101 Coaching Strategies and Techniques

Gladeana McMahon, Anne Archer, Gladeana McMahon, Anne Archer

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780415473330
• eBook ISBN: 9781136990397
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology
• Index: Psychology

101 Coaching Strategies and Techniques provides focused, practical strategies to help the coach with their work. Each point provides a detailed explanation of the strategy together with potential pitfalls and solutions.

Contributors from a range of coaching backgrounds are brought together to cover a number of issues faced by professional coaches including:

• confidence building
• developing specific skills and strategies
• group coaching
• problem solving and creativity
• self awareness
• the stuck client.

101 Coaching Strategies and Techniques will be a handy reference tool for busy coaches; the bite-sized strategies will also provide a useful guide for those in training.

H
Self awareness

63
A life of choice?

Aidan Tod

Purpose

This strategy helps a client to ensure they have made or are making a good career choice.

Description

We can meet clients who appear stressed and unhappy in their current role. They may be complaining of having no work/life balance. Often they express having little enthusiasm and low energy. This may indicate that they are ready for a choice point in their career. It can be helpful for the client to explore the original reasons for going into their chosen career, the strengths and capabilities they have and their hopes and dreams. The outcome of this focus is greater clarity about career choice and easier movement to action.

Process

The process starts by asking the client to think about how they chose their career. Were they influenced by family members, teachers at school? It is common to hear the client say things like ‘I always wanted to be a …’ or ‘I never wanted to be a …’ or ‘My father/uncle/sister was a [xxx] and I was expected to follow’. It is helpful to focus on their feelings at different stages of their career – good and bad. Ask the client to think about what they would like to have done. Explore this and help them understand what is fuelling this idea. What is their dream now? What would be the craziest career choice today? Encourage the client to be bold and creative. It will enable you to see where the passions and energies for this individual are. Pick up on those when you notice them and play them back to the client. Once the client has offered some alternatives it can be helpful to explore what of the current role is enjoyed now. What aspects are least enjoyed? What strengths does the individual have?

The final stage is to help the client to make some choices about actions to take. It is usual for them to have identified what it is about the current role that they are unhappy about and how they would prefer to be spending their energy. You can then help them to take some actions steps towards the role they would choose. A key for you as coach is to notice when the client’s energy goes up as this is usually when they are thinking or imagining something important.

Pitfalls

None.

64
Articulating own goals, developing goal-setting strategies

Gill Dickers

Purpose

A learning contract enables course participants to use a goal-setting strategy, and to articulate and plan their own goals.

Description

Participants are encouraged to think about their goals for a training course, or programme of study and to coach each other. The framework for the session and the learning contract is based on Whitmore’s (2002) GROW model. Participants are encouraged to ask open-ended questions, to listen and not advise. The session is interactive, allowing students to discuss the learning contract template and co-coach each other. It lasts about 90 minutes. Participants may focus on short-term goals (for example, time management), medium-term goals (for example, a placement proposal) or long-term goals (for example, a dissertation). The learning contract can form the basis of a future coaching discussion with a tutor or trainer. Materials required are copies of the learning contract template.

Process

Encourage the participants to use the following template, and, if this is helpful, explain the purpose of each section.

Learning contract

A Learning Contract will help you to:

• be positive about your knowledge, skills and values

• specify what your goals for learning are

• establish when and how you will achieve these

• articulate what resources and support you need to achieve your goals.

1 Goals

(a) What are my main goals for this course, or this year? (e.g. to pass the course with an upper second, to achieve the learning outcomes, to enjoy myself)

2 Reality

(a) What skills and strengths do I have? (e.g. I am independent, as I travelled to India in my gap year; I am caring, as I look after my grandmother; I am bright, as I passed my degree)

(b) What have I done and considered so far? (e.g. I have joined the library and learned how to get web access and e-journals; I have bought a wall planner)

3 Options

(a) What options do I have? (e.g. get the books from the library for my first assignment; make a space to study in my house; join a sports club)

(b) What obstacles stand in my way? (e.g. tiredness, laziness, fear of getting things wrong)

(c) How will I deal with these obstacles? (e.g. make sure I eat and sleep properly; remind myself why I am here; I want to be a Vet; have a go at everything; I know I can do it)

4 What? When? Will?

(a) What are my target dates for these long-term goals? (e.g. an upper second degree in July 2013)

(b) Are there any short-term, medium-term goals on the way? (e.g. yes, success in all my assignments)

(c) What support and resources do I need? (e.g. tutors, library support staff, friends and family)

(d) When will I get access to these? (e.g. plan a meeting with my tutor)

(e) What will I feel like when I achieve the goals? (e.g. relieved)

(f) What single step will I take towards these goals? (e.g. email my tutor and ask for a meeting)

(g) When will I take the steps? (e.g. today at 4 pm)

(h) How committed am I, on a scale of 1–10? (e.g. 10!)

Signed

Date

Pitfalls

Some people may not respond well to being asked to plan, preferring to take a more relaxed approach to life and studies.

Bibliography

Whitmore, J. (2002) Coaching for Performance (2nd edition), London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing.

65
Career MOT

Diana Hogbin-Mills

Purpose

This exercise delivers prioritized insights into what motivates a client in their career and what gives them workplace satisfaction. As a result, they can clearly identify what they need to focus on to re-energize their careers. A client will gain a thorough and conscious understanding of what makes them tick, how well they are maximizing their workplace satisfaction and how they can increase it.

Description

This exercise helps a client to run an MOT on their career to find out how much energy they are leaking from their engine. The exercise surfaces emotional factors that can have a powerful impact on career decision-making. Clients probably know they exist but they’re often not consciously stated or acknowledged and therefore not fully used.

Process

1 Create a template using a piece of A4 paper or bigger and turn it so that looking at it the longest edge is at the bottom. Divide the page into four by folding the page into half, then half again. This will cre...

Table of contents

• Essential Coaching Skills and Knowledge
• Contents
• List of figures and tables
• List of Contributors
• Introduction
• A Confidence building
• B Developing as a coach
• C Developing specific skills and strategies
• D Focusing on the future
• E Group coaching
• F Problem solving and creativity
• G Relationships
• H Self awareness
• I When a client gets stuck
• The future
• Additional reading materials