The world of coaching is full of so many amazing people. Where I started way back  in 1993 was with Alan Fine, of ‘InsideOut’ who supported us to develop some incredible skills on the tennis court, getting results that most could barely believe.  I was then tasked with building a coaching course for managers so we used Alan Fine’s work and that of W. Timothy Gallwey and his work ‘The Inner Game of Tennis.’  We had course delegates building some amazing ball juggling skills on the tennis court!  What followed was a link to the work of Sir John Whitmore – (see below for a review link to his great book, ‘Coaching for Performance’), and the use of the GROW model of coaching

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews18008.html

Another on my list would be Myles Downey and his book, ‘Effective Coaching’ which is very accessible and practical for people in the workplace.  He says in his introduction, “Coaching has the capacity to bring humanity back into the workplace.”  Who wouldn’t want more of that!?

http://www.downeycoaching.com/publications.htm

Who do you know that you would nominate as a Coaching Guru?

• Coaching as a conversation Again and again I bump into this or that model of coaching, a 3 step, 4 step, 5 step, even an 8 step model.  Whilst I do appreciate that all these have their place, and especially for new coaches, are extremely useful for the purposes of 'navigation,' I worry a......
• Coaching Models–useful or not? Working recently with an organisation on advanced coaching skills I suggested that the only 'model' necessary for them was for the conversation to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. They had previously been drilled in GROW. After their 1st practice session the feedback was, 'we felt liberated' (by......
• Coaching Change Have done a huge amount of coaching managers / leaders through change recently.  Some practical tips (top 20!), for being effective in this context are below, and I'm sure there are many more to add!  Support managers to:   Be confident – they do amazing things already! Have clear and positive view of progress......
• Using objects while coaching Using Objects as an aid to a Coaching Conversation   Introduction This article explains how everyday objects such as a pencil, pen, cup, saucer or spoon can be used to great effect in a coaching session.  Applications This technique can be used in any coaching conversation of 30+ minutes where......
• Coaching for effective delegation Delegation is a vital tool for Leaders and Managers both to get the work done and to develop others.  Here's a set of questions that might support coaching a manger on the topic of effective delegation Diagnosis What's your track record with delegation so far? Worked well? Not so well?......

• Ken's LA – USPTA Report Up at 4:30 to catch my 6 AM flight to LA this Sat. About 3.5 hours of sleep – but sleep is overrated anyhow, too much fun stuff to do in life! Tom Brennan met me at the LAX airport and off to a quick breakfast – if we can......
• Blogging Away Debt Interviews Pensioner (The Top Prosper Lender with over 750 thousand Invested.) I (like many Prosper practitioners) have been following the exploits of one pensioner (click to see his portfolio). To date he has invested over three quarters of a million dollars.  Needless to say this guy believes in the law of large numbers. BloggingAwayDebt has a prosper loan as a borrower and recently......
• Latest IM Update Just thought I would give you an update on what I have been working on since my last post. To be honest, most of my time has been focused on putting together some great giveaways for the Easter JV Giveaway 2010 event. Doors open for this on Tuesday 30 March......
• Book Review: Tennis for Dummies By Patrick McEnroe and Peter Bodo with a forward by John McEnroe The Dummies series has quite a following and these books specialize in breaking down everything complex about a subject until everyone can easily understand it. This latest Dummies book focuses on tennis and was written by John McEnroe’s son, and also features a forward from this well known player. This......
• Make Blogging Work for Your Business pt 2 Are you ready to make blogging work for your business? If you already know the benefits associated with corporate blogging, then the next step is to put these concepts to work by creating your own corporate blog and sharing your company with the world. This is part 2 in a......