Coaching

Coaching is all about unlocking a person's potential so they can move from good to outstanding. One of the things we find at Learning Perspectives is that people can confuse coaching and mentoring, so let's just explore the difference.

Coaching: Often has a focus on identifying and prioritising goals and working out how to achieve them. Coaching tends to be for a short period of time.

Mentoring: Usually where an experienced individual is matched with a less experienced colleague for guidance and career development. Mentoring will continue over an agreed period of time.

📖   In this article from Smallbiztrends.com they explain the difference between mentoring and coaching in more detail. (10 mins)

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📖   A SWOT Analysis can be a useful way to start. It identifies Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It can be a great way to help you to identify priorities. In this article from Mind Tools the SWOT Analysis is explained in more detail. (15 mins)

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💬 Once you've done your SWOT Analaysis it's a good time to make sure that you set some Goals. In this video DecisionSkills give a quick overview on SMART Goals. (3 mins 57)

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📖   Asking the right questions is essential to be an effective coach. It is important to give the person you are coaching the space to think and give them questions that help them expand their thinking. This is explained well by Stephanie Soler who identifies 'Your job is to help your coachee think, rather than think for your coachee'. In this article 'Coaching 101: Ask Powerful Questions' - she explains what powerful questions are and gives some examples. (20 mins)

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📖   You may find that once you've done your Analysis, set your goals you need to focus on what your priorities are. This is where tools such as the Action Priority Matrix come in. In this article from Expert Programme Management the matrix is explained in more detail. (10 mins)

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💬  If you'd prefer to look at the Action Priority Matrix on a video you Petar Ninovski has a short video that explains this. (3 mins 21)

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📖   The Grow model looks at Goal: What do you want?, Reality: Where are you now?, Options: What could you do?, Will: What will you do?  Created originally by Sir John Whitmore this is used widely. You can find out more about this model in this article from Performance Consultants. (20 mins)

Photo by Gabriel McCallin on Unsplash