Articles for coaches
Explore our insightful articles and discover their relevance to you
Check your thinking with the Ladder of Inference
We wouldn’t be human if we didn’t jump to conclusions. But when we test our assumptions beforehand, we can make better decisions, avoid unconscious biases, and adjust our initial reactions. Chris Argyris’ Ladder of Inference provides a structure to do this, making it a useful resource for anyone, especially mentors, managers and coaches.
The magical powers of dyslexic people – And how to inspire them
This is dyslexia, a learning difficulty affecting around 10-15% of us of every age, from every background and every culture. While it can cause distress, it can also be enormously positive.
Uncovering unconscious bias – developing greater awareness
These days the workplace is all about inclusive leadership and management. It is also about mentoring and coaching in a way that fosters mutual understanding and respect, plus inclusive behaviours.
Temple Grandin rates mentors super-high – Here’s why
Temple Grandin was diagnosed with autism as a child. She thinks in pictures, a novel way to solve problems in a way that isn’t accessible to people with neurotypical brains.
About neurodiversity – how it adds value
We’re all different. Every one of us is unique. Here, we explore the term neurodiversity and reveal why it’s so important to be aware of it in the workplace.
The risks of confirmation bias – and how to avoid it
Which coaches, managers and leaders are at risk of confirmation bias? Basically, all of us. Confirmation bias is horribly easy to fall into. It can cloud anyone’s judgement. And it’s wise to know about it so you can keep your thinking clear. Here’s what you need to know
Discover Patsy Rodenburg’s take on Presence
It’s all about circles. Patsy Rodenberg’s take on Presence helps leaders be present in the moment and stay fully engaged with the ‘now’. Let’s explore.
Brené Brown’s Rising Strong – How to fall, learn from failure and bravely stand again
The American researcher and internet phenomenon Brené Brown’s popular book, Daring Greatly, explores the importance of not giving up. Her ideas are inspired by a speech by Teddy Roosevelt, Citizenship in a Republic, delivered at the Sorbonne in Paris way back in 1910. You can read it at the end of this post.
Discover the power of single, double and triple loop learning
We are creatures of habit, so learning and change can be a tricky thing to drive. Some kinds of change are harder to implement than others. Single, double and triple loop learning, as defined by Argyris & Schön in 1974 can be a helpful way of understanding how we become stuck, and why, when, and how transformational learning is more likely to occur.
Live more freely with Virginia Satir’s Five Freedoms
Virginia Satir was an influential American author and psychotherapist, respected for her innovative approach to family therapy during from the 1950s onwards. Her pioneering work led to her nickname, the Mother of Family Therapy.
Introducing our Transformational Narrative Coaching book – the power of story
Human beings have always told stories. In the beginning, we huddled around campfires. These days we huddle around the TV, mobile or computer, in pubs and restaurants, at home and at work, to create and consume the stories of our lives, other people's lives, businesses and the media.
Harness Virginia Satir’s Change Curve to lead change better
Change can make a lot of us feel very uncomfortable. We can find ourselves lost in the midst of change, unsure how to move forwards, worried about the results and implications of doing things differently. Some people are so reluctant to change that it can cause real problems. As a coach, manager or mentor, change is something you’ll to support people with.
The importance of presence in coaching
What is ‘presence’ in coaching? It can be hard to define, although when you are with a coach with real presence, you sense it immediately. A coach with genuine presence is highly self-aware and they are mentally, and emotionally present. They have an open, flexible, grounded and confident style. There are interested and focused upon their client.
Self-Determination Theory – The Energy of Action
Self-Determination Theory (SDT) has made a significant impact to field of study of human motivation. SDT added a more multi-faceted understanding of motivation. This approach can be used to better understand yourself and others.
Covey’s Circle of Concern and Influence
Have you heard of Stephen Covey’s Circle of Concern and Influence? It’s extremely useful for coaches and managers, a powerful model to apply to both individuals and teams. So, what’s it all about, and how might it help you survive those downward mood spirals that sometimes hit a group of people, then spread out more widely to others?
Sparking Creativity by Joining the Dots – Part 3
In this blog, I take a closer look at the idea of creativity being seen as a process of ‘joining-the-dots’ and how this idea links to what we know about both individual and group creativity. And how you can use this understanding to bring creativity into your world.
The Scarf Model – David Rock’s take on social threats and rewards
You’re a business manager, leader, change agent, mentor, or coach. Your working life is all about having significant conversations that encourage collaboration, and a big part of that is influencing others. It’s a constant challenge.
Seligman’s PERMA Model of Well-being – applying it within your coaching…
Martin Seligman’s PERMA Model of Well-being can be a useful concept to apply to your own life and work, as well as within in a coaching context. It can provide a framework that you can use with your clients to calibrate more positive emotion, meaning and purpose in their lives.
Minimalism – when less can equal more
What exactly is minimalism and the benefits it has to offer? Essentially, it is all about how less can really be more. The original minimalist movement is recognised as first beginning in the art world. Emerging out of New York City, in the late 1960s.
Charting our way through the storm – Part 1
You will probably be familiar with the following famous quote, shared at the beginning on the COVID-19 pandemic. “We are not all in the same boat. We are all in the same storm. Some are on super-yachts. Some have just one oar.”
Post-traumatic growth (PTG) on the horizon – Part 2
I described the experience as a ‘collective trauma’, no matter which boat you journeyed in. Here, I explore what it means to describe the COVID-19 pandemic in these terms, exploring the lesser talked about side of trauma: Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG).
The Paradox of Luck – Part 1
What are the chances of you existing at all? This was the question that Ali Binazir, the critically acclaimed author and self-described ‘Happiness Engineer’ asked himself. The answer he arrived at: 1 in 102,685,000. Or 10 followed by 2,685,000 zeroes.
