So many models of coaching,  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 lot that they detract from the basic premise that coaching is a conversation, a focused exchange that is going somewhere, and uses some fundamental skills that seem to me to be key to our unique ability to communicate with each other, to care about each other, and do a great and useful service to/for each other of facilitating thinking and decision making.  I do so wish that we would simplify and get back to basics.  Some of my thoughts, some quotes and some reflective questions are below:

Fundamental skills of coaching:

• Building trusting relationships; where the absolute focus is on the customer / client / coachee / colleague.
• Listening beyond the words with full attention; a special quality of listening, a creative force that can evoke new ideas
• Expert question asking, to discover what’s important, and support the creation of new possibilities
• Ability to put our own agenda aside

Quotes

“Something fundamental changes when people begin to ask questions together. The questions create more of a learning conversation than the normal stale debate about problems.”

Mike Szymanczyk, Chairman and CEO, The Altria Group

“Good questions ………….. like all good conversations, succeed or fail based on what we’re talking about. Good questions – ones that we care about and want to answer – call us outward and to each other. They are an invitation to explore, to venture out, to risk, to listen, to abandon our positions. Good questions help us to become both curious and uncertain, an this is always the road that opens us to the surprise on new insight.”

Juanita Brown, “The World cafe: shaping our futures through conversations that matter”

“True learning organisations are a space for generative conversations and concerted action which creates a field of alignment that produces tremendous power to invent new realities in conversation and to bring about these new realities in action.”

Fred Kofman and Peter Senge, “Communities of Commitment”

 Questions, Listening, Conversations and Reflections

Think of a time when you felt heard and really listened to. What were the conditions that enabled that to happen?

Consider an upcoming important meeting, how might you create a special quality of  listening, to and for others, so as to evoke new ideas?

Knowing you …. how does your ‘special quality of listening’ need to change to be more effective?

What are your challenges to having better quality conversations?

Consider the conversations you are currently having with customers, and/or those that are important to you in any context. To what degree do they create frustration and fragment efforts, OR offer new insights and ways to work collectively and collaboratively?

If you were to accept the perspective that conversation really is a core process for accessing collective intelligence and co-evolving the future, what practical difference would that make in how you can approach conversations?

 New Behaviours

Pick an upcoming conversation that matters:

What one specific thing might you do, or what one choice might you make that would improve the quality of that conversation for all parties involved?

How might your success in this drive success in your business, your life, your friends and colleagues, customers, coachees and just about everyone you meet?

• Building a Coaching Culture I often get asked about how to build a coaching culture in an organization. Lots of work is one answer, and it starts with getting clear about what you want to see at the end, (doesn't everything!). The map below is a session design for coaches, or those sponsoring coaching,......
• 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 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......
• Creating internal coaching capability Coaching Questions that have proved to be relevant when creating or planning to create coaching capability inside organisations. Some of the questions seem to be difficult to come to terms with, and from experience, when they are answered the end result is far more robust. Why Coaching? Why now? What......
• 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......

• Effectively Managing Your Time When Marketing Online As an online marketer, when it comes to managing your time, you must really take business seriously. If you are not going to do things in a timely manner, then you will quite naturally hold up your progress and allow your competitors to get ahead. Managing your time the right......
• How To Start A Bank This guest post comes from Michael, a contributing editor of the Dough Roller, a personal finance and investing blog, and Credit Card Offers IQ, a credit card review site. Every American has a dream of one day owning their own successful and profitable business. Usually when you think of......
• Drive Traffic To Your Site For Free With Article Marketing. If you want to get more traffic to your website, there are many different tools you can use. However, one of the most powerful methods of getting the most targeted results is through article marketing. Of course the best thing about article marketing is that it’s free. Right from the......
• How Long It Takes To Make Money From Affiliate Marketing ? Affiliate marketing is one of the profitable way of money making online. Generally, beginners want to know, how long it takes to make money from affiliate marketing ? This is the very basic question for many of the beginner marketers. People do expect everything faster. They want to earn as......
• Discover How To Generate High Conversions Form Your Squeeze Page Online marketing is a case of knowing how to use and leverage the assets you already own to make a profit. Such a resource, and probably one of the most important assets you can have in online marketing, is your email list. If you are creating your list from nothing,......

