Maybe it has been some time since you thought much about Winne the Pooh and the Hundred Acre Wood, but the characters who live there can teach us a lot about the choices we make, how we attempt to overcome the obstacles in our lives, and about how to live life with abundance.
Let’s start with Tigger. Here is a lovable guy full of life who loves risk, fun, and high energy activities. He often attempts things that would be crazy for others but not for Tigger.
In fact, his joy and abundance comes when he is free to bounce high, live large, and plunge head first into life.
However, I do remember one time when Rabbit was fed up with Tigger’s exuberance and decided to shame Tigger. Rabbit scolded him for his unbridled energy and lack of planning.
In response to this shame Tigger did what many of us try to do when we feel the weight of disapproval; he stopped being who he was designed to be. He tried to be like Rabbit. Now, even a bear of very little brain could see a catastrophe in the works.
Tigger became very melancholy and walked around moping. A deep depression descended on him, and the entire forest felt the removal of Tigger’s energy. Not only did Tigger need to be who he was, but his world needed him to be who he was designed to be.
Speaking of Rabbit, he had a very similar experience to Tigger. You see, Rabbit was designed for order. He organizes well and loves it when a plan comes together. However, one day, when Rabbit noticed all the attention that Tigger got in response to his energy, Rabbit decided that if he was more like Tigger then he would attract more love into his life.
What happened next was comical at best. Rabbit put springs on his feet and painted stripes on his body. He abandoned his plans and began bounding through the woods. This wore Rabbit out and didn’t sit well with anyone else either. In fact, Rabbit ended up make a bigger mess of things than Tigger ever did.
Why? Because the other characters in Rabbit’s community needed Rabbit to be the orderly, well-mannered guy he was. They didn’t need another Tigger and neither did Rabbit.
Piglet is a sweet person whose loyalty is forever and is the best friend you could ever hope for. Piglet is designed to be a companion, and he works best in the company of others.
Piglet isn’t designed to strike out by himself. Yet, one time when he didn’t feel needed, he tried just that. His self worth left him, and he went off by himself and wallowed in self pity. He ended up getting lost for a time, but when he realized that he had all the worth he needed already inside him, he went and found his friends and actually helped them save the day.
I could go on and on about how Eeyore’s depression keeps him isolated and away from real life, or how Owl’s insecurity, about his spelling, keeps him hold up in his tree rather than sharing his wisdom with more of the forest creatures. But I don’t want to forget Pooh.
Pooh is a bear who doesn’t try be something that he isn’t. He knows who he is and where he is, which is usually right where he is standing at the time.
He doesn’t wait for life to come to him but he only goes after it one step at a time. He knows that worrying about tomorrow is useless and so he lives in the moment. Because he doesn’t need love, self worth, or security from others he is free to give them away and is the glue that holds the community together.
When my daughter was born she had a quote from pooh hanging in her nursery that said, A grand adventure is about to happen. Pooh never failed to live an abundant life full of adventure and beauty. He lived every moment for all it was worth and let the future take care of itself.
We all want adventure, beauty, and abundant life. Yet few live this kind of life, and those who do are often discounted. The secret to living an abundant life is not in getting it all all right or in following some model laid out by someone else, or in appearing like you fit with everyone else, or in being free of what some label as dysfunction.
In fact many of the most abundant people in history were full of dysfunction, stood out like a sore thumb, and definitely didn’t get it all right.
The secret lies in first knowing who you were designed to be and being honest about where you are right now in your life.
Secondly, you must embrace who you were designed to be as the best you can be and trust that it is the path to your abundance and joy.
Once you learn to trust your design and your designer, then you must chart a journey that flows from your design and give yourself the freedom to follow that path as the next step reveals itself to you.

Take Back Your Life: Stop Doing Things that Really Don’t Matter (…and a lot of things really don’t matter)

I work with a lot of stressed out executives in their 30’s who feel like their, life energy, hope and joy have been sucked out of them. What we find very quickly is that they are doing a lot of things that don’t really matter instead of concentrating on the things they really do want in their lives.

What if you stopped doing things in your life that really don’t matter? How would that change who you are? How much extra time would you have available to do things you really enjoy? How would this affect your health and well-being? And, what the heck does any of this mean?

How do you stop doing things in your life that don’t matter? Well, you need to take a step back. First, you need to figure out what does matter to you. This may involve doing some serious soul-searching to figure this out. Your answers typically lay in the values you hold dear and these are often expressed in the vision you have for your life.

