Tag: Coaching

Business, Leadership, Learning, Personal Management

Why the right coach is an external coach

I’m not totally sure why we struggle with the notion of embracing coaching as a tool to develop top-quality performance outcomes from key business leaders and teams. It’s my belief that the role of coaching tends to fall to the line managers who generally speaking have little time for coaching and equally have not benefited from investment in personal development to enable them to become good or great coaches.

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My assertion is borne out from personal experiences in both large and small businesses and teams with the emphasis on management over coaching. Too often the managers are wrapped up in the day to day management and they also become too close to the teams and lack objectivity.

The basic premise for coaching is that the coached party has all of the resources available themselves but need external reflection to unlock and enable.

Recent conversations with a current manager have added to my certainty on this issue and the necessity for external coaching to be a part of the support to the manager and the team, keeping the team dynamics intact and ensuring the building of togetherness and cohesion

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Business, Leadership, Personal Management

Who is coaching you?

never quitWhether you are Jonny Wilkinson, Steph Houghton or Mo Farah, the one thing they all have in common is that they all had, and continue to have support to develop their skills and success – a sports coach – in fact probably several coaches with differing and complementary skills.

How about you? Are you so talented that you don’t need coaching? Maybe it’s more simple than that – you simply lack ambition?

No of course not, It’s none of the above is it….you just haven’t been thinking in these terms have you? But now that we are discussing it, it makes sense doesn’t it? In fact it’s rather more common than most of us might think.

So now you are thinking about it – what will you do differently?

Give me a call now – that’s right be a “do it now” person of action.

Success awaits you – the bold and audacious, I salute you.

Leadership

Can your Leadership repertoire run to coaching too?

I was watching the TV earlier in the week – Vera was the name of the programme in question and for those not acquainted, it’s a police detective drama.

There is the usual hierarchy on display with a hard working sergeant who is smart and growing in confidence in his role and adding enormous value to the case currently under investigation. What struck me about this particular episode was the fact that the Inspector, whilst valuing the sergeant’s inputs, was not particularly OPEN with him, and in fact the communication was pretty one-way traffic, apart from the issuing of instructions and orders – sound familiar?

At the end of this episode, there is a moment where the inspector and her sergeant are sitting in a car and the conversation takes a turn to matters of a more “personal” nature, and the sergeant speaks up to say that he learns a lot from her, and he needs her to share more with him to help him to develop……how true this must be for organisations around the World! The old paradigm of “knowledge is power” still rings through the corporate corridors and business “leaders” are jealously guarding their knowledge for fear that giving it away makes them somehow impotent. The reality is that this very act is holding back the success of the “group” and ultimately the business. This outdated thinking is also creating a positive reason why those very individuals being starved of help and support will most likely entertain the call from the “head-hunter” when he comes knocking.

Don’t let your fear and neurosis halt your progress, as it is through the success and development of the people you are responsible for, that you will deliver the result that you and your business are seeking.

But hey – what do I know!

Business

I’m glad I’m not like you

Isn’t it irritating when people don’t do things the way we would do it? I’m sure sometimes you may have given rise to the thought “I wish everybody was like me….” No? Well like most people I do have opinions. Sometimes fairly strong opinions on some subjects, and often views that are at odds with other people’s. Whilst occasionally this can be quite irritating, I’ve come to realise that a difference of opinion can be a good thing. It can be quite difficult however, to make that step change in thinking, when you find yourself in conflict with someone, but it can be so so rewarding. My personal recommendation is that you try the following the next time you find yourself confronted by somebody demonstrating a different perspective to yourself. Try saying something like “that’s fantastic I’m glad that you disagree. Why don’t you help me understand how you see it”. This can be a great way to identify things that you may not have considered but also to defuse a possibly confrontational situation. After all wouldn’t it be dull if we all saw things the same way? I certainly think so.