More on curiosity from our own Pamela Richarde, Master Certified Coach! Take a peek at this 5 minute clip from one of her presentations.
Curious Questions: The key to evoking new awareness.
March 22nd, 2012 · Team Talk
By Pamela Richarde, MCC Chief Coaching Advocate: Coaching Out of the Box®
Are you Curious? In your normal every day conversations, do you ask before you tell? Or, do you have the impulse to automatically share your opinion or give a solution, when an issue is presented? If you tend to tell, before ask, you are like most of us in the world; ‘knowing’ answers and having experiences that we filter all of our listening through, and then quickly offering these in support of others, without much further exploration (or curious inquiry).
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Are You Really Listening?
March 22nd, 2012 · Team Talk
By Amy Ruppert, MCC, Chief Learning Officer: Coaching Out of the Box®
Listening is one of the most powerful core competencies of coaching. I’ve often told learners who are new to coaching if they can’t remember the five coaching skills in our model, just remember to listen! That in itself is tremendously powerful.
When coaches move beyond the novice stage and into a more experienced level, there are a number of factors that raise the bar in their efficacy. It all begins with listening. The coach expands their capacity to hear beyond the words and listen on multiple levels. It’s what I like to call full sensory listening. What does this mean exactly? Some of it is metaphoric and some of it is very real to the senses. Let’s break it down:
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Unlocking brilliance: Powerful thoughts about questions
May 23rd, 2011 · 5/5/5 principles, Ask a Coach, Coach tips, Leadership & coaching, Uncategorized
Today we had a good conversation about the value of questions in the coaching exchange. The following is a compilation of what came out of that conversation. Our hope is that you continue the conversation by sharing this post and commenting with YOUR beliefs about questions.
- Authentic curiosity is stimulated by asking WHAT questions, not by When or How questions which tend to go towards solutions
- Why questions are rare in coaching because they ask you to defend or explain your position instead of exploring it.
- You could do a whole coaching session using nothing but what questions that would accomplish everything you would need to do in a coaching exchange.
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How to destroy a perfectly good employee
May 21st, 2011 · Leadership & coaching, Taking Coaching Mainstream, Uncategorized
The Coaching Out of The Box® team got together for a planning meeting and got into a good conversation about employee motivation. What follows is the thoughts we had and we would love to see you add to the list!
Treat them like they are 5
Micromanage them
Tell them what to do
Don’t follow up
Don’t notice the little things
Don’t model what you expect of them
Disrespect their time
Believe that they don’t need to know everything going on
Make decisions without consulting them
Have corporate values that are just words on a wall
Take credit for their ideas
Reward mediocracy
Avoid conflict
Let them fend for themselves
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What do I do when my boss sucks the life out of my team
May 5th, 2011 · Ask a Coach, Coach tips, Guest Blog Post, Leadership & coaching, Taking Coaching Mainstream, Uncategorized
I’m wondering if you can give me some advice on managing my boss. I am really into trying to build on the positive with employees and I spend a lot of time in our staff meetings trying to give credit where it’s deserved and cast management decisions in a positive light. However, my boss tends to follow up my comments by saying something that sucks all the positivity out of the room. He is a really good guy and I don’t think he realizes the does it, but he speaks badly of former and current employees to me with the office door open so the people who sit nearby can hear. He also acts like employees can’t be trusted. We recently participated in a top 100 Companies to Work For survey, and people came to me and asked if I wanted us to win or if I wanted them to be honest. Of course I want honesty, but it concerns me that they would ask. Also, I recently conducted a peer review wherein employees were asked to finish the following statements about each of their peers: please do more of this, please keep doing this, and please do less of this. The response for my boss was overwhelmingly to stop making negative comments and treating employees as if they are expendable. I’m nervous to bring this up with him, because I don’t think he even realizes he does it, but I feel like there is a consistent pattern wherein he negates praise or recognition with a small but cutting comment.
→ 2 CommentsTags:bad boss·coaching·Coaching Skills Active Listening Leadership competencies·coaching transformation·communication·difference between coaching and mentor·employee motivation·leadership·mindfullness·taking coaching mainstream·value of coaching
The case for friends, connections and followers
February 28th, 2011 · Guest Blog Post, Leadership & coaching, Taking Coaching Mainstream, Uncategorized
Taking Coaching Mainstream is about creating a network of people around the world and having good conversations about leadership, communication, listening, curiosity and of course coaching skills.
We believe using various social media platforms like a blog (this one), a facebook page , an interactive website, a twitter account and now a Linkedin Group can bring people together to have those great conversations about coaching who otherwise would not connect.
On the verge of launching into the LinkedIN world, we found it relevant to pause and write a post about the value of social media.. not only for us, but hopefully for all of you in your businesses and organizations.
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Mindfullness- helping us to take coaching “mainstream”
February 14th, 2011 · Guest Blog Post, Leadership & coaching, Taking Coaching Mainstream
When some people hear the word mindfulness, they immediately dismiss it as some esoteric Eastern meditation practice or New Age mumbo jumbo. However, mindfulness is an important ability to work on for coaches – or anyone else.
First, let me clarify what I mean by “mindfulness.” There are multiple views of what mindfulness is and is not, but in the most general sense, we can think of several levels of mindfulness, ranging from a basic level of awareness up through the sharp internal mental focus of a longtime meditator or yoga practitioner. For our purposes here, I am referring to a more open-minded awareness of others and of the environment itself, rather than awareness of one’s own internal processes and thoughts. Internal mindfulness is certainly a great topic, but it’s one for another day.
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Alison’s post: using coaching skills with loved ones
December 7th, 2010 · 5/5/5 principles, Ask a Coach, Coach tips, Leadership & coaching, Taking Coaching Mainstream
I’ve been coaching for over 14 years and have the skills down pretty good I think. Clients have told me that I’m a powerful and fantastic coach. They feel inspired, motivated and encouraged to do things, make decisions, take risks and really play bigger as a result. Several have doubled and tripled their incomes and more, made a tremendous difference in their organizations, been promoted, grown as leaders etc. etc.
So, you would think that I would take these skills to my personal life….well the truth be told is this is one area I need to grow in, yes I need to be more “coach-like” in my personal life.
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Service in 7 inch heels
November 26th, 2010 · Coach tips, Guest Blog Post, Taking Coaching Mainstream, Uncategorized
The following is a guest post from Tom Maher “the Musician’s Coach” who we met at the recent ICF conference. No more introduction needed, this blog post will give you a great sense of the man behind the “heels”! ***
If you haven’t met me before, let me introduce myself. My name is Tom Maher and I am a professionally trained and certified life coach. I also professionally impersonate Paul Stanley of KISS in KISS Tribute Bands. Some would think this is an unusual combination, but for me, it works.
I was recently asked how I can be authentic as a coach when I spend so much time being someone else, or “inauthentic”. I told them that no matter how much of Paul or Paul’s mannerisms I try to emulate, I always make sure that I am shining through that trademark star.
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