For example, what matters most to me is creating a better world for everyone and working with people who respect me for who I am and the work I do. I’ve actually taken it one step further to find out in detail, what I really want in my life. This way, I’m very clear about my “mission.”

Sometimes it isn’t easy to figure out what matters most. We can lose track of our life vision over time as we get pulled in a million directions and deal with life’s daily activities. In that case, consider working with a personal coach to develop clarity. I work with dozens of people in helping them to unearth their real vision.

The second step is to take a look at what you’re doing in your life. Where do you spend your time? What’s your profession, who are your friends, what groups do you belong to and what types of activities fill your days, weeks and months?

The tough step is next. Look for the disconnect between what matters most to you and what you’re doing in your life. It’s time to clean house (which could take months or longer) of anything that isn’t supporting what matters most to you. It’s time to get rid of what isn’t aligned with your vision and values. Stop investing your time and energy into people, ideas, events, and anything else which isn’t serving what is truly meaningful to you.

In the past few years, I’ve gone through the very process that I’ve outlined here. The results have been phenomenal. I have a lot more time to spend with my family and friends. I’m not overbooked with time-filling, busy-body, pointless activities. My business runs effortlessly and my life is virtually stress-free.

I defined what mattered most and then started removing everything that didn’t fit. Did this take a lot of focus, dedication and hard work? Absolutely! But anyone can do what I did. It all starts with taking the first step.

Anything worthwhile in life takes effort. You only need to have the drive and the desire to make it happen. I’m glad I took on the challenge because now I’m on a path that’s filled with daily joy and abundance. And, you can do the same.

Two psychologists bump into each other in the street. The first one says,

“You’re fine, how am I?”

How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but only if the light bulb really wants to change.

All very amusing and useful examples of how psychology has slipped into everyday life to the point where familiarity has perhaps bred contempt. Lots of people are dismayed by the amount of psychology that has creapt into everyday life. Whether this is the launch of latest two-part psychological thriller on television or the reports of football managers engaged in ‘psychological’ mind-games, the view is that psychology is in some ways frivolous and certainly not as important as ‘proper’ science.

Can we challenge this view? Can we look at the effect psychology has had on the study of say, personality disorder and discover a legitimate and meaningful contribution?

To begin with let’s examine what we actually mean by psychology. Psychology has been defined as ‘the scientific study of behaviour and experience’ (Hardy & Heyes, 1979). The use of the word scientific in that definition implies that psychologists do more than simply think about behaviour and its causes. Psychologists observe behaviour and make hypotheses about what causes or affects it. They then test those guesses by undertaking further observation, asking questions or performing experiments. Where this kind of scientific rigour is apparent in the field, we might expect some useful insight into so called abnormal behaviour in others.

Consider firstly the condition known as Multiple Personality; Sufferers of which have been known to develop as many as seventeen separate personalities. Thigpen & Cleckley (1954) were one of the first to recognise the unique dynamics of this disorderin their treatment of Eve White; who also encompassed Eve Black and Eve Grey.Further work by other psychologists has uncovered that the origins of this condition seem to lie in the experience of some emotional trauma at around the age of five. The theory is that suffers create a kind of fugue state in order to withstand the trauma and may continue to use this tactic until the alternative personality actually takes root. Treatment is slow and difficult,but without the psychological perspective we can expect that sufferers of this condition would have been incarcerated, outcast or submitted for endless exorcisms.

Much work has also been done around the possible causes of Antisocial Personality; sufferers of which condition are more commonly known as psychopaths or sociopaths. Chrisianses (1977) proposes a genetic cause. He looked at over 400 pairs of twins and found concordance in 69% of the MZ ones compared with only 33% for the DZ twins. Lykken (1957) created a mental maze, where subjects learn to press a correct sequence of levers, receiving shocks when the wrong one is selected. He found that sociopaths made more errors leading to shocks than ‘normals’ suggesting a Neurochemical cause, i.e. an inability to learn from painful experience. There are many other examples and many other possible causes but each presents an opportunity for treatment. Without these insights there would be no possibility for treatment and imprisonment would be the only option.

There is little doubt that we need to be wary of the cult of pop psychology. But real psychology is different. It is scientific in approach and rigorous in execution. It seeks to deal with effect as well as cause and, certainly in the case of personality disorder, offers genuine hope to sufferers and their families that their condition might be treated sympathetically even if not cured.

