Practising mentors building their practice
One of the most common problems that holds talented people back is their tendency to micromanage. Usually driven by insecurity, micromanagement is bad news for the individual and for their team. For the individual, it means that they never have enough time to do things that are important not urgent, nor to focus on longer-term (more…)
Read More How coaches and mentors can help people who micromanage
It often happens that people bring goals to coaching and mentoring, which they feel obliged to accept. Because these goals are externally generated (for example, from the expectations of their line manager, or their spouse), their commitment is likely to be much lower than if the goal were generated internally, meeting their own needs. So...
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One of the recognised dangers of executive coaching / mentoring, however it is sourced, is that the coachee / mentee can come to depend on the coach / mentor to do their thinking for them, rather than develop the skills and habits of thinking for themselves. Dependency can take many forms, including intellectual (solving problems...
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Read More How to avoid creating dependence in a learning relationship
Clean Language is a non-directive questioning approach that encourages a different and deeper way of thinking. The term ‘Clean Language’ was developed by David Grove in the early 1980’s, as a way of preserving the client’s experience with minimal interference by the therapist. Clean Language was initially used within the psychotherapy context but it now...
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Generation gaps aren’t what they were. It used to be a reasonable assumption that each younger generation was simply going through the growing pains of its predecessors; that the experience of an older generation was, by and large, directly relevant to them. Much of mentoring theory is based on this assumption. Yet the evidence has (more…)
Everyone feels overwhelmed from time to time. Sometimes it is simply a matter of volume of work. In this case, we can apply tried and tested practices: We can also aim to manage our energy efficiently, apportioning the times when we have most energy to the tasks that fall into the urgent and important quadrant,...
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How can I continue to develop as a coach? What to read There’s no shortage of reading material on coaching topics. Many of the leading coaches and writers on coaching produce frequent blogs and articles, which you can access for free. Each of the three main coaching professional bodies (ICF, AC and EMCC) has newsletters...
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There are lots of models of change, but this one can be particularly helpful when the learner is struggling to work out what to do or keeps experiencing setbacks to their plans. Essentially, Robert Dilts’ model proposes that change occurs at different levels of complexity and that it’s important to work on the appropriate level(s),...
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One of the most frequent causes of anxiety amongst coaches is whether they are living up to the client’s expectations. Our need to be valued and feel we have done a good job pushes us towards the role of coaching expert – it’s important to us that we exhibit the competence and the confidence we (more…)
Coaching textbooks are full of advice for coaches to develop their skills of empathy. It might seem to make common sense, but this advice doesn’t seem to be based on any credible evidence. In fact, the contrary may be true — empathy may be a dangerous and unhealthy addiction for the coach and an unhelpful...
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Read More Empathy versus compassion in coaching and mentoring
