might just come to a point where they say outright, “I’m stuck”. So how do we get them unstuck? First, we need to notice it, and not get stuck with them! If we jump into the
How is team coaching similar to 1-1 coaching?
I’ve written a lot about 1-1 coaching, whether that is by an external coach, an internal one or a leader as coach. 1-1 coaching has a big impact on the individual, building their thinking muscles and encouraging them to experiment with new behaviours which create a ripple effect on the people around them. But sometimes
Team Coaching
My next series of coaching blogs is going to focus specifically on team coaching. Over the coming weeks I’m going to discuss: What is team coaching? How coaching a team is similar to 1-1 coaching? How coaching a team is different to 1-1 coaching? The team experience. And then I’ll finish this series with some
Mentor Coaching is for life – not just for a credential
How coaches show up in the room The International Coach Federation is the only professional coaching body that assesses coaches’ actual coaching skills in depth – how you show up in the room. How we show up in the room is way more important than how much we know about the theory of coaching. The
Where to start with building a coaching culture
In the fifth blog of my “When to Build a Coaching Culture Series”, I discuss where to start when building a coaching culture. If you are an individual leader, you can only start with yourself. So, start there when building a coaching culture. Start asking rather than telling now. If you are responsible for developing
What does a coaching culture look and feel like?
You’ll know it’s time to build a coaching culture when: Your organisation is going through change (see my previous post) (oh, wait, isn’t that every organisation?!) Decisions are being made at levels that are paid too much for the complexity of those decisions Strategic imperatives that affect the long-term future of the organisation are not
Want performance to get better?
In the second blog of my “When to Build a Coaching Culture Series”, I discuss how organisations face and instigate change at an increasing rate. That’s never going to change if they want to survive and thrive. But despite knowing that change is here to stay, employees still feel a sense of resistance. Every time
Using a Coach Approach Before and After Training ~ Leader as Coach
Training alone reaps a 20% change in behaviour. Training plus coach leads to an 80% change in behaviour. So, we’ll get a much better return on investment from the training that our people attend if we add that extra element before and after. What does that look like? It’s simple: Before the training, ask them:
Coaching Upwards ~ Leader as Coach: When to use a Coach Approach
Using a coach approach can help us to manage our boss as well as our employees, Coaching Upwards. Each time I have had a new boss, I have sat down with them in the first couple of weeks to talk to them about my needs of them. I usually start the conversation by saying something
Leaving an Organisation ~ Leader as Coach: When to use a Coach Approach
You might think that once a person has handed in their notice and leaving, that’s it. You can’t afford to waste your precious time on them, when you need to look forward to finding their replacement and getting them trained up. But wait. This person might be a great asset to you and your organisation,
Ethical Dilemmas for Leaders as Coach: Conflicts of Interest
We’ve discovered that leaders as coaches face ethical dilemmas around boundaries, dual relationships, and confidentiality; let’s turn our attention now to conflicts of interest. What do you do when the talented person you are coaching in your organisation tells you that she is looking to take her career outside the organisation? The organisation sees her
Ethical Dilemmas for the Leader as Coach
We’ve talked about the skills we need as a leader as coach, and the underpinning beliefs, but what about our ethical dilemmas. What about our ethical position? Every coach is guided by an ethical code, I am guided by the International Coach Federation Code of Ethics, for example. Ethical dilemmas don’t always have black and white