Maximising return on luck – Part 2
In this blog, I take a closer look at what Jim Collins and Morten Hansen, the American researchers, authors, and consultants have contributed towards our understanding of luck. Then in turn, how we can apply this understanding to recent events related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Adopting A Lucky Perspective – Part 3
In this blog, I will take a closer look at examples I have already touched upon in the last two blogs, to help us understand and shape events before they happen in the future.
Solution Circles – Harnessing Group Creativity
Solution-focused approaches to coaching advocate that people are inherently resourceful and creative. It therefore stands to reason that, under the right conditions if we can facilitate groups effectively and in a collaborative way, the potential for even better ideas and outcomes will follow.
Challenging your ‘Righting Reflex’ in coaching – the trap of offering your own solutions
As coaches we want to make a difference. We want to see our clients grow and develop. We are motivated to see clients become unstuck, to achieve their goals and be successful. Sometimes subtly though, our great intentions can go awry.
Help – I’m in a Double Bind and it’s Holding Me Back!
Does this sound familiar? On the outside, to a casual observer, it looks very much like you're committed to that goal, dedicated to bringing about that change, determined to crack that habit.
Want to try something new? Test it with an experiment
We don’t tend to see the world as it really is. We filter the things we see and learn based on our feelings, experiences, beliefs and priorities.
The power of visual storytelling in a digital age
Michael and Jack Whitehall are an unlikely double-act - a father and son duo. In their talk-show, Backchat, and with their recent travel shows, Travels with my Father, they constantly, repeatedly miss each others’ point. Their humour is based on the fact that Michael aged 79 and Jack aged 29 live in the same world but also inhabit totally different worlds. Their assumptions, their beliefs, the things they value are at total variance with each other.
Affirming our differences – What’s your label?
In today’s complex, fluid world, many of us define ourselves by just one or two aspects of our identity. These identity-defining aspects are very important to us, and when we become invested in them that investment often takes the form of very strong emotions.
Working Intergenerationally – Coaching across the ages
Whether you’re looking to change career, enhance your coaching skills, manage people better or lead like a true professional, the general themes behind inter-generational coaching remain the same.
Gestalt Coaching – greater awareness, greater choices
Awareness is a vital part of the foundation on which Gestalt coaching sits, a core principle underpinning it. As a coach, awareness is the backbone of your practice - awareness of yourself, others and the contexts or systems you and they are operating in.
Coaching and mentoring intergenerationally – when you were born matters!
In business it’s our USP, our Unique Selling Point, how we distinguish ourselves from everyone else, that makes us different, that makes us special. That’s why people want to buy from us. Our brand is what makes us distinctive. Our USP is the very thing that makes us what we are, our ‘thisness’.
Team Building Chatbots – The Future of Executive Coaching?
As recently reported in New Scientist magazine, innovative chatbot software created by London HR company Saberr is helping team members communicate better. Called CoachBot, it assesses workplace dynamics, 'listens' to people's complaints and puts forward ways to help make teams more productive.
Body Language and Coaching – Going Right to the Heart
Body language sits at the heart of great coaching. How well do you listen to your clients' body language, and your own? Find out all about it...
Context counts – Listening with your client’s system in mind
The best executive coaches listen with their clients' systems firmly in mind. Here's why systems are so important in a coaching landscape.
Listening and the power of silence – Why stillness matters
Two types of stillness, two kinds of silence. Here's how the best executive coaches harness quiet to help their clients find insight and inspiration.
Are your coaching clients trapped by their own language?
Un-stick someone's language traps and you can change their working lives for the better. And it's often a dramatic improvement. Here's how.
The different dimensions of listening
People frequently talk about levels of listening as if listening is a set of logical steps that you can access one after the other. Sometimes listening is compared to driving from first to fifth gear then back down again, occasionally back tracking and moving into reverse!
Do you harness sensory languages with your coaching clients?
Being aware of sensory languages makes you a much better, more perceptive executive coach. Here's what you need to know about them.
Listening to your clients – Giving people space to think
Listening is the most obvious skill that executive coaches offer clients. It's really important, as an executive coach, to acquire top class listening skills.
As a coach, how good are you at listening to your inner dialogue?
One of your most valuable skills, as an executive coach, is listening to yourself. It helps you hear your clients better and delivers significant results.
Why Curiosity is an Executive Coach’s Best Friend
The best Executive Coaches are naturally curious, and they are also excellent listeners. It is a powerful combination – find out more about curiosity here.
Golden threads in coaching
There is power in simplicity. If you can articulate the core principles in a way that others can quickly grasp, it makes running a coaching practice so much easier.
Taking humour seriously in business coaching
Humour can be a surprisingly powerful intervention and source of learning within a strong business coaching relationship. It rarely, however, seems to be given much air time on coaching courses.
The power of metaphor in executive coaching
Awareness of metaphors in coaching conversations and understanding how to explore these with clients provides a powerful way of working for any executive coach.
Coaching and organisations – the metaphorical dimension
As executive coaches, listening out for the ways in which clients use metaphors in their business systems, can provide valuable insight. It gives information, data that can be drawn up to the surface of their thinking and evaluated, kept or changed.
Signature presence
Executive coaching as a profession is growing rapidly. How coaches position themselves is becoming increasingly important. Coaches need to be able to communicate their distinctiveness and what they offer confidently and succinctly.
Coaching is all Greek to me
Many people think coaching is easy. After all, doesn’t it just involve waiting for the person you’re coaching to arrive at their own answers? However to be the kind of coach that makes it look effortless, you first need...
