Tag: coaching contract

Bitesize Leadership Techniques – Coaching for Performance Part 2

Carrying out the Coaching is about using purposeful questions to help your Coachee establish goals, explore their current reality, generate and select options and take responsibility for their way forward.

Coaching for Performance is one of my Bitesize Leadership Techniques. They are exactly what the title suggests. Short snippets of leadership tips, tools, process and ideas for you to use on a just-in-time basis. Use them as an update and to refresh your leadership professionalism. You could call it leadership in a hurry! This article is the second of three about Coaching for Performance: Carrying out the Coaching. Planning for Coaching. The first article was about Planning for Coaching. The next article is about Reviewing and Follow Up.

This article is an Executive Summary of my eBook of the same name – Coaching for Performance –published on Amazon Kindle. If you are a subscribers to Kindle Unlimited you can read the eBook for free.

Continue reading “Bitesize Leadership Techniques – Coaching for Performance Part 2”

Change, not chaos…in five steps

We’re all on a change journey, and that journey will call upon us to develop different things at different times. Your chance of success and avoiding chaos is greatly enhanced by the amount of time you spend on preparation.

I was listening to a podcast recently in which a prominent CHRO commented that “the world has changed, it’s chaotic and unruly and our leaders need to be able to operate effectively in chaos”. Surely we want change not chaos.

Now I don’t know about you but that’s not a sales pitch I’m warming to. I’d agree that things certainly seem to be heading that way; I’m not sure we’re enjoying it…is anyone getting a kick out of Brexit? Somebody else once told me “never hire anyone who tells you they’re good in a crisis – you’ll always be in one”.

And yet it seems to me that all we need to escape the chaos is a little process, and some structure, to help us find our way out of the darkness. What’s frustrating is how bad we are at doing just that.  I work for an engineering business and we love a process – we just love following them less!

Continue reading “Change, not chaos…in five steps”

Preparing & Planning for Coaching 3 – Creating Coaching Opportunities

Need some inspiration on creating opportunities for coaching sessions? Coaching doesn’t just happen. You need to decide how you will invest your discretionary leadership time to carry out the coaching.

Back in the summer of 2016 I wrote two articles about Preparing & Planning for Coaching. One of the delights of Blogging is to see which articles stand the test of time and are regularly being read by visitors to the website. Such is the case for ‘Preparing & Planning for Coaching’. Here is the next article in the series: ‘Creating Coaching Opportunities’.

Continue reading “Preparing & Planning for Coaching 3 – Creating Coaching Opportunities”

Are you really successful?

I want to give you hope so you can get right back up and achieve it, what is that? GENUINE SUCCESS!

“If the success you achieve has been at the expense of your health, your family or a negative change in your personality or character, is not really a success”

I DECIDED that: “No matter how high I grew in my professional life, I would always pray to remain as truthful to myself as I’ve always been. I don’t want to change to the extent of losing myself, forgetting who I am and where I come from”.  My decision has a lot to do with the upbringing I received from my parents and is based on the respect for all, without distinction.

Continue reading “Are you really successful?”

Five things no one likes to hear and why

In my youngsters days I felt uncomfortable when someone told me one of these five phrases. I’ve now learned how to act upon them.

In my youngsters days, at some point, I felt uncomfortable when someone told me one of these phrases, and even though I’ve learned how to act upon them, these for me are the top 5 things no one enjoys listening to and I want to share them with you. I’m pretty sure you will even agree with me on the reasons why.

Continue reading “Five things no one likes to hear and why”

Having a plan puts your destination on sight!

After having listed your dreams or goals, it is time to create a plan so you can revisit them on a daily basis, your energy is channelized in achieving that and also to ensure you are on track and heading in the right direction towards your ultimate goal! It is like ships and a voyage plan, external factors, and conditions may force the ship’s command to constantly alter its route for the sake of safety, security or even fuel saving but the ultimate goal is to, safely, reach its destination. “In life, to reach ultimate destination/goal/dream!”

