CIPD describes coaching as…
’There is some confusion about what exactly coaching is, and how it differs from other ‘helping behaviours’ such as counselling and mentoring. Broadly speaking, the CIPD defines coaching as ‘developing a person’s skills and knowledge so that their job performance improves, hopefully leading to the achievement of organisational objectives. It targets high performance and improvement at work, although it may also have an impact on an individual’s private life. It usually lasts for a short period and focuses on specific skills and goals’
Although there is a lack of agreement among coaching professionals about precise definitions, these are some generally agreed characteristics of coaching in organisations:
What is the difference between coaching & teaching?
With teaching the student asks the questions and the teacher provides the answers as oppose to with coaching the coach asks the questions and the coachee provides the answers Teaching is lecture style and is directive in nature as oppose to coaching facilitation which is non directive where the coach asks powerful questions and the coachee talks about their situation to develop their own solutions. Generally in life we are more likely to take accountability for our own actions as oppose to being told what to do.
When teaching it is assumed that the individual has no level of understanding and therefore they are being told the information.
The purpose of coaching is to have a shared understanding with the coachee of their situation and to help them take accountability for their own actions.
What is the difference between coaching & feedback?
As a manager I can choose to give feedback or coaching to my team. The fundamental difference between the two is that feedback is given by the manager in a ‘tell’ style detailing the impacts of a person’s actions and discussing next steps.
‘In the meeting the other day I noticed that your general attitude towards the systems change was negative by the nature of your body langauge, questions and demeanour. The impact of this to the team……so let’s agree in the future meetings….’
Although feedback can be a two way process ‘pure’ feedback is done in a ‘tell’ style approach and ‘pure’ coaching is completed by asking questions and not providing solutions.
Coaching is a two way process where the coachee provides their own solutions. When giving feedback a Manager will explain what happened, the impact of what happened and discuss the required change in results or behaviour. As stated above this can be a two way process but in general the Manager gives the feedback first before reactions to the feedback are discussed with the individual. It is then possible for the Manager to switch to a coaching mode at this stage to then ask questions to gauge a response and agree next steps.
What is the difference between coaching and mentoring?
Mentoring tends to be a long term relationship were the mentor provides council and advice once again as oppose to coaching which tends to happen in the moment to get the coachee to think for themselves or as time out coaching.
The art of pure coaching facilitation is for the coachee to explore their current situation in depth to gain understanding of their own situation, through active listening the coach gets to see the same picture and gains a shared understanding and thus it enables the coach to ask powerful questions to drive the coachee to develop an action plan and take accountability for their own actions.
The Psychology of Coaching
The Coach facilitates through questions and provides special attention by listening with empathy, this leads to shared understanding of the coachee’s situation. Through this understanding the coachee is able to take accountability for their own actions and develop an action plan.
Simple concepts of coaching:-
Special Attention = Improved performance & motivation through listening to show genuine interest in the coachee and understand the emotional content of the situation.
Coaching raises awareness of the coach and the coachee so they both see the same picture which allows the coach to fully understand the coachee’s situation to facilitate positive change.
Coaching allows the coachee to take accountability for their own solutions as oppose to being told what to do.
It allows the coachee to think for themselves and get creative.
When coaching it is really important for the coach to fully understand what the coachee is thinking and feeling along with having an understanding of their performance.
The GROW Model
The industry standard model for coaching is the GROW model developed by Sir John Whitmore in his excellent book Coaching for Performance. This model gives a coach the structure to deliver an effective coaching session. It enables the coach to set a Goal – set a clear objective with the coachee on their agenda, discuss what is currently happening – Reality, list all the Options to develop the goal and agree the Way Forward (action plan) and Will (Commitment) to making the change.
Moving with these exponential times it is important to have a coaching toolkit that includes a number of different models that a coach can use to develop their people. In essence the one model approach does not fit all unless the coach is creative by nature and makes the coaching a varied and special experience each time they coach.