What is a coaching session? Does it necessitate a quiet room, with soft lighting and muzak? Does it mean comfortable chairs facing one another with two hours set aside for deep exploration? I hope not because if this were the case the average manager would not be able to utilise the simple principles which I aim to show can be used in a fraction of the time and as part of everyday working conversations.

I can understand this viewpoint and I think the coaching profession encourages it; it makes it seem as if coaching must ALWAYS occur at this level to be helpful, but it doesn’t. A trained Life or Executive coach may well work at this depth to bring about the significant and permanent change for which they have presumably been hired but the coaching manager is less concerned with causing tearful epiphanies and more concerned with restoring focus and improving performance on the job. This can be done far quicker.

Most coaching is supported by a questioning framework. I devised the coaching ARROW and although this comes with a wide range of sample questions, it can be boiled down to five:

A – Aims – What do you want?

R – Reality – What’s happening now?

R – Reflection – How big is the gap?

O – Options – What could you do?

W – Way Forward – What will you do?

These five simple questions give us an opportunity to coach at great speed. On their own they will not create fundamental change or improvement but they will create focus and mobility. These being, in my view, the desired outcomes of any coaching conversation in a work context. Let’s say you had a colleague about to make an important business pitch and you wanted to add a little coaching to the conversation. Asking ‘What do you want?’ could really get them focused on a positive outcome and ready to bring it about. It’s not dissimilar to an athlete mentally rehearsing the race in their mind as they settle into the blocks. Imagine, talking to another colleague who had just returned from a meeting that had gone spectacularly well, but they were unsure why. Exploring ‘What’s happening now?’ immediately afterwards could really bring some insight and learning to bear.

You’ll find that when your people become used to being coached in this way they’ll come with Aims, Reality, Reflection and Options already thought through. They just want to check things out with us and get some ‘permission’ from us for the way forward.

I think of this technique as Martini coaching: ‘Anytime. Anyplace. Anywhere’ I have taught the technique to managers who hardly ever see their team, but can still do some good coaching around the coffee machine, in the lift or on a car journey. Another tip is to self-coach before you settle down to tackle an important task by having the questions on a small card and working through them. It’s okay to go for the formal setting for the major converations, but never underestimate the usefulness of a quick, but focused conversation in the moment when it’s needed.

Coaching proves to be one of the most essential components of our lives right from the day that we become aware of the environment surrounding us. Coaching is very essential for the normal growth of the child. Coaching for growth will also apply to an individual who wants to grow in his career and also for the business organization itself that wants to expand beyond the national boundaries of their country.

Coaching normally refers to the various forms of guiding, questioning, and mentoring, and is not to be confused with the more directional forms of , training and showing the correct path an individual or a group of individuals can take to achieve their goals and develop the specific skills to perform well. Coaching for growth may include personal coaching which involves one to one discussions and conversations or workshops, seminars and even presentations.( however in a non directional format) Coaching for growth in business is normally done by coaches who have specialized skills and experience working with executives and teams in order to help to improve quality, efficiency and increase knowledge.

Coaching for growth may also include personality development which helps to develop your overall personality in terms of how you carry yourself and present yourself to the world at large. You should remember that it is the impression that you create on other people that will bring you recognitions and rewards.

Coaching for growth in case of the child is normally imparted by the parents and once the child enters a particular school, the major part of coaching is undertaken by the teacher. Hence whatever the child learns during the initial stages of his life goes a long way in what he will become in the later stages of his life.

Coming back to coaching for the growth of businesses, coaching is required by all serious business organizations to run their business successfully by implementing the best and most cost effective method and strategies. Many business coaches will also help to draft a business plan after studying the type of business the organization has undertaken. Drafting of business strategies from the short term and long term of view also becomes very important. Drafting the strategies is just half the job done. It is necessary to carry out tasks that you have planned before hand. There is a huge difference between a business coach and a consultant, as a business coach helps us understand the basics of overall business while a consultant is equipped to provide advice in detail for a certain area of business.

Coaching for growth follows a certain process of ascertaining things in the present and then preparing a process of inquiry, analysis and resolution to finish tasks. The whole approach of coaching for growth is to improvise the existing methods and techniques to achieve your goals in the best way you can. Coaching stresses a lot on team work as it is the cumulative efforts of all the members of the team to carry out tasks at a brisk pace. Results under team effort are better and quicker. Coaching is necessary to analyze the current situation and follow a course of action to achieve the desired goals. However the person does not have to accept all advice of the coach. In fact if the truth be known, coaches do not give advice at all.

They used in depth, laser like and focused questions in order to elicit the correct answer from the client.

