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Should coaches be regulated?
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Submit your vote and view the results of the poll so far. If you have a comment, please post it.
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Question of the month – July
What are you doing to encourage your clients to self–coach?
You tell us – July
If you coach over the phone, what do you like and dislike about it?
Question of the month – June
What, if any, are the differences between life and business coaching?
You tell us – June
Have you practised therapy within coaching?
Question of the month: What is the ratio of non-directive to directive in your coaching practice?
Have you used Clean Language in your coaching? See “Speech therapy”
Question of the month: Do you think coaching is here to stay?
Music to your ears: have you ever incorporated music in any way into your coaching sessions?
In response to the Question of the month: Have you ever coached a pair of clients together? My answer is yes, and I’m doing it now! I have a pair of scientists at the National Institutes of Health in the United States and I have been coaching them at the same time. One is a man, one is a woman, and they are co-leaders on a large and very visible program. We meet once a month in person, and the rest of the time by phone. It works quite well! There’s a natural peer-coaching phenomenon that occurs between them when I’m coaching them as well that’s very revealing.
Have you ever coached a pair of clients together?
Does location make a difference in coaching?
What is the worst example of poor coaching practice you’ve come across?
I’ve been hearing some horror stories from some of the people involved in assessing and selecting coaches…from coaches failing to do any contracting whatsoever to coaches prodding and probing until the client is in a highly vulnerable place, without the expertise to help the client tackle what has arisen.
I’ve also been hearing from coaches who are concerned about some assessors not being equipped to assess them- perhaps because they have not been trained properly to do so, or because they have subjective ideas about what makes good/poor coaching. We need more clarity about what makes good coaching and what constitutes poor practice…..obviously there will be subjectivity but it strikes me that there is much we can do to improve the current situation. We need to debate this, to educate those involved (including coaches)- particularly if we want to avoid prescriptive governmental regulation. We need to get our own house in order.
The downturn has brought about an increase in outplacement and workplace counselling.
What role is coaching/mentoring playing in this arena?
Does gender make a difference in coaching?
It shouldn’t but it does – it is like choosing a family physician – some people are more comfortable with a man than a woman. It does not mean that this cannot be surmounted.
No it does not
It seems to me gender is just one of numerous factors that all contribute to the judgements and experiences we make and have as coaches/clients. I wonder if we do our clients/ourselves a disservice by claiming gender doesn’t make a difference? Or perhaps it need not at all.
Do you use storytelling in your coaching- if so, how?
What were coaching and mentoring’s highs and lows in 2009?
What does 2010 hold in store for coaching and mentoring?
As the importance of goal-setting is stressed so heavily when we first learn to coach, it can be difficult when clients struggle to identify a non-woolly goal. We can feel under pressure to push the client towards a goal before the session is up, and then to become a goal-fascist later on, drumming on about their goal and whether they have achieved it. Without wishing to belittle the importance of goal-setting, I think one sign of a mature coach is not being overly –attached to goals, being able to hold the space as the goal-posts change. Often, very important work is done when clients are given space to think, to explore and to tell their story, without being pressurised into identifying and pursuing goals inappropriately. That said, goal-setting has a very important role to play in making change happen- read Fiona Parashar’s article in the latest issue, Vol 4, Issue 6, to learn how to make the most out of goal-setting.