Levels of Coaching
The Basics
The basics is the ability to ask questions and listen to the response of the coachee – no structure is implied but the coach uses the 2 key fundamental skills when coaching. Most companies only ever get the basics right which unfortunately ends up being a more feedback approach with some questions (Normally ‘tell’ feedback because of time constraints) or a form of coaching that is completed in the individuals own style which is usually modelled on their managers or previous coach’s style of coaching. This form of coaching is like ‘pigeon coaching’ part tell/some questions based on the good and bad traits of their coach or previous coach. Therefore becoming a victim of conformity, conditioning and sometimes bad role modelling.
Fundamentals
The fundamentals are coaching using one model competently which would be a desired end goal for most companies. The coach doing ‘pure’ coaching using a structured model to create positive change with their team. However what happens a lot of the time is individuals go on a coaching course using a desired model such as GROW and then on returning to work it is not embedded by regular observation and assessment, and coaching sessions coaching the coach. So a lot of the time the coach returns to the norm which can be large investment for little return in investment.
It takes hard work to push through the comfort zone and pain barrier to become a good coach, especially if one is not a natural coach or more to the point finds it difficult to ask open questions in a logical way and listen empathetically because they have been conditioned to think feedback is coaching in the past and that has been practiced.
Also the manager can take the easiest way out by reverting to feedback because it is easier to do and the one that amounts to the least time. This is especially disconcerting because the coachee does not think for themselves to develop their understanding and the coach doesn’t find out what the coachee, is thinking, feeling, what they have achieved or done different from their view point, how motivated or capable they think they are or what help they need.
This fundamental level is how most companies can be benchmarked around the one model level and in this view one model should fit all.
Situational Coaching
The next level takes into account the coachee’s situation and then adapts the coaching to their level of motivation or capability which tends to be black and white around their level of performance or barriers to achieving their objective. This is where the coach starts to consult before the coaching and to become more creative in their style. Ultimately the desired end result is a change in a person’s actions and then results which is Action Coaching.
Advanced Coaching
Advanced coaching is using the right model for the right person in the right situation – this is where the coach now has a toolkit of coaching models and techniques at their disposal to creatively coach the coachee. It builds on situational coaching by looking at the coachee’s learning style, learning requirements, personality, and motivation to really understand what makes the individual tick and then using the right model of coaching to develop the coachee. Advanced coaching really focuses on an individual reframing their thinking to change their view or internal map of the world to influence a positive change in behaviour.
Based on an individual’s personality, learning and creativity styles, the difference in the way the brain works and how different models can used to promote discovery. It is all about using variety and creativity through different approaches and models to increase performance and enhance the coaching experience.
Alternatively it can also be a more consultative and strategic approach to coaching dependent upon the level of the coachee
Transformational Coaching
Transformational coaching works on the premise of changing a person’s mindset and perceptions of the whole situation. Transformational coaching goes much further to changing a person’s perceptions, beliefs and way of being on a transpersonal level. In the modern day it is tailoring the coaching to the individual in realizing that today’s challenge is to develop the whole person. Each person has psychological, intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual needs. They also need to be developed to have a sense of being and to feel they are becoming more. In essence it is changing their view of the world and their view of themselves and what is possible transforming the individual to another level.
Creative Coaching – Change Facilitation
Having a coaching toolkit basically gives managers more tools at their disposal not only to be more creative but to ensure they use the right model for the right person at the right time.
To enable the coach to be more creative a missing part of the process when coaching is consulting to gain information on the coachee’s learning style, motivation versus capability, barriers to coaching, personality, creativity style, behavioural style, logical versus associative person, detail versus big picture person, intorverted versus extrovert etc. This allows the coach to plan creatively for the coaching session to tailor the coaching to the individual’s needs.