On the rare occasion when coach is asked to give direct guidance, he may do so in the form of the mentor. The client of course is free to reject any such advice.

In the end, coaching for growth stresses on mutual understanding within a team and amongst all the members to work towards a common goal. Coaching starts from the bottom working with each associate to make them realize their potential and using it to achieve incredible results.

Written by Gerard O’Donovan Founder of Noble Manhattan coaching Ltd

Free Coaching Reports at

www.coaching-reports.com

http://www.noble-manhattan.com

Europe’s leading executive coach

http://www.gerardodonovan.com

In order to live a full and complete life, we must learn how to let go of past failures and disappointments and not carry them with us into our future. Self Improvement : Hanging on to pain, bitterness and disappointment from a past conflict is a heavy burden. It affects your moods, attitudes, relationships, job and all aspects of your life. Negativity eats away at your self-esteem and destroys any possibility of a life free from pain. Fortunately, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel! Your future doesn’t have to be a repetition of your past. You don’t need to be destined to a life of pain, regardless of what you’ve already been through. You can lay down your burdens. It’s okay for you to be free. In fact, you deserve it! These five steps will help you move forward and find the freedom you need to begin living a fuller, more enjoyable life, regardless of what lies in your past: 1. Talk about it. Discuss your past pain, fear, disappointment or trauma with a trusted friend or family member. Fully express the feelings associated with the situation: cry, scream, or do whatever you need to do to release the bottled up emotions in a safe way.

• Self Improvement Until you really talk about the feelings connected to your past, you may not be able to move past them. Once you’ve spoken the words, release them from your mind forever. As hard as it may be, it’s the only way to free yourself from your past. 2. Use a journal. Writing in a journal is an excellent way to pour out your pain. A journal offers the safety of knowing your words are just for you and won’t be read by anyone else. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar, or even if the words follow a logical progression, simply write from the heart.

• Self Improvement Physically writing your thoughts and feelings can release your emotions so you can move past them. 3. Seek forgiveness. Many people misunderstand the meaning of forgiveness. Forgiveness doesn’t mean what happened to you is unimportant or you’re saying it’s “okay.” In fact, forgiveness isn’t about the other person at all. Forgiveness simply means that you’ve made the choice to let go of the desire to exact revenge and punishment, and you’ve found closure within your heart and soul.

• Self Improvement Forgiveness releases you from the burden of carrying the pain any longer. By choosing to forgive, you can stop thinking about the past so it won’t control your future. 4. Seek professional guidance. You can choose to get help from a life coach or therapist. The people closest to us aren’t always the best choice to help us work through our pain. It may be difficult for us to fully open up about our deepest pain or it may be hard for them to step back far enough to help us through it.

Read More ->http://selfs-improvement.blogspot.com/2009/08/self-improvement-let-go-of-your-past.html

This article will outline a plan that will help you find what is important to you-and how to move in the direction of success. Personal development helps you maximize your potential in every area of your life. If you want to identify areas in your life, set goals and achieve them, follow the outline below.

First, it is important to determine the key areas that need development. This will require that you take some time to really reflect on your life: what are your dreams, goals and aspirations? Write down the top five key areas in your life that mean the most to you. Once you know what is important- you can determine if there is anything standing in your way of improving in those areas. Ask yourself: is there any room for improvement in this area? What is standing in my way of improving in this area? For example: if one of your top five goals is enjoying your occupation, make a list of what is preventing you from your enjoyment: is it the actual work? Is it the fact that you do not actually know what you want to do-you lack focus? Or is it that it just takes too much time away from your family? The answers to the questions will help you realize areas for personal development. I would suggest making a list of the areas of key improvement (top five) and keep it handy so you can refer back to it.

Now that you have identified the area for improvement, find local resources that may assist you in developing in each of the areas that you have identified. Resources can be found in books, in on-line articles, blogs, tapes, seminars, workshops, etc. The important thing is that you identify at least one resource for each key area of improvement and that it is realistic that you will utilize the resource. Personal development is one of the world’s fastest growing industries, so you should have no difficulty in identifying and listing your resources.

From the resources you have found, select one or two of your key areas and write out a growth plan. This can be done on your own using your resources, or can be done by consulting a life coach or personal development professional. It is important to develop a plan that has very specific steps that are simple to follow and detailed enough to complete. Nothing feels better than being able to see progress toward your goal than actually seeing check marks next to tasks that are needed to finish a project or a plan.

