Monthly Archives: September 2011

It’s in your imagination

 in General life improvement

This was originally posted in 2010 on www.YourChangingDirection.com

“Live out of your imagination, not your history.”

(Steven Covey)

You may have noticed that there is a small football (or soccer depending upon where you are) competition happening in South Africa. Certainly where I am the media is full of football related contents. Which is how I came across a professional footballer giving his guide to taking a penalty shot.

The first thing he said was that you needed to visualise the ball going into the net. You’ve probably heard that sort of advice before, because it’s not just confined to football – or sport for that matter.

I know that to some people visualisasing sounds a bit “woo-woo” and new age. But don’t get caught up in the “label” of visualisation. I can ask someone who refuses to do any visualisation to tell me what they think will happen at an event coming up and they are more than capable of giving detailed answers.

Regardless of how you want to label that process – visualisation or thinking through what could happen, the outcome is often the same. Those who tell themselves a story about an event going badly often feel nervous/bad about the prospect of that event.

Often the “argument” or reasoning for doing this is that they are basing it on past experiences, with the logic that if it’s happened like that in the past, that it will always happen like that in the future.

This often means that what is being imagined ignores the possibility that things may naturally go differently (it’s like imagining a tossed coin will always land heads and ignoring the 50:50 chance it may land tails). It also eliminates the opportunity to come up with solutions ahead of time if things don’t go as you planned.

This week I invite you to play with something that you have planned in the future.

  1. Imagine that this event goes well, from start to finish
  2. As this is possibly an unusual way of you imagining the event, repeat that a couple more times!
  3. This time imagine that everything doesn’t run smoothly but you handle the situation calmly and successfully regardless.
  4. Notice the difference this makes when you come to the event in reality.

Have a week full of fun imagination

Love

Jen

You Can Coach Better if You Give Your Intuition a Toolbox

 in Guest Post  tagged Bill Gates / business coach / business coaching / Career Support Services / charging / client / clients / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching courses / coaching qualifications / coaching skills / coaching techniques / coaching training / executive coach / intervention / intuition / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / nlp coach / performance coaching / Perry Zeus / personal coach / personal development / Peter Tate / Suzanne Skiffington / toolkit / wheel of life / William C. Red Field / Winston Churchill

In today’s guest post coach Peter Tate shares his expertise and thoughts about coaching intuition.

You Can Coach Better if You Give Your Intuition a Toolbox

by Peter Tate

Have you ever found yourself afraid of what is going on during a coaching intervention; you know, when it’s really intense and you feel like you are living on a toxic coctail of adrenaline and intuition?

I used to lie to myself and call it “being in awe of the process”.

Fortunately, for me, experience led to wisdom, and stress led to strategies that helped me mature my own practice sufficiently that I’m pretty certain both client and coach come out unscathed these days.

“If you give people tools, [and they use] their natural ability and their curiosity, they will develop things in ways that will surprise you”

Bill Gates

I discovered the real power of tools in coaching. I know that sounds like it should be obvious, I mean we all know about the “Wheel of Life” exercise. We know how it can bring direction and focus to a coaching session. So we all use it, even if not in that simple format.

Yet sometimes tools like this for me created a terrifying experience. I started calling the wheel of life the “Wheel of Fortune” when my clients somehow applied arbitrary measures to the segments and found an interpretation of the words based on some distant dialect of a long lost language. The problem was simply that using a subjective tool kept me on my back foot unless I had a really good handle on my client’s reference points and frame of mind.

“Facts have a cruel way of substituting themselves for fancies. There is nothing more remorseless, just as there is nothing more helpful, than truth”.

William C. Red Field

What I discovered about the real power of tools in coaching was that when used more objectively, with structured measures and interpretation, I could get to the real heart of the issues; issues that I had previously used my intuition to probe.

And my real discovery was that these tools helped me cope with myself in a coaching session better. I had a better grasp of the client and I was on firm ground enough that my intuition became productive more often. I could genuinely start to be in awe of the process because I could coach with confidence.

“We shall neither fail nor falter; we shall not weaken or tire…give us the tools and we will finish the job.”

Winston Churchill

I love the work of Suzanne Skiffington and Perry Zeus at the Behavioural Coaching Institute and can highly recommend their books. Their work in applying a rigorous basis to coaching tools taught me to consider the same in my own field and has freed me from some of my fear of coaching.

