growasacoach

The Evolution of Peer Coaching - Learning from school practice

Interesting reading this article by Beverly Showers and Bruce Joyce on The Evolution of Peer Coaching from 2005 that I came across today.

Showers and Joyce have been working on how peer coaching programs can enhance the implementation of learning when educators attend training programs.

Coaching or Counselling - a Practical Expert View from Janet Slack

It's been one of the great pleasures of getting on twitter that I have been building relationships with other coaches.  One of these is the very lovely Janet Slack @janetslack

Janet and I found out that although we are an ocean apart in practical terms, in terms of our audience and values we have some very similar thoughts!  One thing Janet does have that I don't is a background in counselling as well as coaching.  As this can be one element which can be confusing, when you are considering whether to be a coach, and then again when you are developing as a coach, I thought I'd get her to share her perspective.

3 ways to make the most of reading marketing/ business/ coaching books

I don't know about you but I have found recently that I have just a ton of books that...

...sit on my shelf ready for me to read.

...and sit...

...and sit....

It's like I think that they are going to jump off the shelf themselves and help me to learn and take action!  As most coaches I know have a full shelf of books I wanted to put together some ideas, following from my post on my newsletter about making the most of things we have already invested in - low and no cost ways of learning. (By the way - want to receive these all the time - use the links on the side of this blog to sign up for Lessons for Life)

So onto my tips to make the most of your book investment...

Start of Core Coaching Series: Coaching Ethics and Standards

The International Coach Federation has 11 Core Competencies: as The Coaches Coach I am going to support coaches out in the blogosphere by working through a competency a month and then reviewing in December with an overview.

As they said in the Sounds of Music, "Let's start at the Beginning, a very good place to start"...

The first of the ICF Core Competencies is Coaching Ethics and Standards.  What I'll be doing throughout January is posting a series of thoughts, questions, ideas and generally thoughts to help you develop more of an idea of how you can develop your understanding of Ethics and Standards and how you apply these in your Coaching Business and the work you do with your Coaching Clients.

Coaching past the monsters in the closet - what questions?

I was asked recently by a reader about what questions work when coaching someone who is scared to do something, and what questions work to find out what they are scared of, and not to be scared, and also what questions work to get them moving again when they are in "can't" mode.

Where do you go when you have a coachee with any of the issues above?

Monday 24th is celebrate your unique talent day

Monday 24^th November is Celebrate your Unique Talent Day.

Now, it’s interesting that although I have seen this posted in several places as a day, when I googled it I can’t find anything about how it started or what others do to celebrate!  So, regardless I am going to share as I think it’s a great theme to get thinking about.

I had a look on the trial edition of visual thesaurus and the words most naturally linked through to talents were natural endowments, gifts and endowments, leading through to expert. This is one of the reasons I always work with new people from Strengthsfinder as a profile.  I have a strong belief that if as coaches we are able to access what we love to do, what we are great at already, and remember all those places we are great, find the work easy, then it’s a lot smoother – and more attractive road, to success than concentrating on all the many things we don’t know how to do yet. Sure, we will always have learning to do – and those of you who know me well know I place a huge importance on professional development and life long learning. I’m just saying – start from what comes easily because it’s a talent, its part of what makes you, you.  As the fabulous Edna at The Coaching Supervision Academy says, who you are is how you coach.

 Tips to bring out your special talents to air

1.  Complete a profile like Strengthsfinder which you can do when you get the book. If you sign up for one to one coaching, we do a full review of how this fits with your vision of who you are as a coach and how you can bring this into your coaching practice.  Book is available on Amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Strengthsfinder-2-0-Upgraded-Discover-Strengths/dp/159562015X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227258480&sr=8-1

Contact me to find out about one to one coaching and/ or supervision claire@growasacoach.com

2.  Ask other people what they see your unique talents as. Not only will it give you a buzz, often people see things that we can’t see because of our belief systems.  How about asking your clients what unique value you add to them?  Want to tell me if I add unique value and what my talent is?  Drop me a mail at claire@growasacoach.com

3.  Review your coaching testimonials and themes that come up again and again as the places in calls where you added most value.  These are likely to be part of your key talent and gift in the way you coach.

4.  Widen the search to think about what your other unique talents are and how you use them in life.  Are you celebrating them enough? I’ll be asking you if you would like to share what your unique talents are as part of celebrate your unique talent day, in a further email on Monday.  Both coaching and life talents – they all add up to make the unique picture that is you.

5.  Once you’ve thought about what your unique set of talents are you can think about how you use them.  Are you placing them freely in the way you live your life and run your business?  What’s stopping you if not?  How about making a commit to trying one action a week which will help you manifest your talent and make use of it?

How do you get out of auto mode?

For my birthday I had a big, shiny new DSLR camera.

Which I wanted, so that I could take better pictures & be able to choose different settings.

And....I've had it for 3 months and only used auto mode!

It's only been since Sunday I've been able to start using manual mode & getting more from my camera.  What made the difference?

What would that do for you?

Another in the series of questions that can help you move you and your clients forwards.

What would (getting what you want) do for you?

Sound & Silence

I blessed this evening to attend an evening at Alternatives, a group at St James’ Church Picadilly. I’d heard of the church, and the group several times in the quest for self development, however being based “up north” I’d never managed to translate this into a visit. And yet a few weeks ago we were wandering, meandering about in London, not thinking about work, spirituality or coaching at all, and there was a sign – and there was the church! And so to the program and hence to tonight’s visit!

 

The program was celebrating sound and silence. Singer and songwriter Kirtana with poetry from Andy Cooney. 

 

Sound. 

And.

Silence.

"I am..."

Ok. Not so much of a question as a statement.

As a coach, how could you use this?

When I think about clients setting out on projects, or creating their vision, "I am" is a real statement about what they want.  How they feel.

"If you were to create a statement of intent around this goal, what would it be?  A good way to state this intent is with "I am..."