Practising mentors building their practice
Coaching requires skills, such as listening, questioning and giving feedback, but all of these should already be developed to some extent in line manager coaches and in coaches more generally. What makes them effective is the coaching mindset, and this we can summarise as the three Cs: Caring: Co-learning: Creativity: © David Clutterbuck,...
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Developed by Peter Hawkins CLEAR stands for Contracting, Listening, Exploring, Action Review. CONTRACTING The emphasis at this stage is less about establishing goals than agreeing broad purpose and expectations of the learning relationship. LISTENING Still refraining from making judgements about what the coachee “needs”, the coach gives them space to describe their issue in their...
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OSKAR derives from solutions focused coaching. It’s a more sophisticated version of GROW and has much the same pluses and minuses. O stands for Outcome This is a wider concept than the G (for Goal) of GROW and involves exploring with the coachee: S stands for Scaling Scaling is a common coaching tool and frequently...
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The Starr model (created by Julie Starr) looks at five core coaching skills, as in the diagram below. Effective coaches:...
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Personal Development Plans can often be “something and nothing” – a paper exercise mandated by HR for line managers and direct reports to undertake as an annual ritual. When they are at their best they: Identify clearly the difference between where you are now and where you want and/or need to be Link immediate (short-term) (more…)
Recommended good practice is for coaches to spend at least 30 minutes in quiet reflection after a coaching conversation. It’s helpful to use the following headings to structure this reflection: Issues What topics did we explore? Where these expected or unexpected? Did we dig into them in sufficient depth? What other issues arose, which I (more…)
We don’t expect coaches and mentors generally to have a deep understand of psychology or psychotherapy. But understanding the principles of projection and counter-projection can help you recognise and manage common situations, where the dynamics of the learning relationship aren’t working as they should. Projection refers to the process, by which people unconsciously disown their...
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Keeping a reflective journal Maintaining a personal reflective journal during a coaching or mentoring relationship improves the quality of reflection and the depth of personal learning. Good practice in maintaining the learning journal includes: The SAID process (see Reflection in coaching and mentoring) can be a useful framework for reflective notes. Other useful tips: Boud,...
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Gestalt therapy is one of the major disciplines of psychotherapy. It takes years of study and practice to become proficient in using this powerful approach, but it is common for coaches and mentors to use some of the basic concepts and techniques. One of the key principles of Gestalt is that what is happening for...
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Mentoring is one of the most powerful and impactful development methods an organization can use to support and grow its people from within. It brings significant, long lasting and wide-ranging benefits not only to the mentees and mentors, but also to teams, the wider organization as well as to key third parties such as the (more…)