I specialise these days in career coaching and have found that expert knowledge embodied in tools can lead to breakthrough situations occuring for my clients much quicker. For example, theory states that Job Satisfaction is related to Work Vales. So, the tool on work values comes out to play when a client indicates they are dissatisfied with their work. More often than not the client “discovers” what is missing or what they have to compromise in their current job and all of a sudden I am a successful coach.

Remember that most coaching models are inherently a toolkit, but I’d like to encourage you to find specific tools that do the groundwork and provide you with the knowledge you need in your own niche to give you the space and confidence to coach at your best. You won’t regret the effort.

About the Author/Further Resources

Peter Tate is based near Guildford in the UK, enjoying life as a Career Coach and developer of a powerful Career Coaching Toolkit called Career Horizons. Peter runs a career management practice (http://careersupportservices.co.uk) that equips professionals and those just starting out in the world of work to find their own career success. You can find Peter tweeting as @intolife.

 

Best locations for coaching

 in Coaching  tagged business coach / business coaching / career coaching / coach / coaches / coaching / coaching content / coaching courses / coaching preparation / coaching qualifications / coaching session / coaching skills / coaching techniques / executive coach / face-to-face / Free resource / leadership coaching / life coach / life coaches / life coaching / location / otcome / overhead / performance coaching / personal development / phone / preparation / preparation for a coaching session / purpose / resource / travel

I’ve mentioned before that many things can influence the content of each post, including requests from you either via the contact form or when signing up to get the free “What to put in your coaching welcome pack” e-course. Today’s post is in response to a request about information about the best locations for coaching.

As this is all the information the individual gave I will be writing generally for reasons that I will explain in a moment. If you are the person who made this request and we need to go more detailed to be of assistance to you by all means get in touch with more details.

I’m going to start by saying that, for me, the best locations are the ones that work for you and your clients.

There are several variables that can influence where you choose to hold a coaching conversation and session. These are some of the questions I consider when choosing where to hold a coaching session.

What medium are you planning on using for your coaching?

A coaching session via the phone can have different practical requirements to a face-to-face coaching session. To start with to coach via the phone you physically need to be able to make a call. This will mean either a landline or ensuring that you have a strong enough mobile signal.

Who are you coaching? and What state do you want your client to be in?

Some clients will feel more relaxed in different settings so it’s possible that the location you pick can influence the work that you do together.

For example, some clients may prefer a setting of a corporate office meeting room. Others may find that environment intimidating to meet in. Some may prefer a room in an educational setting – others may have negative connections to such a setting.

What is the purpose of your coaching? What outcome does your client want to get from your coaching work together?

This may place practical implications about where you want your coaching to happen.

For example, imagine that you are in a business setting coaching call centre agents concerning performance skills. It could be beneficial to have a coaching conversation “on the floor” about how the last call had gone. This has the benefit of the call being fresh in the agents mind and memory. It also allows for any action agreed upon to be immediately put into action.

Perhaps you suspect that physically having that coaching conversation in a different setting will make a difference. A client may be more relaxed/less distracted in a neutral setting giving them the space to see things from a new perspective.

This may be in a public setting, your own/independent office or perhaps even in an outside location.

What are your preferences as a coach?

Where will assist you to fully focus on your client without distractions and allow you to be in the most useful state for your coaching?

What other practical aspects/implications are there?

I know that overhead costs can affect coaches decisions about where they coach. Not only with potential room hire/lease but other costs such as travelling can also influence either your pricing or where you coach.

Coaching from your own home. I’m certainly no regulatory and legal expert, especially as that will vary depending upon which country you are living in. Do be aware that there may be certain clauses in renting agreements, building and content insurance policies etc that apply if you have clients physically coming into your own home. Do check out how you will be affected and seek appropriate advice if needed.

Geography How much travel are you (and/or potentially your client) prepared to do?

Time This may also influence your decision. Is the location you are thinking off available when you want to coach? If there is travelling involved to the venue does it fit with your other commitments and if not are you willing to make it a priority?

A word of warning

I’ll also add that I’ve spoken to many want-to-be/trainee coaches who are not yet coaching giving the reason that they have nowhere to coach. I know that this can seem a big first step.

Please don’t let this get in your way of starting coaching. Personally I have had coaching conversations either as a client or a coach in coffee shops, hotel bars/reception, train stations, impromptu coaching conversations in stairwells etc.

As part of a big long-term picture – yes a location may play a part in making an impression, potentially make a coaching session easier and if you are running a coaching business could have overhead implications.

However, when starting out I personally think that not having a room can be used as a practical excuse for not starting just yet but appearing busy. In my opinion, one of the best ways to develop your coaching is by actually coaching real people.