Our Imperfections Keep us Alive

Our imperfections are as a result of being unique and this uniqueness is the footprint we leave – our legacy.

 

Working as a health coach was by far one of most the most meaningful growth experiences in my life.  It gave me the opportunity to drive changes in my athletes that would have a positive impact on their lives.  For each one of them, the path would be different depending on the WHAT, the HOW and the WHY.  WHAT they wanted to accomplish, HOW they would do it and WHY they wanted to do it.  In order to move forward with the plan, the WHY has to be completely understood and to achieve this your senses have to be open for patterns and traits that are the reflection of the person.  These patterns and traits are often referred to as imperfections.  We look at these imperfections as things that are difficult to move away from but are apart of us but need to be changed.  No wonder we perceive this path as a struggle.

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The Confident Coach 5: Feedback in Coaching

What makes a new coach confident about their coaching approach? How does this translate into their ultimate success as business coaches?

This is the fifth in a series of five articles about The Confident Coach. I thought it would be interesting to discover the factors new coaches starting out on their coaching journey report they are confident about; and how this is a predictor of their ultimate success. To do this we must track their progress over the first 18 weeks of the Coaching Master Class programme. Here’s how the programme works. After the initial training I run three coach-the-coach sessions at six week intervals. Session one focusses on the new coach’s confidence in the five key elements of the training. Session two on the business results being achieved with coaching. And session three to assess coaching capability. A couple of years ago I ran a worldwide Coaching Master Class programme for 100 top leaders. I’ve looked at my notes from coach-the-coach follow up sessions with the top 20 from this group to see what makes them ‘Confident Coaches’.

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Three nodes of goodness

There are decent and honourable people in our world who are doing superb work. Let me tell you about a few people I respect and admire for their positive endeavour, driving change and celebrating success. In some ways, this is an advertorial for their work.

Making silk purses out of sows’ ears

Recent articles from me have concerned values and being “flummoxed” at what I see happening around me.  Combined, I feel even greater disquiet at the accelerating pace by which our world appears to be catapulting itself in a hand cart into hell.  Contextually, this is the “sow’s ear”.

I thought I should try and find something positive to say in this contribution to remind myself that there are decent and honourable people in our world who are doing superb work.  So, let me tell you about a few people, i.e. the “silk purses”, I know.  I respect and admire them for their positive endeavour, driving change and celebrating success.  In some ways, this is an advertorial for their work.

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Construction: it’s learning to be better…

I couldn’t imagine doing anything else, and yet, I have a dark secret – I work in construction!

I chose a career in learning because people fascinate me.

We are unique as a species in our capacity to develop and grow and I’m privileged to have been a part of that journey with many amazing individuals. I get paid for doing something that fills me with joy.

I couldn’t imagine doing anything else, and yet, I have a dark secret – I work in construction! As we all know this is an industry with a reputation for training people, not developing them. A place for you to carve out a living if you weren’t quite good enough…

Well dear reader, I humbly beg to differ; my experience has been of an industry striving to innovate and improve, one aware of its shortcomings, operating in the toughest of circumstances and doing all of that with a smile on its face and a steely determination at its heart.

Changing that perception will be tough but it’s not impossible and if we continue to focus on the areas below that change may happen sooner than you think…

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A Lesson for Myself

Last week I had one of the most extraordinary experiences of my training career. It’s recast my view of leadership and myself as a leader.

Once in a Lifetime

Last week I had one of the most extraordinary experiences of my training career. Through RADA in Business I was engaged to train speakers taking part in the BBC’s commemorations for the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Passchedeale.

Thus, I found myself in Ypres working with a group of almost 40 serving military personnel, actors and descendants of people who had died in this bloodiest of battles; an incredibly diverse group of people, all of whom would be reading on live television.

This is set in the context of remembering a battle that took the lives of tens of thousands of men and the intense emotions that evokes. If you saw either of the two programmes on the BBC you will understand what a humbling and tragic event we were focussing on.

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