The next step is the step that makes the biggest difference in your personal development and is also the step that is most neglected: set aside one hour a day to dedicate to your personal development. This does not have to be an hour all at one time. Setting time aside in the morning and in the evening–or even on your lunch hour will work, but it takes commitment. This is the time that you will be implementing your growth plan or completing a step from above. It can also be used for reflecting and reading in the area for your development.

Finally, find a mentor or a group of individuals that you can build relationships with that are also on the same path of development. This can help you grow more quickly than any other resource you may find and utilize. Relationships with other like-minded people can bring support and guidance that is beyond anything you could ever do on your own.

Be sure to apply all that you learn. Learning is only meaningful through the use of the knowledge in your life. The key is to take action. New behaviors create new results and new successes, whereas knowledge only increases your pride and doesn’t change your life. If you are looking to change your life, take a step-determine where you can apply your newly found information-and practice it. It really IS that simple.

What has jolted your life awake? For some people it is being laid off from a job, divorce, or having a baby. For some it is moving to a new community. For some people it is illness.
Illness has been my recent wake up call! When illness crept into my life, it came with intense physical pain that slammed me to the ground. I went into pure resistance. “This can’t happen to me, I am too positive of a person.” Was I ever in for a surprise. After some time of pushing against a huge invisible wall of denial, along came some old friends: the victim, the martyr, the critic, the whiner, the judge. You name it, they all came. For a time they all came at once and had a party!
One morning, after one of these parties, I realized that I had some choices to make. I decided to shift my perspective on all levels. At first, I read a bunch of books and tried to be “the perfect” ill person. This meant the repression of all who attended my parties, which of course made these folks bigger and stronger. “I can’t even do illness right!” I said to myself.
Ahhh, the victim, loud and clear! After some exhausting inner battles, I noticed that I hadn’t shifted anything at all! Since I am an optimist by nature and a coach by profession I began to use the tools that I knew. I continued reading and used only the information that deeply resonated with me. I began to notice what was working in my life and was surprised to see that much of my life was in balance. I had awesome kids, a nurturing relationship with my spouse, and wonderful friends, etc.
Then, I focused on what was draining my energy. This was challenging. I had to ask for help. Not an easy thing for someone who had based their self worth on doing it all alone! Ahhh, and there was the martyr! So, after some minor sabotaging from the martyr, I began to ask for help. The amazing thing was that my family responded positively. Yes, even my teenage sons! Asking for help turned up the volume of my inner being. I began asking “What do I need right now?” and “What do I want?” I began listening closely.
As I listened to my body and followed through with what I needed, I began to experience a deep trust in myself. I did know what I needed. My body had been telling me the whole time. I just had stopped listening! As I listened to my body, I began to notice more and more of what inspired me. I gave myself permission to redefine wellness. I gave myself permission to find the gift my body was giving me. I gave myself permission to completely change how I was living my life. I began to celebrate, to play, to explore being in joy. I expressed this celebration in variety of ways; through art, journaling, in how I communicated, etc.
I am continuing in my healing process. Some days are better than others. Most days are awesome. I continue to create my life through listening, trusting and taking action from inspiration. Life coaching sometimes helps to turn up the volume of our own inner beings. This allows the inner being become our own guide in creating truly incredible lives, no matter what has jolted us awake. Perhaps, explore what coaching can do for your life!

Coaching is not an exact science but rather an art form. Life and business coaching have come increasingly into vogue in the past decade and the benefits that arise from such coaching are derived from the skill of the coach and his or her ability to develop and ask well-targeted questions that open up new possibilities for the client.

The first person you communicate with is yourself. To improve your life, you must start by improving your communication with yourself. Many people are unable to do this without some help and hence the evolution of the Life Coach, who has a major part to play in helping individuals communicate better with themselves.

The quality of your life flows from the quality of your communication. The quality of your communication determines the results you get. If you wish to improve your life, or the life of a client, you must improve the results you achieve. How do you improve the results? You do this by improving your communication. How do you improve your communication? You do this by improving the questions you ask of yourself or your client.

If you were to consider the following question what would your answer be? “What is the one thing I could do, that if I did it, would improve my life going forward?”

This question seems simple yet it is very difficult for some people to answer. To help people get beyond this, the writer has developed a set of effective questions to overcome this difficulty.

The questioning technique goes under the acronym “I GROW SMART”.