Coach the Coach & Developing a Coaching Culture
Ultimately what makes coaching stick is coaching from the top down through regular coach the coach. This means senior managers coaching their mid level managers on how they coach and the mid managers coaching their front level managers on how they coach using coaching key performance and behavioural indicators to drive best practice. This form of observation and assessment through coach the coach is what truly embeds and creates a coaching culture.
Transformational Coaching through the Complete Performance Model and the Life Coaching Experience will be available by Paul Corke in 2010.
Self Coaching from Being & Becoming: In Search of a Positive World
‘We all act as coaches at some point in our life, whether that be coaching our children to read or helping them with homework, to taking a more active role in work or perhaps with a hobby or sport. Choosing to be a coach is a way of life and it is important to realize that through our own inner voice and self-talk that we coach ourselves everyday.
Coaching is the art of changing behaviour in a positive way to help the individual or ourselves realize their full potential.
So how do we inner coach ourselves? By using the same techniques and principles used to coach others to coach ourselves. If only we were to listen to the voices in our head then, dependent upon the mood we are in, will depend upon the outcome in behaviour at a particular time. Dependent upon the mood we are in there will also be an association to our past experience hence triggering through our mental models a natural reactive response. This is so similar to the level of flight or fight response back in our caveman days, an instant response without thinking. The easiest choice in this case is to be driven by our mood, which dictates our response and generally less work. The opposite can also be the case where we actually over think through endless possibilities with the mindless chattering of thoughts running through our head.
You become what you think about the most.
If our mind is continually dwelling on issues then not only are we wasting energy but we are also re-enforcing the situation. It also means there will be a lack of action caused by hesitation of our fear. So what are the reasons that cause us to doubt or fear or lack confidence?
So how do we overcome the feeling of fear? Some would advise us to face our fears to prove it is mind over matter.
Fear is a state of mind re-enforced by our inner critical demon/voice chattering away endlessly. To be able to overcome our demons our self-talk is critical and it is via our inner coach that personal mastery becomes possible.
Personal mastery is the ability to control your emotional state and reactions.
Our inner coach chooses our reaction through a calm state of mind choosing not to be influenced by past experience or existing emotion. It is an assertive calmness that thinks before choosing the action in line with our values.
Personal mastery is the ability to work towards goals the benefit of which provides leverage to maintain motivation.
Your inner coach chooses character and competence building goals that stretch you to work towards the Super You.
The main skills of the coach are to question the coachee to explore their situation so both the coach and the coachee gain understanding. Empathetic listening makes the coachee feel valued as the coach builds on the coachee's answers. The coach then facilitates the coachee to take accountability by designing an action plan of 'what' the coachee is going to do to improve performance, 'how' they are going to do it and by 'when', gaining full commitment from the coachee to determine their will to make it happen.
We coach ourselves exactly the same way by exploring how we feel about the goal and then developing an action plan that we are committed to work towards. It is also about being connected with ourselves on a deep empathetic level.
Generally we have an idea about what we want but when do we really question and listen to ourselves?
Personal mastery is having the willpower to make positive changes by taking action.
The ability and determination to make changes, especially structural changes, to our beliefs and then continue to take action, living by the changes we have made, takes willpower; the willingness to make those changes consistently and work them through to the end.
Personal mastery is about integrity, honour and truth.
To live by our code and in saying yes to our self one can be true to oneself. It is by honouring our code and taking action with integrity that we hold true to our self. The Super You has a clear conscience and through that it is possible to be our self – merely natural. To be able to coach our self we need to eliminate negative talk and destructive thoughts. There are several techniques that the inner coach can use to programme the mind……’ read more
’There is some confusion about what exactly coaching is, and how it differs from other ‘helping behaviours’ such as counselling and mentoring. Broadly speaking, the CIPD defines coaching as ‘developing a person’s skills and knowledge so that their job performance improves, hopefully leading to the achievement of organisational objectives. It targets high performance and improvement at work, although it may also have an impact on an individual’s private life. It usually lasts for a short period and focuses on specific skills and goals’
Although there is a lack of agreement among coaching professionals about precise definitions, these are some generally agreed characteristics of coaching in organisations:
- It is essentially a non-directive form of development.
