Coaching "Noted" cards

Question 1

Noted 1:1

Answer 1

The term Performer means anyone receiving coaching and can include managers, peers, employees or others. Coaching is a conversation that exists to help performers reach their goals.

Question 2

Noted 1:2

Answer 2

What do you want from coaching? Think about the best coaching you ever received. What did it look like? How did the coach behave? Now think about the worst coaching you’ve ever had. What made it so ineffective? By thinking about your experiences and the needs that have been met by past coaching conversations, you can find examples to serve your own coaching practice.

Question 3

Noted 1:3

Answer 3

According to Coach U’s Essential Coaching Tools, the things people want most are to make and keep more money, get more done in less time, communicate more effectively, feel better physically and emotionally, increase their quality of life, become closer with others, eliminate hassles and get on a path toward meeting a goal.

Question 4

Noted 2:1

Answer 4

Forced coaching is often a waste of time, energy and resources. Work with senior leaders to ensure people are not forced into coaching.

Question 5

Noted 2:2

Answer 5

The agreement phase of coaching is like the contracting phase of consulting.

Question 6

Noted 2:3

Answer 6

There are three kinds of actions: Great actions are those that are good ideas. Right actions are those that are good uses of resources and time, given other options. The third type, actions that are both great and right, are good to do, and are best actions in terms of value and efficiency. However, very few actions are both great and right. Help performers identify and choose great and right actions for the best possible results.

Question 7

Noted 3:1

Answer 7

Unless transition occurs, change will not work. That’s what happens when a great idea falls flat.

Question 8

Noted 3:2

Answer 8

A definition of success is a set of beliefs about what success looks and feels like. These beliefs may or may not serve performers’ goals or facilitate their successes.

Question 9

Noted 4:1

Answer 9

Language is an essential part of coaching, and in fact, it could be said that the essential job of the coach is to provide a new language for the client.

Question 10

Noted 4:2

Answer 10

The coach’s question proposes a direction for looking. The client’s attention is naturally drawn in that direction. With each new question , the coach encourages additional looking along a path, or shifts the path, allowing the curiosity to steer the looking.

Question 11

Noted 4:3

Answer 11

Provocative questions are interesting and intriguing. Evocative questions grab performers such that they can see themselves in the dialogue.

Question 12

Noted 4:4

Answer 12

Socrates was a fifth century Athenian philosopher known for his interactive methods of teaching, examination of the concept of piety, adherence to civil obedience and inquiries into the basis of virtue. The approach to philosophy espoused by Socrates was based upon four pillars: Ironic modesty, questioning of habit, devotion to truth and dispassionate reason.

Question 13

Noted 4:5

Answer 13

Active listening is the practice of showing performers that you are listening and interested in what they have to say. This involves giving them your full attention through verbal and non verbal encouragement and validation.

Question 14

Noted 4:6

Answer 14

Many facilitation techniques can be applied to one on one coaching conversations, including brainstorming, generating ideas, mindmapping, flipcharting and meeting planning tools.

Question 15

Noted 5:1

Answer 15

Coachability is a state of mind that can be changed in an instant.

Question 16

Noted 6:1

Answer 16

Performers will have a positive reputation when they are trusted, follow through on promises, produce results, are pleasurable to work with, are knowledgeable and are viewed as an asset to the company.

Question 17

Noted 6:2

Answer 17

Derailing factors are behavioral habits or skill deficiencies that could endanger success in performers’ current positions or the jobs they covet. A derailing factor is often a strength gone to the extreme like assertiveness that becomes bossiness. If you can help performers acknowledge their derailing factors, they will be in a much better position to reach their goals.

Question 18

Noted 6:3

Answer 18

Two by four effect: When you give someone a two by four to the forehead, you are offering feedback that is not sugarcoated. This approach should be used only in select situations. Some people respond well to direct feedback because it creates dissonance that enlivens the motivation to change. Other people find a two by four to the head devastating.

Question 19

Noted 7:1

Answer 19

There is a difference between making time and taking time. When you make time, you add to your day and to do list. When you take time, you set time aside within your day and take other tasks off the list.

Question 20

Noted 7:2

Answer 20

Playing the devil’s advocate means sharing ideas from the opposing side of the argument.

Question 21

Noted 8:1

Answer 21

The term Breakthrough means different things to different people. Some examples are:
A moment when someone receives an insight, aha, idea, cognitive snap or epiphany.
Progress experienced by an individual or small group
A discontinuous, positive change or a leap forward in thinking, actions or results
A change that can be small or large but there must be an acceleration of progress or sudden insight.

Question 22

Noted 8:2

Answer 22

Dissonance is a condition of conflict or anxiety resulting from inconsistency between performers’ beliefs and their actions or results. Example: An unexpected failure.

Question 23

Noted 8:3

Answer 23

Self fulfilling prophecy or the Pygmalion Effect: Once you establish an expectation, even if it isn’t accutate, you act in ways that are consistent with that expectation. Your expectation often determine what becomes reality.

Question 24

Noted 9:1

Answer 24

Microcoaching should not morph into coddling the performer or increasing the performers’ dependency on you as a coach. Manage the frequency of microcoaching exchanges to increase progress without decreasing performer ownership.

Question 25

Noted 10:1

Answer 25

Behavioral coaches use the same general approach. They first get agreement with the performer and their manager on two key variables: What are the key behaviors that will make the biggest positive change in increased leadership effectiveness and Who are the key stakeholders that should determine (at a set time in the future) if this change has occurred.