• oaching room

   

  Looking for a job requires method and training. This Coaching space offers you advice and online tools to prepare for your job hunt.
  

• Coaching room

   

  Looking for a job requires method and training. This Coaching space offers you advice and online tools to prepare for your job hunt.
  

• The connection between martial arts and coaching is that both relate to a flow of energy between two partners
• great overlap with coaching and the mental processes relating to martial arts.
• the mental processes that Ian and I use in our martial arts that are very similar to those used when coaching.
• The connection between martial arts and coaching is that both relate to a flow of energy between two partners and how this is consciously directed to achieve desirable outcomes. I would suggest that a coach and a martial artist undergo a common cycle to maximise effectiveness starting with relaxation, which leads to awareness and balance followed by direct interventions, and finally returning to relaxation.
• In t'ai chi, all the routines commence with the 'wu chi' stance, a conscious stillness and resting pose. A kendo player starts with mokuso, a short meditation to relax the body and empty the mind in readiness for the session.
• For a coach, stillness, readiness and an empty mind are equally important. To focus on the coachee, the coach needs to leave all his/her mental baggage at the door and be ready with a clear and relaxed mind. A coach can not tune into a coachee if he/she is still focused on their own thoughts and concerns.
• a cycle of breaths, a simple visualisation, a rolling up and down of the shoulders, whatever is practical given the circumstances and the location.
• Through relaxation comes heightened awareness.
• relaxed body in coaching leads to a relaxed, empty mind that is free to become more aware of the present moment and what the coachee is saying and how, and what the coachee is not saying, and the energy level in the room.

• In coaching, the energy is not physical but the coachee's words can be as sharp as any t'ai chi sword. The coachee can throw the coach 'off balance' by 'hooking' the coach's own thoughts and by distracting or offending. For example, Ian tells of a coaching session when he was thrown off balance when the coachee talked about the suicide of a close relative. For a moment a coach may be only aware of his or her own thoughts rather than being outwardly aware.

   

  A coach needs to be aware of when he or she is knocked off balance and quickly regain a good posture. Like the martial artist, the coach is looking to stay detached and balanced so as to maintain their coaching presence throughout the session. And then there comes the moment when the martial artist, grounded in the soft 'yin' energy of relaxation, awareness and balance, chooses to tense the muscle and consciously direct hard 'yang' energy to impact the opponent through a measured 'strike'.
• for advanced coaches who have built a firm foundation of trust and respect with their coachees, the equivalent of the 'Fa Jing' strike is a direct intervention involving honest feedback, a healthy challenge, or a firm hold on the accountability around actions and plans.
• Every movement in t'ai chi is circular, in kendo and t’ai chi all routines return to the starting point of stillness and relaxation. And so to begin again the gestalt, the cycle, the dynamic exchange of 'yin' and 'yang' energy which in both coaching and martial arts can be graceful, creative and deceptively powerful.

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• How to be a successful coach
• Successful coaches pay close attention to their purpose, profile and positioning
• 1. Understand your coaching motivations
• be very self-aware about your purpose for wanting to pursue coaching

• 2. Build your credibility
• 3. Get qualified
• hunger for self-development and an expanding knowledge base
• 4. Find your niche
• market for coaching is now evolving from the ‘one size fits all’ approach
• Every coach can find a niche, a specialism

• 5. Choose a business model that suits you
• 6. Be professional

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• Flexibility is the key within coaching, knowing which style is appropriate to  which situation and with which person. The differences can be quite subtle,  which is why coaching is a skill involving judgement.
• There needs to be a top down approach to a coaching culture.
• There needs to be a top down approach to a coaching culture.
• There needs to be a top down approach to a coaching culture
• Individuals within management positions are in just the right place to become  excellent coaches.
• make every one-to-one a productive experience.
• Even if you are hit with someone complaining or moaning about their lot, if you  use good questions and listen effectively, at the very least that individual  will feel that you are interested
• Telling people what to do can be seen as quicker and more effective, which of  course it may be, but only in the very short term
• managers need to understand the purpose and process behind coaching
• training and practice should include the following topics or principles
• There is a need for a model or a framework for coaching
• GROW
• goal, reality, options
• understanding of different behavioural styles
• Having a ‘mind set’ which wants people to develop, improve and progress
• • Challenging without bullying
• • Using the full spectrum of coaching from non-directive to directive
• • Trust and holding confidential information
• • Formulating good questions that can be delivered clearly avoiding multiple  questions
• • Using silence effectively allowing the other person to think
• Actively listening and good use of eye contact
• • Identifying specific situations when coaching would be appropriate such as  when delegating or reviewing an activity and giving feedback
• • Making sure that the manager coach is clear about what they are trying to  achieve themselves
• Recognise that all coaching doesn’t need to take place in a private room with  comfortable seats and subtle lighting, nor does it need to take hours
• a good way to introduce a coaching style into an organisation is via the review  or appraisal system

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• The three eyes of the coach
• the analytical, appreciative and creative eyes
• The analytical
• the eye of a rational expert
• The motivation to coach is more to deeply understand your client and to help them to ask and answer their own questions
• to experience things from the ‘inside out’. The appreciative eye is:
• • Curious and comfortable to question rather than answer
   
  • Able to inwardly listen and sense developing emotional awareness
   
  • Relational and reflective – motivated to understand another as well as one’s deeper self
• a composite eye that combines both the analytical and appreciative whilst offering something more. 
• The creative eye is:
   
   
  • Like an ‘inner compass’ enabling you to still, balance and re-orientate
   
  • Flexible and dynamic
   
  • Multifaceted – allowing you to access interior and exterior and individual and collective viewpoints
   
  • Resourceful - self-motivated and inwardly directed

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