- It focuses on improving performance and developing individuals’ skills.
- Personal issues may be discussed but the emphasis is on performance at work.
- Coaching activities have both organisational and individual goals.
- It assumes that the individual is psychologically well and does not require a clinical intervention.
- It provides people with feedback on both their strengths and their weaknesses.
- It is a skilled activity which should be delivered by trained people.
What is the difference between coaching & teaching?
With teaching the student asks the questions and the teacher provides the answers as oppose to with coaching the coach asks the questions and the coachee provides the answers Teaching is lecture style and is directive in nature as oppose to coaching facilitation which is non directive where the coach asks powerful questions and the coachee talks about their situation to develop their own solutions. Generally in life we are more likely to take accountability for our own actions as oppose to being told what to do.
When teaching it is assumed that the individual has no level of understanding and therefore they are being told the information.
The purpose of coaching is to have a shared understanding with the coachee of their situation and to help them take accountability for their own actions.
What is the difference between coaching & feedback?
As a manager I can choose to give feedback or coaching to my team. The fundamental difference between the two is that feedback is given by the manager in a ‘tell’ style detailing the impacts of a person’s actions and discussing next steps.
‘In the meeting the other day I noticed that your general attitude towards the systems change was negative by the nature of your body langauge, questions and demeanour. The impact of this to the team……so let’s agree in the future meetings….’
Although feedback can be a two way process ‘pure’ feedback is done in a ‘tell’ style approach and ‘pure’ coaching is completed by asking questions and not providing solutions.
Coaching is a two way process where the coachee provides their own solutions. When giving feedback a Manager will explain what happened, the impact of what happened and discuss the required change in results or behaviour. As stated above this can be a two way process but in general the Manager gives the feedback first before reactions to the feedback are discussed with the individual. It is then possible for the Manager to switch to a coaching mode at this stage to then ask questions to gauge a response and agree next steps.
What is the difference between coaching and mentoring?
Mentoring tends to be a long term relationship were the mentor provides council and advice once again as oppose to coaching which tends to happen in the moment to get the coachee to think for themselves or as time out coaching.
The art of pure coaching facilitation is for the coachee to explore their current situation in depth to gain understanding of their own situation, through active listening the coach gets to see the same picture and gains a shared understanding and thus it enables the coach to ask powerful questions to drive the coachee to develop an action plan and take accountability for their own actions.
The Psychology of Coaching
The Coach facilitates through questions and provides special attention by listening with empathy, this leads to shared understanding of the coachee’s situation. Through this understanding the coachee is able to take accountability for their own actions and develop an action plan.
Simple concepts of coaching:-
Special Attention = Improved performance & motivation through listening to show genuine interest in the coachee and understand the emotional content of the situation.
Coaching raises awareness of the coach and the coachee so they both see the same picture which allows the coach to fully understand the coachee’s situation to facilitate positive change.
Coaching allows the coachee to take accountability for their own solutions as oppose to being told what to do.
It allows the coachee to think for themselves and get creative.
When coaching it is really important for the coach to fully understand what the coachee is thinking and feeling along with having an understanding of their performance.
The GROW Model
The industry standard model for coaching is the GROW model developed by Sir John Whitmore in his excellent book Coaching for Performance. This model gives a coach the structure to deliver an effective coaching session. It enables the coach to set a Goal – set a clear objective with the coachee on their agenda, discuss what is currently happening – Reality, list all the Options to develop the goal and agree the Way Forward (action plan) and Will (Commitment) to making the change.
Moving with these exponential times it is important to have a coaching toolkit that includes a number of different models that a coach can use to develop their people. In essence the one model approach does not fit all unless the coach is creative by nature and makes the coaching a varied and special experience each time they coach.
