An archive of articles on all topics of coaching and mentoring. You can search for your topic by using the search box on the left.

COACHING AT WORK AWARDS 2019: THE RESULTS ARE IN

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A host of coaching and mentoring practitioners received accolades for their contributions in the 2019 Coaching at Work Awards, in what was one of the toughest years for judging given the high quality of those nominated. The winners were: Jonathan Passmore, Eve Turner and Marta Filipiak(Best Article/s) Charmaine Kwame (Internal Coaching/Mentoring Champion) Jeremy Gomm (External Coaching/Mentoring Champion) Peter Welch (Contributions to Coaching Supervision) Fiona Adamson (Lifetime Achievement) David Gray (Posthumous Lifetime Achievement). Gray’s son, Dan Gray, accepted the award and gave a moving speech. Gina Lodge, CEO at coach training and consultancy business, the Academy of Executive Coaching (AoEC), announced […]

THE CLIMATE CRISIS: THIS MAGAZINE’S PLEDGE TO YOU

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Coaching at Work pledges to support readers and those they work with to respond to the climate crisis. Rest assured, we won’t preach, as we recognise that there are many ways to respond, that people have different values and perspectives, and that they operate in different contexts. As part of our commitment to offer more support around this, we included a climate crisis hub stand at the annual Coaching at Work conference in July, staffed by Linda Aspey and others. Additional current and planned initiatives include an online hub on our website with resources relating to coaching, mentoring and climate […]

COACHING AT WORK ANNUAL CONFERENCE, 3 JULY, LONDON: MENTAL HEALTH: IS A MEDICAL MODEL THE ANSWER?

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By Kate McGuire Can we coach the person, not the disorder? That was the question posed by Ewan Hilton, chief executive of Gofal, the leading mental health and wellbeing charity in Wales. In a session with Linda Aspey, his coach, Hilton said the predominant paradigm defines mental health on a medical model but it might be more appropriate to view mental health as a spectrum, with medical sickness at one end and a trauma-based way of understanding distress at the other. Hilton quoted a former chair of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), Dr Allen Frances, who […]

COACHING AT WORK ANNUAL CONFERENCE, 3 JULY, LONDON: PINSENT MASONS ANCHORS COACHING TO BUSINESS

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By Nicole Berg Anchoring coaching to a business context, taking care to position it appropriately, understanding and making use of key influencers, and choosing the right coaches – these were among the key success factors in creating a coaching culture at Pinsent Masons. Partner development coach Sophie Turner shared how her idea back in 2006 of bringing a coaching approach to the international law firm began to gain traction when it was coupled with the introduction of a “purpose-led approach to business”. At a steering committee on the purpose-led approach that included a senior partner, Turner proposed coaching to win […]

COACHING AT WORK ANNUAL CONFERENCE 3 JULY, LONDON: USE TRUTH FRAMEWORK TO UNPICK CONVERSATIONS

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By Kate McGuire Speaking and listening are personal and organisational imperatives, and the consequences of conversational habits can be profound, far-reaching and potentially highly damaging. This was the view offered by Professor Megan Reitz of Hult Ashridge Business School, opening this year’s Coaching At Work conference, where she outlined the findings of her latest research, ‘Speaking Truth to Power’. Reitz’s research shows that 8% of people know something that would harm their organisation if it came out, yet have not spoken up. Some 38% don’t offer ideas they believe could improve their organisation’s performance. Reitz believes it is important to […]

COACHING AT WORK ANNUAL CONFERENCE 3 JULY, LONDON: NHS TRUST SCHEME EMPOWERS PHARMACY TRAINEES

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By Adina Tarry Royal Surrey County Hospital (RSCH) NHS Trust has introduced a coaching initiative to lift morale, support staff wellbeing and improve performance. The initiative consists of an initial one-to-one coaching programme for pharmacy trainees, then a four-week inter-professional pilot programme. Prior to the introduction of the initiative, pharmacy trainees had no access to regular coaching or mentoring, were disengaged, lacked resilience and weren’t empowered to support their own learning and development, delegates heard. Trainees’ overall mood, engagement and effectiveness had not been as high as hoped for, said internal coaches, Nicola Arnold, associate director for learning & organisational […]

COACHING AT WORK ANNUAL CONFERENCE 3 JULY, LONDON: HOLD THE SPACE WHEN COACHING ENTREPRENEURS

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Coaching at work annual conference 3 July, London By Kate McGuire Ever considered offering 15-minute coaching sessions? That was the reality faced by Lena Gustafsson in conversation with a potential entrepreneurial client who believed he didn’t have time for longer sessions. In the moment, she decided to “meet him where he is” and offer “laser coaching”, which would be fast but not deep. Over time, the client began to recognise that some of Gustafsson’s more challenging questions couldn’t be examined or solved in 15-minute bursts. He began asking for more time. This was just one of the challenges outlined by […]

COACHING AT WORK ANNUAL CONFERENCE 3 JULY, LONDON: CREATE A ‘POSITIVE RIPPLE’ BY LISTENING SYSTEMICALLY

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By Kate McGuire Should coaches be raising wider systemic issues such as business ethics or environmental concerns in coaching conversations if not raised by clients? This was one of the questions asked by Professor Peter Hawkins and Eve Turner in their session on Systemic coaching: Delivering value beyond the individual. Hawkins suggested coaching should shift its focus from solving today’s problems towards building 21st century leadership to solve the huge challenges facing future generations of humanity. Coaches should start coaching conversations by asking, “what is the work your world needs us to do together?” He challenged those in the room […]

COACHING AT WORK ANNUAL CONFERENCE 3 JULY, LONDON: ANTOINE – DEVELOPMENT KEY TO HIGH PERFORMANCE

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By Nicole Berg A high performance culture requires a development culture, said top performance coach, Keith Antoine in his keynote address at the conference. Antoine, an Olympic and Paralympic athletics coach as well as corporate performance coach, told delegates, “If you’re in a performance culture, you either continuously improve or you retire.” He asks corporate clients to imagine today is their final day at work, and to ask themselves if they’re clear who’ll replace them, and how well they’ll do the job on a scale of 1-10. He said the big question was then, how diligently and consistently are they […]

COACHING AT WORK ANNUAL CONFERENCE 3 JULY, LONDON: KCL HELPS STUDENTS NAVIGATE UNI AND BEYOND

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By Nicole Berg King’s College London (KCL) is coaching students to help them thrive in the transition to university and beyond. Often, there’s an assumption that students come to university equipped with the skills and strategies they need around rules, networks, finances, habits, mental health and wellbeing. But in fact they need support as they shift from a known and structured world to many unknowns, and in determining a structure for their own world to thrive, said executive coach and supervisor Clare Norman, and Wilna Gracias, who’s on secondment to manage the KCL Student Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategic Plan. […]