‘Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan’. Tom Landry (American football player)

This post is the third of four articles related to coaching elements (“Belief-Dream-Plan-Execute”). After having listed your dreams or goals, it is time to create a plan so you can revisit them on a daily basis, your energy is channelized in achieving that and also to ensure you are on track and heading in the right direction towards your ultimate goal! It is like ships and a voyage plan, external factors, and conditions may force the ship’s command to constantly alter its route for the sake of safety, security or even fuel saving but the ultimate goal is to, safely, reach its destination. “In life, to reach ultimate destination/goal/dream!”

Coaching is both a technique and a mind-set. For the ‘Coachee’ to keep its radar on opportunities, listen and respond positively to coaching and feedback. For the coach, it means adopting an inquisitive, non-directive approach. Asking purposeful questions, listening and giving feedback. Although the ‘Coachee’ is in the driver’s seat, it is two ways cooperation and the plan will serve as a contract between the ‘coach’ and ‘Coachee’ to work together and measure progress.

Measuring progress means for the ‘Coachee’ to see progress and build confidence by feeling/seeing him/herself closer to its objective. For the coach, this gives the opportunity to decide where to invest its discretionary leadership time to carry out the coaching along with return on coaching investment (ROCI) in line with both, business results and ‘Coachee’ development/career progression.

In my posts, I usually share lived experiences and, in this one I want to share one that ‘planning’ gave me very positive results and which played both the ‘coachee’ and ‘coach’ role. This post will not go into details of ‘planning coaching sessions’ as it is being thoroughly covered by Trevor Sherman in different articles. Continue reading “Having a plan puts your destination on sight!”

Belief

Belief is about believing in oneself and that he/she can become a better version of itself. For the coach, believing that can and will make a difference in the lives of others through coaching. Believing in the potential of others to grow and succeed with his/her help.

In my post “Acreditar–Sonhar–Planejar–Executar”, I wrote about my presentation to sophomores of two renowned universities in Brazil and briefly covered the four elements of coaching “Belief-Dream-Plan-Execute”. To give a better perspective of each element, I decided to post four articles covering each of them and today it is about
“BELIEF”.

When I published the article in Portuguese back in August, a friend of mine wrote to me asking “Domingos, shouldn’t “dream” come prior to ‘belief’?” and my answer in form of question was “can someone dream about achieving something without believing he/she can accomplish that?” well, some people may possibly can but I personally trust that everything starts with BELIEF… Could Neil Armstrong have kicked up the dust on the moon if he didn’t believe he could get there? Before dreaming about that accomplishment and to plan the steps he first believed. (For those of us who believe that he was there J)

I recently started the mentoring session with one of the talents as Continue reading “Belief”

Measuring the Progress of Your Coaching

Need some inspiration on measuring progress of your coaching sessions? There are things you can put in place when you are planning and contracting coaching. Paying attention to these early on will ensure you have the means to measure your coaching progress and your return on coaching investment. I’ve prepared a list to inspire you. Now you add to the list with your comments and inspire others.


What do you need to consider when planning and contracting coaching to ensure you have the means to measure your coaching progress and your return on coaching investment? Continue reading “Measuring the Progress of Your Coaching”

Preparing & Planning for Coaching

Need some inspiration on preparing for a forthcoming coaching session. Coaching doesn’t just happen. There is preparation that you, as the coach, can do. There is also preparation you can ask your direct report coachee to do. I’ve prepared a list to inspire you. Now you add to the list with your comments and inspire others.


What are the factors you need to consider when preparing for running a coaching session or series of coaching sessions with a direct report? Unless it’s a coaching on demand session, coaching doesn’t just happen. This means there is preparation for both of you to do ahead of the coaching session. This article covers your preparation as the coach. A later article will cover coachee preparation. Continue reading “Preparing & Planning for Coaching”