Levels of Coaching
The Basics
The basics is the ability to ask questions and listen to the response of the coachee – no structure is implied but the coach uses the 2 key fundamental skills when coaching. Most companies only ever get the basics right which unfortunately ends up being a more feedback approach with some questions (Normally ‘tell’ feedback because of time constraints) or a form of coaching that is completed in the individuals own style which is usually modelled on their managers or previous coach’s style of coaching. This form of coaching is like ‘pigeon coaching’ part tell/some questions based on the good and bad traits of their coach or previous coach. Therefore becoming a victim of conformity, conditioning and sometimes bad role modelling.
Fundamentals
The fundamentals are coaching using one model competently which would be a desired end goal for most companies. The coach doing ‘pure’ coaching using a structured model to create positive change with their team. However what happens a lot of the time is individuals go on a coaching course using a desired model such as GROW and then on returning to work it is not embedded by regular observation and assessment, and coaching sessions coaching the coach. So a lot of the time the coach returns to the norm which can be large investment for little return in investment.
It takes hard work to push through the comfort zone and pain barrier to become a good coach, especially if one is not a natural coach or more to the point finds it difficult to ask open questions in a logical way and listen empathetically because they have been conditioned to think feedback is coaching in the past and that has been practiced.
Also the manager can take the easiest way out by reverting to feedback because it is easier to do and the one that amounts to the least time. This is especially disconcerting because the coachee does not think for themselves to develop their understanding and the coach doesn’t find out what the coachee, is thinking, feeling, what they have achieved or done different from their view point, how motivated or capable they think they are or what help they need.
This fundamental level is how most companies can be benchmarked around the one model level and in this view one model should fit all.
Situational Coaching
The next level takes into account the coachee’s situation and then adapts the coaching to their level of motivation or capability which tends to be black and white around their level of performance or barriers to achieving their objective. This is where the coach starts to consult before the coaching and to become more creative in their style. Ultimately the desired end result is a change in a person’s actions and then results which is Action Coaching.
Advanced Coaching
Advanced coaching is using the right model for the right person in the right situation – this is where the coach now has a toolkit of coaching models and techniques at their disposal to creatively coach the coachee. It builds on situational coaching by looking at the coachee’s learning style, learning requirements, personality, and motivation to really understand what makes the individual tick and then using the right model of coaching to develop the coachee. Advanced coaching really focuses on an individual reframing their thinking to change their view or internal map of the world to influence a positive change in behaviour.
Based on an individual’s personality, learning and creativity styles, the difference in the way the brain works and how different models can used to promote discovery. It is all about using variety and creativity through different approaches and models to increase performance and enhance the coaching experience.
Alternatively it can also be a more consultative and strategic approach to coaching dependent upon the level of the coachee
Transformational Coaching
Transformational coaching works on the premise of changing a person’s mindset and perceptions of the whole situation. Transformational coaching goes much further to changing a person’s perceptions, beliefs and way of being on a transpersonal level. In the modern day it is tailoring the coaching to the individual in realizing that today’s challenge is to develop the whole person. Each person has psychological, intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual needs. They also need to be developed to have a sense of being and to feel they are becoming more. In essence it is changing their view of the world and their view of themselves and what is possible transforming the individual to another level.
Creative Coaching – Change Facilitation
Having a coaching toolkit basically gives managers more tools at their disposal not only to be more creative but to ensure they use the right model for the right person at the right time.
To enable the coach to be more creative a missing part of the process when coaching is consulting to gain information on the coachee’s learning style, motivation versus capability, barriers to coaching, personality, creativity style, behavioural style, logical versus associative person, detail versus big picture person, intorverted versus extrovert etc. This allows the coach to plan creatively for the coaching session to tailor the coaching to the individual’s needs.
