Blogging has been an incredible journey for me this last decade or so, but the best part has been sharing these ideas with you. Recently, I was able to see this blog from a new visitor’s perspective. Except that the new visitor was a long-time coaching student who had no idea the blog existed.
To remedy that, I’ve gathered together some of my favorite articles from over the years, which I’ll share in this and a follow-up post. This post centers on professional topics, and in the following post, we’ll focus more on personal reflection.
Developing a Coach Approach
One of the recent shifts I’ve noticed in our student population is the marked
increase of leaders, managers, and supervisors enrolling in our coach training program. The large majority have no intention of ever becoming a full-time coach; instead, they see coaching as a valuable skill set to add to their leadership toolkit.
In essence, what they are doing is developing a coaching approach to leadership. This shift of leadership approach can be summed up best as follows: shifting from lighting a fire under people to lighting a fire within people. There are many benefits to lighting the fire within people, including increased ownership of projects and plans by the individual team members and tapping into the intelligence and expertise of the entire team.
- How leaders can coach, not command
- The Five Core Ingredients of a Coaching-Inspired Workplace
- Coaching as a Soft Spot
- How to Be a Good Spotter
- Managing Like a Coach
Leadership
This might sound counterintuitive, but the majority of the coaching I do with leaders can be summed up in one word: unlearning. Many leaders pick up habits and patterns of behaviors that served them well at an earlier time, but are now getting in the way.
Helping those I coach develop greater self-awareness is key, along with helping them let go and unlearn. This section highlights that unlearning process. One of my favorites is the blog post that highlights Peter Bregman’s book Four Seconds.
Bregman contends that a simple four-second breath can provide the needed disruption to start unlearning.
- Unlearning in Leadership
- There’s Nothing Wrong with Being Wrong
- The Changing Face of Leadership
- Are You Too Far Ahead As a Leader?
- Do You Have Four Seconds to Be a Better Leader?
Client Challenges
One of my favorite classes to teach is Common Coaching Scenarios and
Challenges, which highlights a collection of student challenges over the years. Several themes have emerged, including: the client who is always late, the client who talks non-stop for the entire session, and the client who breaks boundaries. I enjoy hearing the diverse ways that new coaches would handle these challenges, as well as hearing new challenges that they are experiencing.
Distractions Can Be Helpful