I often have to explain that coaching is not the same as mentoring, training or counselling. I thought it might be useful to take a step back and reflect on the differences between various forms of capability development options, and their different uses.
Tag: how to coach employees
Today is Two-Day: time to fill that conversation gap
So it’s time to have that conversation that you’ve been putting off. Time to hold yourself and your supervisor or career counsellor accountable for higher standards. But if you can’t have the conversation today, don’t make that an excuse not to have it. These conversations must happen if we are to feel better engaged, and
What will you do to celebrate Two-Day
The 22nd day of the 2ndmonth 2012 is almost upon us. Two-Day. What will you do to celebrate? May I make a suggestion? It takes two to tango, so they say. It also takes two to have great conversations. People with conversation gaps are 280% more likely to say they intend to leave an organization.
Coaching virtually
Almost all of the coaching I do is virtual, and in many cases, I have never even met my coachee face-to-face. So it can be done! Here’s how… The skills – contracting, ethics, powerful questions, listening, trust, intimacy, and presence, direct communication, designing actions and planning and goal-setting, and managing progress and accountability – are
Coaching a career counselee vs coaching a direct report
Today’s post revisits the subject of how to coach a career counselee/mentee vs coaching a direct report. The difference is in the focus, rather than the skills. The skills – contracting, ethics, powerful questions, listening, trust, intimacy, and presence, direct communication, designing actions and planning and goal-setting, and managing progress and accountability – are exactly
A poem about listening
Please, just listen. When I ask you to listen to me, and you start giving advice, you have not done what I asked. When I ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why I shouldn’t feel that way, you are
Great questions
One of the major elements of coaching is asking questions, such that the other person can come to their own conclusions. I found some interesting quotes about questions this week that I’d like to share with you: Neil Postman “Everything we know has its origins in questions. Questions, we might say, are the principal intellectual
What’s the difference between good coaching and GREAT coaching
I went to a presentation by the Center for Creative Leadership about creating coaching cultures recently. I came away with a great 2 x 2 grid that explains the difference between good and great coaching. Some people’s coaching focuses on the problem and the “coach” telling the individual what to do about it – and
Busting the myths about coaching
I am often asked to recommend a coach to help someone to “fix” a weakness, such as not working constructively with other people. This is one way to think about coaching…that is, that it is remedial. I much prefer to think of it as releasing someone’s potential – focusing on their strengths and how they
Unleash the independent critical thinking of your team members through coaching
John Whitmore, in his book Coaching for Performance, said that he had been told what to do as a small boy, then at school, then in the army. “So when I reached a position of authority, what did I do? I told people what to do, because that is what all my role models had
Accountability
Colin Brett and Philip Brew at Coaching Development write: “As a coach, you can offer your coachee the opportunity to be accountable. This means that s/he uses you as a kind of witness that they have done something. They decide on a course of action in their session with you, plan the steps they will
Safe environment for testing my thinking
Today’s guest post is from Barbara Harvey. It’s great to see how she’s developed her own coaching style, based on an experience of being coached herself. Barbara writes: My first experience of coaching came when I found myself, at very short notice and unexpectedly, rubbing the jet lag from my eyes in a hotel in
Say nothing
This week’s guest blog post is from Jane Sandwith, Development Director of 3D Coaching, and is about silence as a way of showing you are present. Jane writes: Catharsis, when someone leaps to a new understanding, happens when they are paying attention to what is going on ‘inside’ them, not when they are paying attention
Performance Coaching and Career Coaching
In companies, I’d suggest that there are two forms of (real) coaching. Why do I add real in parentheses? Because there are so many things that people call coaching, which really are not coaching. Such as mentoring, which is about giving advice based on experience. Coaching is not advice. So what is it? It’s
Change of plan
Victoria made a great point yesterday in her comment about sharing the questions with a supervisee before the meeting, so they could have a chance to reflect. And a couple of other comments from a couple of weeks back have struck a chord with me too…Manufreey said that telling the truth, the whole truth and
Hurricanes, earthquakes and conversation starters
I heard this morning that the East coast of the US is about to be battered by Hurricane Irene. So our lousy weather here pales into insignificance. Keep safe if you are in that area (though why you would be reading my blog right now instead of battening down the hatches, I don’t know!). My
