““The art of facilitating the performance, learning and development of another.” - Downey

ICW is a global celebration, launched in 1999, to educate us about the value of working with a professional coach and acknowledges the results and progress made through the coaching process.

After the impact from the last few years, coaching helped individuals to adapt to remote working and now that we are adapting again to the new normal, we are in a perfect position to reimagine the future, and coaching can help again.

There are events running today and the rest of the week that you can check out: 2022 ICW Event Calendar - ICF Events (icf-events.org)

I wanted to share ten top tips to help with the opportunity you have as a Manager in coaching:

1.     Spot the opportunity - one of the most important skills in coaching is spotting the opportunities.

2.     Think about formal coaching sessions and undervalue informal coaching opportunities such as “Water cooler moments” or chance meetings in corridors can be among the most powerful coaching interventions.

3.     Remember not to leap to conclusions and solutions without taking enough time to gather information, consider the different aspects of a problem and the points of view of everyone involved. Patience should be the watchword, and the coach should guard against impetuosity. Avoid the “fire, aim, ready” school of coaching.

 4.     Ask questions and keep asking. Use the 5WH model (who, what, where, when, why and how, especially ‘why’) and test your understanding of everything.

 5.     Ask the right questions. Refine your questioning. Probe deeper for more information.

 6.     Listen. Try not to have selective hearing, but to tune into what’s important to the learner. Pick up nuance, inference, and clues that the learner wants to divulge more, given a sympathetic ear – be an active listener.

7.     Don’t talk too much. As a general rule, the learner should do a lot more talking than the coach.

8.     Use silence effectively. Play the waiting game, and allow the learner time to gather their thoughts and open up.

9.     Don’t be too directive. Coaching is about guiding, not instructing. Don’t tell the coachee the answer, let them find it for themselves through probing questioning and active listening.

10.   Don’t think that coaching is appropriate for every occasion – it’s not.

I love how Downey defines coaching, “The art of facilitating the performance, learning and development of another.” I feel I have been in that space throughout my whole corporate HR career and in more recent times decided to take things in a more formal route and took a couple of formal qualifications - a diploma in Corporate Wellness Coaching and accreditation with Mindspan, in peak performance coaching. Both these are helping me to reimagine the future.

What will you do to reimagine yours?