An amazing set of positive words that contribute to the meaning and values of coaching, irrespective of context:

vision, values, beliefs, learning, self, others, exploration, possibilities, potential, me, transformation, learning about things, emotions, mind and body, awareness, action, epiphany, light-bulb-moments, aha!, liberation, self actualisation, culture, whole person, self knowledge, understanding, truth, challenges, contribution, decisions, individual, non-judgemental, improvement, attention, intention, self enhancement, experience, experiment, safe, trusting, enabling, raising awareness, developing actions, my way, knowledge, goal, direction, journey, visionary, contribution, new behaviour, self development, responsibility, questions, relationship, shifts, movements, choice, focus, evolving, knowing, personal, cultural, forward looking, change, positive, appreciative, whole-person, affiliation, direction, new belief, liberating belief, incisive questions, moving forward questions, accountability, self awareness, commitment, action, results, curiousity, exploring, new horizons, forward, agreements, vision, future

3 min coaching words brainstorm

The above is how http://www.wordle.net sees it!

• Coach Approach to 360° feedback Supporting colleagues in understanding and acting upon their 360° feedback report is a vital role in the development of leadership skills and competencies throughout an organization. Managers can very effectively support each other in all manner of ways; debriefing a 360 report is great example. Use your coaching skills; avoid leading &/or giving......
• Why Coaching? Performance Related Coaching, its relevance and place in business today   Coaching and being coached are essential activities for 21st century business leaders.  In an environment of uncertainty, intense competition and globalisation of markets, innovation, creativity and improved performance are vital to the survival of businesses.   “People, not capital,......
• How do you describe coaching to others? An approach I often use is not to tell them what I 'do' but to ask them questions(!) - well there's nothing like modelling coaching to describe what potential there can be in the relationship. For example something like below - this is really a picking list of statements that......
• Why is turning Managers into Coaches so difficult? The above question attracted by attention and I replied as follows:  (references are at the bottom of the post) Experience tells me that it's not appropriate to 'turn managers into coaches' and that it's much more relevant to support managers to have a 'coach approach' - seemingly subtle linguistically and......
• Coaching -vs- Mentoring Often when working with Managers on coaching skills we get asked about the differences between Coaching and Mentoring.  The diagram below attempts to clarify and also mentions different styles / behaviours.  Coaching and Mentoring are very much future focussed.  Whilst asking questions is the dominant style for coaching, I strongly believe that......

• Whats Up With All The Systems? It seems every day a new "system" that is going to blow away all the other systems comes out.  Almost weekly!  The real question to ask is can any of the systems out there including mine make you any money? I usually join everything that comes out, I would realistically......
• Self Improvement for Financial Improvement There are two ways to improve personal finances:  spend less or earn more. If only life were that simple. In the current economic environment, earning more is not an option for many. Indeed, earning less is a prospect being faced by those who had previously considered themselves to be in secure......
• Frequently Asked Questions about Corporate Blogging If you are completely new to blogging, you may find that you have a lot of questions and at times, it can be hard to find the answers. We’ve compiled the most common issues facing new corporate bloggers and supplied the answers to these problems below. 1. Is this going......
• How Job Interview Coaching Helps You Land Your Dream Job Many job seekers fail job interviews because of utter lack of arrangement or just committing the same mistakes. That is why many have tried getting job interview help from interview consulting firms.Professional job interview coaching services offer experienced coaches who have a abundance of knowledge and experience. Therefore, getting job......
• When the Going Gets Tough I’m speaking of is the moment during a healing journey when it’s clearly time for action. Goals have been established, the past discussed, contributing events and significant people defined and it is now time to bring attention to intention and take the first action step. This is a time of...

Often I hear of frustration and disappointment that managers and leaders  who have been on a coaching skills workshop do very little with it on their return to the workplace.  It seems, from my experience, that the introducing managers to the skills and models applicable in coaching is a realtively easy task, they are bright people and intellectually the content is not that challenging.  What appears to be much more of a challenge is implementing the ‘coach  approach’ in their everyday  business life.  The approach and effective conversations of a  ‘leader / coach’ are often very different to what they learned in the past, not least because it demands a shift from the problem solving behaviours that so many managers have found successful, and have been rewarded for in their organisations.  The legacy role of ‘manager as problem solver’ can be deep routed in corporate / professional cultures.

Training has an important role in introducing new constructs, behaviours and propositions for future business success, it’s in implementation that the challenges arise.  So how can we go about sustaining the momentum in building a coach apporach to leadership?

