Coaching: is it for me?

It has been proven that leadership and management skills have a direct impact on the performance of a business.  Improving your personal impact and performance can help you to achieve a wide variety of goals, such as:

• taking up a leadership position
• seeking a new career
• getting more done
• becoming more strategic rather than operational
• changing others' perception of you
• building relationships with key people
• transitioning from one role to another
• increasing employee motivation

But how can these improvements be made within a busy working week?  Coaching is particularly good as it can be used in 'bite-sized chunks' allowing you time and space to take stock and develop your own sustainable solutions.

So what is coaching?

Here are a few definitions that you might have seen before:

"Give a man a fish and you will feed him for a day,

Teach a man to fish and you will feed him for life, 

Teach a man to learn to fish and he doesn't need a fishing teacher,

Teach a man to learn and he doesn't need a teacher."  (Chinese proverb)

"Unlocking a person's potential to maximise his or her performance.  It is helping a person to learn, rather than teaching him or her"  (John Whitmore)

My view of coaching is that you have the resources to solve your problems.  My role is to develop your resourcefulness through skilful questioning, challenge and support.  I will help you to understand how your personality and your experiences impact on your performance.  I suspend judgement and we work together as equals to bring about change and action that you feel comfortable with, that produces sustainable improvements.  It's not about giving advice and telling you what to do, it is about helping you to find the right solution.

How does it work?

Normally coaching takes place over a 3-6 month period and involves 4-6 sessions of around two hours each.  It involves exploring your issues and dilemmas to find which actions you want to take.  At each meeting we review progress and move to new issues as required.  I am often asked by clients to complete some kind of personality and motivation reports as part of the coaching.  These can be extremely useful in raising a higher level of self-awareness.

Is it for me?

Coaching is useful from front line staff to senior managers, public to private sector, sports to business.  Why not give it a go to see if it can help you to get a solution to your current issues.  

So, if you think you might be interested, please do contact me and we can talk and meet to see if it's for you.

(If you are based in the West Midlands, you might qualify for funding under the Director Development Programme (DDP) run by West Midlands Business Link with whom I am an accredited supplier)

10,000 hours to expert mountain biker!

In my blog last week I reflected on my day mountain biking and recognising that if I wanted to stop falling off when going up hill, I needed to improve my knowledge and skill.

So what have I done about it?

I have gone through my collection of articles in mountain biking magazines, checked out a couple of books and looked on the internet.

I have also been out on my bike again and tried to practice the turns even though the terrain at home is not so extreme.  I also realised that I can join up with some riders from my local bike shop and watch how they do it and maybe get some instruction too.  I just need to make that call!

This is what I do in my professional life.  As a coach, I am always looking to develop my own knowledge and skills.  I read many books, articles, browse the web, Linkedin and Twitter.  I also talk to other coaches, both within my field and outside, such as sports coaches and life coaches.  I also undertake professional supervision, which is really someone coaching me to reflect on how I coach and how well I am doing it.

So in your professional life what are you doing to improve your skills and knowledge?

If you manage or interact with others are you reflecting on your style or seeking feedback?

Are you investing in training?

Do you observe others who you consider to be expert in their field and learn from what they do?

Do you read around your specialism?

Do you try new things out and see how they go?

I would love to hear your experiences.