Coaching Handbook: An Action Kit for Trainers and Managers

240 Pages·2003·0.45 MB·English

by  Sara Thorpe

The Coaching Handbook:
An action kit for trainers
and managers
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First published in Great Britain and the United States in 2003 by Kogan Page Limited
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or
review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication
may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the
prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction
in accordance with the terms and licences issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning
reproduction outside these terms should be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned
addresses:
120 Pentonville Road 22883 Quicksilver Drive
London N1 9JN Sterling VA 20166-2012
UK USA
www.kogan-page.co.uk
© Sara Thorpe and Jackie Clifford, 2003
The right of Sara Thorpe and Jackie Clifford to be identified as the authors of this work
has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act

1988.
ISBN 0 7494 3810 X
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
Typeset by JS Typesetting Ltd, Wellingborough, Northants
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction 1
Part 1: The coaching process 3
1. What is coaching? 5
Development needs; Development – core values and beliefs;
Training; Mentoring; Counselling; Line management; Benefits of
coaching; Summary
2. Learning theories 13
Theory of competence; Kolb’s learning cycle; Barriers to learning;
Personal working styles; Areas and levels of learning (Bloom’s
taxonomy)

3. Introducing the coaching model 25
4. Job description, skills and qualities of a coach 29
5. Preparing to coach 31
Preparing yourself; Preparing the coaching environment; Preparing
the coachee
6. Stage 1: Clarifying coaching needs and goals 33
What you do; What could go wrong; Skills required
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7. Stage 2: Agreeing specific development needs 41
What you do; What could go wrong; Skills required
8. Stage 3: Formulating a detailed plan for coaching 49
What you do; What could go wrong; Skills required
9. Stage 4: Doing a task or activity 53
What you do; What could go wrong; Skills required
10. Stage 5: Reviewing activities and planning improved 63
performance
What you do; What could go wrong; Skills required
11. Stage 6: Ending the coaching relationship 79
What you do; What could go wrong; Skills required
12. Third-party initiated coaching 81
Establishing the coaching contract
13. Skills 85
Analytical skills; Assertiveness; Conflict management; Facilitation;
Influencing; Listening; Observation; Planning and prioritizing;
Presenting ideas and information; Questioning; Rapport building;
Using and interpreting non-verbal communication
Part 2: Case studies 107
Coaching a partner in a national law firm; The Scout Association;
Coaching for sales managers and their teams; Metropolitan Police

recruits; Coaching a youth football team; Coaching two general
managers; Coaching on customer service/other one-to-one
communication; Coaching different individuals in different areas;
Coaching an operational manager to take on a specialist HR role;
Coaching to expand the skills of an experienced trainer; Coaching
a manager and a novice yacht crew; Developing effective
interpersonal skills in training; One-day breakthrough coaching;
Coachee in football; Being coached in project management; Being
coached on specific beliefs/behaviour; Receiving on-the-job
coaching; Life coaching; Being coached to take on a management
role
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Part 3: Activities and exercises 175
Map your journey; Highs and lows; Spider charts; Force field
analysis; Guided imagery; Unfinished sentences; Tuning in to body
language; Move your watch; Give it back; Skills checklist; SWOT
analysis; ‘What if...’ questions; Best in the world; Cats and
refrigerators; Evaluating progress; Review technique; My
frustration journal; Positive affirmation; Personality strengths;
Edward de Bono’s six thinking hats; Reframing; Using research;
Questions, questions, questions; A problem-solving process;
Questionnaires; Demonstrations; Role-play; Case study; In-tray
exercises
References 223
Further reading 225
Index 229

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all those around us who have supported us as we wrote
this book. Special thanks go to Geoff, George, Majid, Claire and Peter for their
patience, especially in the latter stages. We would also like to say ‘thank you’ to
all those who contributed the case studies in Part 2.

Introduction
Everyone is talking about coaching. As people who work within the field of
learning and development, we find that we are constantly asked for training in
coaching skills and to help organizations introduce coaching schemes. Line
managers are told that an important part of their role is coaching. Trainers are
increasingly asked to coach individuals.
In researching background material for training courses we have found that
much of the training and reading material available focuses on the skills of a
coach – the art of active listening, asking questions, and summarizing action
points. Whilst the skills are essential, there seems to be a lack of an agreed process
– as a coach, at what point do I use which skills? Where do I start when asked
to coach a colleague? How long will it take? What methods do I employ?
When we started discussing coaching, we discovered that we both had
different views of what it is and how it takes place. We had originally assumed
that, having worked together for some years, we automatically meant the same
thing by the words we were using! The differences were not immense, but were
sufficient to make us question and probe further into defining the whole subject

area. Having reviewed coaching within a number of organizations, read a number
of books and talked to various different line managers and trainers, we realized
that we were not alone in our different understandings of coaching. Definitions
of the term ‘coaching’ that we have come across range from on-the-job training
to performance management discussions.
In this book the definition of coaching we have used is:
The process of helping someone enhance or improve their performance through
reflection on how they apply a specific skill and/or knowledge.
Chapter 1 discusses in depth this definition and how it relates to the fundamental
principles of learning. It also gives you the opportunity to think about the
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similarities and differences between coaching and training, mentoring,
counselling and line management.
Our aim in writing this book is to provide you with a straightforward and
practical process for coaching others. We hope that it will help demystify the
coaching process so that you have a structure to use regardless of the situation
or your past experience with coaching. It is about giving you the confidence to
coach others without feeling that you need to be a ‘qualified’ coach to do it.
Whether you have attended formal training in coaching or not, our purpose in
writing the book is to provide readily available hints and tips for you to access
as and when you need them.
The model of coaching that we offer is based upon our own experiences as
we have developed from classroom trainers into line managers for whom
coaching is an essential part of the role. At the same time as we were making
this personal transition we found ourselves working more with our client groups
to assist in implementing coaching programmes and providing coaching for
individuals outside our teams. We have built a model that we believe to be flexible
and easy to use; we make no apologies for our practical, rather than academic,
approach to the topic.
This book is divided into three parts (read it from cover to cover, or dip in
and out, whichever suits your own learning style):
(cid:1) Part 1. Along with the definition of coaching, you will find a practical model
of coaching here. Each stage of the model is discussed in detail with tips for
helping you implement it, thoughts around the skills required at each stage
and ideas to use if things don’t go quite as you had planned.
(cid:1) Part 2. This gives a series of case studies from people who have coached or
been coached in their professional, sporting or personal life.
(cid:1) Part 3. Here you will find a range of activities and exercises for you to adapt
and use in your coaching sessions.

The book also contains a Further Reading section that lists useful publications
for your reference as you develop in your coaching role.
We hope that you enjoy using this book. We would welcome your feedback
and would like to hear about your personal coaching experiences. Contact us
on [email protected]
Sara and Jackie