I would recommend a structured approach over time.  Following an inital say 2 day workshop bring the managers back together regulary in ‘practice and build’ sessions where they co-coach each other on real business issues and/or their challenges / experiences of integrating a coaching style into their leadership.  This way they get to experience first hand on how coaching can be used in e.g. issue / problem resolution, and are encouraged to use this approach with their people.  These sessions also give the opportunity for us to give more input to them, according to the challenges they are facing, e.g. coach approach to development, or coach approach to performance management, or coach approach to delegation.  If you can’t get them back together face to face every time, run some 90 min telecalls where they come and share what’s working / not working and encourage them to coach each other so others can listen, give feedback etc.  I’ve learned the hard way over some 15 years of bringing coaching skills to business leaders – Always contract follow up sessions, Never leave them with just a (for example), 2 day coaching skills workshop, This will rarely be successful, Stay with them over a 6 to 9 month period, keep the dialogue going on how coaching is helping the business, get them to publish success, encourage their managers and support each other.

• Coaching: Getting the best decisions So often when coaching I find that people get locked or stuck into a very polarized view of the world.  They see things as either 'right' or 'wrong' and this can really get in the way of good decision making.  An alternative is to use Implications Thinking where we include......
• Why is turning Managers into Coaches so difficult? The above question attracted by attention and I replied as follows:  (references are at the bottom of the post) Experience tells me that it's not appropriate to 'turn managers into coaches' and that it's much more relevant to support managers to have a 'coach approach' - seemingly subtle linguistically and......
• Creating internal coaching capability Coaching Questions that have proved to be relevant when creating or planning to create coaching capability inside organisations. Some of the questions seem to be difficult to come to terms with, and from experience, when they are answered the end result is far more robust. Why Coaching? Why now? What......
• Building a Coaching Culture I often get asked about how to build a coaching culture in an organization. Lots of work is one answer, and it starts with getting clear about what you want to see at the end, (doesn't everything!). The map below is a session design for coaches, or those sponsoring coaching,......
• Coaching to Manage Performance and Employee Engagement 50% of managers fail to mange poor performance, a recent survey said.  Should we just get rid of those poor performers and hire more talented people?  Oh that we had the luxury ... and of course getting rid  of poor performers that way means you have to manage people out......

• Australian Open Coaches Conference 2010 250 Aussie Coaches seated in Hisense Arena with the roof retracted and you get to present on the court that the top players in the world compete on.....  Great feeling. Looks like an invite back next year to speak again.  Sold all my DVD's and had requests for more.......
• Need Money For Business, How To Fund For Business Online ? Every one of us needs money for business, that's one of the major Investment. When it comes to online based business, you need money at least to kick start your business. There are many more investments required for your business other than money like: Time, Knowledge, Work, Resources etc. Basically,......
• Michigan Snowboarding Coaches Excited Over New Rules A new change in the rules has snowboarding coaches excited for the 2009 racing season. In previous years, the men's and women's competitions would be counted equally in qualification into the Michigan state championship. Now, each gender will be considered separately when qualifying. This will allow schools whom may have......
• The Best Skis For Kids If you’re ready to take your kids out on the slopes, it’s a good idea to make sure they have the right equipment. While it’s perfectly fine to rent equipment, especially if they will only be skiing on vacation, if they show an interest in the sport, it’s a good......
• Online Business Which Will Help You Now. Work at home is easy when you are a novice. Deal with the best pluses and parts just now and soon you will be real professional who treats internet marketing easily and without any troubles. I am going to show you that only online business will give you more time......

I was recently reading from ”Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice” and it confirmed again for me that coaching is (amongst other things), about learning.  It reminded me of “The Knowledge Model” which I learned many years ago, and still use often with groups and individuals to reinforce the blend of learning approaches from ‘pushing it in’ to ‘drawing it out.’  Coaching is so great at drawing out what people ‘Don’t Know that they Know’ (DKK) and getting to the ‘Know they Know’ (KK).  This approach blended with the more traditional approach of moving from ‘Don’t Know that I Don’t Know’ (DKDK) to, ‘Know that I Don’t Know’ (KDK), and getting taught / told on the journey to KK is very powerful.  The model is fun, people remember it and it serves as a useful distinction of what is possible through coaching and what many have been more ‘used to’ in their learning lives / experience to date.