I stands for Issue Identification

G stands for Goal Setting

R stands for Reality Check

O stands for Options

W stands for Will to Execute

S stands for a simple Specific statement

M stands for Meaningful, measurable and met with determination

A stands for Achievable from the client’s perspective and includes specific Actions

R stands for Realistic and within the capabilities of the individual

T stands for Timeframe with an agreed date and time of completion

This very famous quote personifies the role and challenges facing all Life Coaches: “In oneself lies the whole world, and if you know how to look and learn, then the door is there and the key is in your head. Nobody on earth can give you either that key or the door to open, except yourself.” Krishnamurti

What this quote is saying, is that the answers are within the person. The difficulty is in fact in getting the answers out of the person. Asking effective questions will release the valve that allows the answers to flow from the client in a voyage of self discovery.

You, the coach are simply the conduit that facilitates this expunging of self-knowledge by your client

and ultimately the garnering of life changing focus and self actualization. Questions are the keys to helping yourself and helping other people explore answers and get successful outcomes.

Everybody is talking about coaching these days, but what does it mean? Isn’t it what football managers do? Well it might be, but these days football managers seem to have an army of separate defence coaches goalkeeping coaches and so on, so that’s not a helpful comparison. Perhaps you’ve seen a Life Coach on daytime TV or read a life coaching, self-help type book. There might be a useful definition to be extrapolated from life coaching, but in a business context we’ve rarely the time or the expertise to delve into personal, lifestyle issues. Becoming a manager who coaches must require us to use coaching in a very different context.
Before we can begin to develop our coaching skills we must have a clear understanding of precisely what coaching is, but this is not as easy as it may seem. Coaching is an emerging area of Human Resource Development (HRD), it draws upon a very wide range of influences from psychotherapy to sport and is continually evolving. We must arrive at a working definition which helps you to recognize exactly what coaching is and what it isn’t and how you can weave coaching into your existing set of management skills.
I will not be inviting you to discard what you already know about managing people, but I do hope to offer concepts and techniques that give you fresh options and new ideas when things seem difficult or the going gets tough. Similarly, I hope to illustrate how you can take your team’s development to new heights, in the words of one of my course participants:
“I’ve turned to coaching because I’ve taught them all I know, but I know they’re still capable of more”
Coaching defined
My little Collins English Dictionary defines the verb to coach as ‘to instruct by private tutoring, to instruct and train, to act as a coach’. This is too loose a definition to be useful, and is contaminated by references to training and instructing which might prove confusing as we’ll see later on.
Let’s instead turn to a couple of well known writers in the coaching field for their views:
“Unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their performance” John Whitmore
From this definition we can see that coaching is an activity designed to help improve someone else’s performance. A comparison can be drawn with the world of sport, where coaches try to get the best out of their team without actually being on the field of play. In modern organizations, coaching must also involve turning work situations into learning opportunities as this is increasingly seen as an important part of what it is to manage.
“Developing a person’s skills and knowledge so that their job performance improves, hopefully leading to achievement of organizational objectives. It targets high performance and improvement at work, although it may have an impact on an individual’s private life. It usually lasts for a short period and focuses on specific skills and goals” Jessica Jarvis
Some definitions suggest that coaching is purely the support and guidance provided for individuals to enable them to apply their existing skills more effectively and thus improve their job performance at work, but most include the learning theme by suggesting that coaching aims to enhance the performance and learning ability of people at the same time. A good number of definitions cite techniques such as motivation, effective questioning and deliberately matching our management style to the coachee’s (person being coached) readiness to perform a particular task. We can conclude that coaching is based on helping coachees to help themselves, but that it does not rely on a one-way flow of telling and instructing.
It appears that coaching is a means of systematically increasing the capability and performance of people at work by exposing them to work based tasks or experiences that will provide relevant learning opportunities, and ensuring that this learning is available to them later on. It is about performing and learning.
As far as the learning part is concerned coaching is very different from teaching or instructing. The coach encourages people to learn for themselves; the coach usually takes a ‘back seat’ role, while still being able to give guidance and help when people really need it. Coaches help their teams to regularly review experiences so that they understand what has been learned.
It seems there is no universally accepted definition of the term coaching and, as described below, when it is placed alongside other ways of developing people an exact definition becomes even trickier.
However, a synthesis of the numerous definitions out there identifies three elements that can constitute a working definition for further exploration:
Coach and coachee establish a relationship based on trust that has the intention of improving the coachee’s performance at work
Coaching thus becomes a process that is centered on the coachee but focused on performance
Coaching is a learnt skill and an essential element of the managerial role in these changing times