Coach the Coach & Developing a Coaching Culture
Ultimately what makes coaching stick is coaching from the top down through regular coach the coach. This means senior managers coaching their mid level managers on how they coach and the mid managers coaching their front level managers on how they coach using coaching key performance and behavioural indicators to drive best practice. This form of observation and assessment through coach the coach is what truly embeds and creates a coaching culture.
Transformational Coaching through the Complete Performance Model and the Life Coaching Experience will be available by Paul Corke in 2010.
Self Coaching from Being & Becoming: In Search of a Positive World
‘We all act as coaches at some point in our life, whether that be coaching our children to read or helping them with homework, to taking a more active role in work or perhaps with a hobby or sport. Choosing to be a coach is a way of life and it is important to realize that through our own inner voice and self-talk that we coach ourselves everyday.
Coaching is the art of changing behaviour in a positive way to help the individual or ourselves realize their full potential.
So how do we inner coach ourselves? By using the same techniques and principles used to coach others to coach ourselves. If only we were to listen to the voices in our head then, dependent upon the mood we are in, will depend upon the outcome in behaviour at a particular time. Dependent upon the mood we are in there will also be an association to our past experience hence triggering through our mental models a natural reactive response. This is so similar to the level of flight or fight response back in our caveman days, an instant response without thinking. The easiest choice in this case is to be driven by our mood, which dictates our response and generally less work. The opposite can also be the case where we actually over think through endless possibilities with the mindless chattering of thoughts running through our head.
You become what you think about the most.
If our mind is continually dwelling on issues then not only are we wasting energy but we are also re-enforcing the situation. It also means there will be a lack of action caused by hesitation of our fear. So what are the reasons that cause us to doubt or fear or lack confidence?
- A feeling of incompetence in a given activity or skill – a lack of self-confidence
- A hard or unpleasant task – leads to procrastination through an internal belief
- Past Experience – external conditioning leads to negative belief
- Mood – how you are feeling e.g. you are not in the right frame of mind
- Opinion – self-conditioning negative belief
- Imagination – painting worst case scenario pictures in your mind
So how do we overcome the feeling of fear? Some would advise us to face our fears to prove it is mind over matter.
Fear is a state of mind re-enforced by our inner critical demon/voice chattering away endlessly. To be able to overcome our demons our self-talk is critical and it is via our inner coach that personal mastery becomes possible.
Personal mastery is the ability to control your emotional state and reactions.
Our inner coach chooses our reaction through a calm state of mind choosing not to be influenced by past experience or existing emotion. It is an assertive calmness that thinks before choosing the action in line with our values.
Stimuli 
Inner Coach Considers Chosen response
Inner Coach Considers Chosen response
Personal mastery is the ability to work towards goals the benefit of which provides leverage to maintain motivation.
Your inner coach chooses character and competence building goals that stretch you to work towards the Super You.
The main skills of the coach are to question the coachee to explore their situation so both the coach and the coachee gain understanding. Empathetic listening makes the coachee feel valued as the coach builds on the coachee's answers. The coach then facilitates the coachee to take accountability by designing an action plan of 'what' the coachee is going to do to improve performance, 'how' they are going to do it and by 'when', gaining full commitment from the coachee to determine their will to make it happen.
We coach ourselves exactly the same way by exploring how we feel about the goal and then developing an action plan that we are committed to work towards. It is also about being connected with ourselves on a deep empathetic level.
Generally we have an idea about what we want but when do we really question and listen to ourselves?
Personal mastery is having the willpower to make positive changes by taking action.
The ability and determination to make changes, especially structural changes, to our beliefs and then continue to take action, living by the changes we have made, takes willpower; the willingness to make those changes consistently and work them through to the end.
Personal mastery is about integrity, honour and truth.
To live by our code and in saying yes to our self one can be true to oneself. It is by honouring our code and taking action with integrity that we hold true to our self. The Super You has a clear conscience and through that it is possible to be our self – merely natural. To be able to coach our self we need to eliminate negative talk and destructive thoughts. There are several techniques that the inner coach can use to programme the mind……’ read more
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