Ontological coaching Ontological coaching is a non-directive process for helping people work out: The word ontology means “study of being”. The theories underpinning this approach to coaching were derived from combining studies in the use of language with biological studies into the nature of cognition (learning from our environment). The pioneers of this work are (more…)
The term performance coaching refers to coaching approaches that focus on very specific improvements. These may be in sports (e.g. shaving a few seconds off a down-hill ski run) or in work (e.g. achieving higher sales, or higher customer satisfaction scores). The core of performance coaching is that the outcome is measurable in a quantifiable (more…)
A plateau in career terms is about limits to career mobility in the sense that upward hierarchical movement is restricted. In other words, plateaued managers are people, who have hit a real or assumed career ceiling. Typically, the coachee or mentee may have been in the same job role for at least five years and (more…)
Solutions focus is a bit of a misnomer, as all coaching aims to help people find solutions to issues they explore with a coach. The main difference is that, while many coaching approaches start from the perspective that it’s important to analyse and understand a problem before looking for solutions, Solutions Focus goes straight into (more…)
Ethical mentoring is a fairly new term, but it’s likely to be one we are going to hear a lot more of. The concept comes from a recognition that unethical and illegal behaviour in organisations rarely happens because an individual or group of people set out to do wrong. Rather, it starts with small breaches (more…)
Jim Collins, the US researcher on leadership describes amongst the key qualities of authentic leaders the balance of personal humility and professional will. Personal humility involves, amongst other attributes, “quiet, calm determination”. Humility is equally an important characteristic of the effective coach, because: The danger is that we are either insufficiently humble, or far too (more…)
The generative effect is the instinct to leave a legacy by ensuring that one’s accumulated knowledge and wisdom is passed on to future generations. Extensively explored in the context of mentoring by Daniel Levinson in his book, The Seasons of a Man’s Life, the generative effect encourages people in their middle ages and beyond to (more…)
The environment, in which line managers coach direct reports, is riddled with potential conflicts. For example: Most of these can be managed by creating time for open and honest dialogue with the team, by creating as much psychological safety as possible, and by encouraging supportive behaviours – including co-coaching – between team members. But there (more…)
The Pygmalion Effect is the name given to a phenomenon, by which belief in your abilities from someone you respect has a dramatic and positive effect on your performance. It also works in reverse – in experiments, even a minor put down by a stranger can have a remarkably negative influence on performance. In classroom (more…)
There are thousands of studies and books on managing change or leading change. The former tend to focus on ways to work with and overcome people’s resistance; the latter on creating a vision that people can sign up to and engage with. Of course, both these perspectives are important and indeed implementing change usually requires (more…)