• Why Coaching? Performance Related Coaching, its relevance and place in business today   Coaching and being coached are essential activities for 21st century business leaders.  In an environment of uncertainty, intense competition and globalisation of markets, innovation, creativity and improved performance are vital to the survival of businesses.   “People, not capital,......
• 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......
• 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......
• Building a Coaching Culture I often get asked about how to build a coaching culture in an organization. Lots of work is one answer, and it starts with getting clear about what you want to see at the end, (doesn't everything!). The map below is a session design for coaches, or those sponsoring coaching,......
• Coaching: Getting the best decisions So often when coaching I find that people get locked or stuck into a very polarized view of the world.  They see things as either 'right' or 'wrong' and this can really get in the way of good decision making.  An alternative is to use Implications Thinking where we include......

• Learning On Other People's Kids As you know, having kids is hopefully in the cards for me and my husband. We both love them, and hope to one day be amazing parents. As our friends start to have children, I am reminded more and more that I have absolutely NO idea how one goes about......
• Judging Your Collection Based on Coin Collecting Values If you are serious about collecting coins, then one of the things that you should be putting consideration into when collecting is coin collecting values. The thing about coin collecting values is that they let you know what price a particular coin is going for. In other words, if you......
• Successful Article Marketing Campaigns - How To Do It To generate long term success with your article marketing campaign and to ensure its profitability you simply need to stay focused and make sure you know which direction you are headed in, which isn't all that difficult. Regardless of whether you need to drive visitors to your lump sum profits......
• Solid And Effective Testimonials And How To Get Them Even after all these years and some things that have happened online, the power of testimonials still exists if properly executed. It is important to realize that not all testimonials are equal in effectiveness, but you do have some good options. There are sound ways to get the kind of......
• Search Engine Marketing Solutions In case you are striving for making your brand popular and widely known all across the universe, in this case online marketing is the right way that is surely going to help you in realizing your goal. Actually, it is one of the best methods of marketing that can happen......

Performance Related Coaching, its relevance and place in business today

What do some executives think?

Benefits of effective coaching

Good coaching can lead to:

Where there is pressure to improve, good coaching leads to:

• Clearer goals and roles, and the opportunity to determine the distance between goals and reality
• Better self awareness; discovery and clarity regarding individual strengths, weaknesses and opportunities to work towards more effective behaviours
• Better discovery of developmental needs; what are gaps and how do I fill them?
• Better support for continuous development; an opportunity to reflect on life experiences, clarify future goals and plan for development.

In addition, coaching is powerful because it helps people: 

• come to terms with where they are and where they need to be
  • so often people are unclear about today’s reality and tomorrow’s potential
• help themselves to realise their full potential and do their best work
  • many leaders of yesterday restricted people’s growth and development
• let go of the old ways
• yesterday’s solutions often will not be relevant for tomorrow
• ‘give birth’ to a new way of being
  • and release the creativity within themselves
• see how they can ‘behave’ the new roles
  • and realise that it’s OK to change and be different
• deal with the new behaviours required by the business
• know what’s required and begin to explore new possibilities
• see themselves in the new behaviours, adding value for the business and for themselves
• creating new, more fulfilling futures
• overcome the natural resistance to change
  • change has its discomfort and uncertainty
  • positively internalise change
  • and accept it
• see change as a learning journey
  • that is a positive and growing experience
• reinforce human dignity in the workplace
  • so that people can feel proud of their individual achievements
• work together in teams
  • and experience the power of collective success.

So it’s about:

• Relationship .. based on honesty, openness and trust
• Style of Communication .. based on asking questions and seeking to understand.   more reflective style rather than one which directs 
• Learning .. based on helping the subject to come to their own conclusions, on working things out for themselves rather than being told

• More on Business Coaching at http://www.tlc.eu.com/services/coaching

• What makes a Great Coach Coaching can be a very rewarding. It's the ideal career / activity choice for those who: Like to work with people Have a strong desire to see people excel in their lives Are prepared to let others do the talking Can connect with people and listen with interest and empathy......
• The Manager as Coach THE MANAGER AS COACH An Introduction to Coaching by RICHARD FOX Preface Coaching and being coached are essential activities for 21st century business leaders and managers.  In an environment of uncertainty, intense competition and globalisation of markets, innovation, creativity and improved performance are vital to business success. “People, not capital,......
• Effectiveness of Expenditure on Learning & Development Programmes For discussion purposes only Introduction. Management keep a close eye on the costs of most items in their profit and loss account e.g. office rent, salaries, rent and marketing.  The cost of learning and development programmes, including coaching, is usually less well controlled mainly because it is harder to measure. ......
• What's Coaching when it's at Work Training leaders to use the coach approach is the next step for organizations embracing this concept. If coaching in the workplace didn’t exist, we’d need to invent it. Think about that. Over the last decade, the way people interact with their work and their employers has altered greatly. Empowerment, continuous......
• Coaching: Getting the best decisions So often when coaching I find that people get locked or stuck into a very polarized view of the world.  They see things as either 'right' or 'wrong' and this can really get in the way of good decision making.  An alternative is to use Implications Thinking where we include......

• How to Win Friends and Influence People How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Written by Dale Carnegie in the 1930s, "How to Win Friends and Influence People" is a real classic. Since then it has sold over 16 million copies and is still going strong. In this book, Dale Carnegie will show you......
• 3 Ways in Which Coin Collector Software Has Change the Industry There have been many changes in the world of coin collecting over the years. These changes have mostly been in regards to which coins are prized above others. Every once in a while a toll will come along which will help those in the industry to enjoy collecting more or......
• Rising Gas Prices Can Help Your Weight Loss Photo Courtesy of kpgingaz With the ever increasing gas prices (doesn't seem like it's going down any time soon) I figured I had better take advantage of it some how. One way that I thought of was to not use my car as much. That's right. I have not only......
• Improving Your Online Advertising Results The Best Way In the world of Web Marketing, effective advertising plays a big role in the building and care of your business over the course of the long term. It's correct that there's a wide range of promotional techniques to select from but , at the same time, you're going to need......
• Success Strategies: Escape Victim Consciousness - The 30-Day Challenge! “We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last......

Often when working with Managers on coaching skills we get asked about the differences between Coaching and Mentoring.  The diagram below attempts to clarify and also mentions different styles / behaviours.  Coaching and Mentoring are very much future focussed.  Whilst asking questions is the dominant style for coaching, I strongly believe that great mentors will benefit from having good coaching skills so that they can establish where the mentee or protege is right now, and where they aspire or need to be in the future.

• 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......
• Effectiveness of Expenditure on Learning & Development Programmes For discussion purposes only Introduction. Management keep a close eye on the costs of most items in their profit and loss account e.g. office rent, salaries, rent and marketing.  The cost of learning and development programmes, including coaching, is usually less well controlled mainly because it is harder to measure. ......
• Why Coaching? Performance Related Coaching, its relevance and place in business today   Coaching and being coached are essential activities for 21st century business leaders.  In an environment of uncertainty, intense competition and globalisation of markets, innovation, creativity and improved performance are vital to the survival of businesses.   “People, not capital,......
• Why is turning Managers into Coaches so difficult? The above question attracted by attention and I replied as follows:  (references are at the bottom of the post) Experience tells me that it's not appropriate to 'turn managers into coaches' and that it's much more relevant to support managers to have a 'coach approach' - seemingly subtle linguistically and......
• Creating internal coaching capability Coaching Questions that have proved to be relevant when creating or planning to create coaching capability inside organisations. Some of the questions seem to be difficult to come to terms with, and from experience, when they are answered the end result is far more robust. Why Coaching? Why now? What......

• 10 Favorite Neologisms & Buzzwords of 2010 I'm a self-confessed word play nut. I love the wordsmith process because it's a constantly evolving process that illustrates new or existing concepts, that describes the etiology of new areas of study, and highlights the evolutionary process of how crowdsourcing and groupthink enriches the English lexicon. Not surprisingly, I bookmark......
• Best Practices for the Resume Reference Sheet You Need at Your Interview Are Your References Available on Request? Best Practices for the Resume Reference Sheet You Need at Your InterviewIf youve had your resume prepared professionally by a reputable resume writing service, youre probably preparing for the interview for a job you truly want. Congratulations! Make sure that your interview kit is......
• 5 Pieces of Advice to Tell Your Child About Money- Part 5 5 Pieces of Advice to Tell Your Child About Money is a series that ran every Tuesday until today where some of the top personal finance bloggers share their thoughts on this topic. At the end of the series, I promised to post my own 5 pieces of advice.......
• 10 Benefits of Using a Headhunter/Recruiter During my last year of graduate school, I (and many others like me) became the prime target of a band of ruthless, money hungry headhunters. Not the kind trying to separate my head from my body, but the kind that wanted to make money from the knowledge stored in my......
• Apartment Investing - closing in on another one [/caption] Greetings from the metropolis of Cedar Crest, NM.... Just got off the phone with my mentor, Wes Roberts, and a feeling of "simple direction" has come upon me.  It is good to have a mentor.  Wes is what I would call a "life coach."  We are all willing......