In order to integrate my blog with my new website, I have re-hosted this blog at http://blog.turnkeycoaching.co.uk. All future posts will be there, and in due course this will be deleted.
Friday 9 August 2013
Monday 22 July 2013
Book Review - Coaching for Performance: GROWing People, Performance and Purpose, John Whitmore
Whitmore, a former
professional racing driver turned business consultant and partner
with Timothy Gallwey in his Inner Game business, writes about
coaching in a management environment, using illustrations from the
world of sport. For Whitmore, the key tasks of coaching are raising
awareness and responsibility in the coachee. A manager's task is to
get the job done AND to grow his staff, and this second task is
achieved by coaching which increases the subordinate's responsibility
and retention. In a time when change is the norm, a coaching culture
increases involvement and responsibility and reduces stress which is
caused by lack of personal control.
Awareness and
responsibility are raised by good questions, illustrated by the
tennis coach who asks “which way is the ball spinning” rather
than “are you watching the ball.” This compels the coachee to
watch the ball and to focus to a higher order. Whitmore introduced
the GROW sequence of questions in coaching: Goals, Reality, Option,
and What, When, Whom and the Will to do it. A chapter is dedicated
to each of these headings with guidelines and examples. Whitmore
goes on to discuss performance and its relationship with learning and
enjoyment; purpose and meaning, feedback, coaching teams and
overcoming barriers to coaching in corporations.
First published in
1992, according to Whitmore, Coaching for Performance is “widely
accepted as the definitive book on coaching in the business context.”
Whitmore is credited by other authors on the subject for developing
the GROW model, a widely used framework.
What I learned from
this book was the practical application of the GROW model,
particularly in a management environment. Throughout the book,
Whitmore gives examples of coaching dialogues that illustrate the
principles he is explaining in the text. What I will do with this
book is to go back to it repeatedly, not to memorize the questions,
but to increase my familiarity with the kind of coaching
conversations that increase awareness and responsibility in clients.
John Whitmore, Coaching
for Performance: GROWing People, Performance and Purpose, 3rd
Edition, London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2002, 180 Pages.
Wednesday 3 July 2013
Change your Diet, Change your Life
The 1st of July 2013 marked six months of a radical transformation in the state of my health and wellbeing.
At New Year I weighed 91 Kg - overweight, bordering on obese and, having been a marathon and ultra marathon runner in my twenties, I was close to sedentary. For the previous ten years, doctors had been telling me that my blood pressure was too high, and I had been resisting their suggestions that I take medication, promising them and myself that I would change my diet and exercise regime and not following through with my good intentions.
At Christmas, Santa brought me two things that changed all that - a blood pressure monitor and a copy of Tim Noakes' Challenging Beliefs: Memoirs of a Career. I started reading the book and found it fascinating. The title refers to the fact that Noakes, a South African professor of Sports Medicine has spent a large part of his career challeging medical orthodoxies that his research has shown to be wrong. These are often based on a logical but unproven hypothesis that is expoited by commercial interests and then defended by those interests against any evidence that they are in fact not true.
Noakes has been something of a hero of mine since, with the naked eye, he diagnosed the cause of knee pain I was suffering, after my GP, a physiotherapist, a radiographer and an orthopedic surgeon had all failed to identify the cause. In his early sixties, Noakes was looking for a way to overcome his tendency to pick up weight, and to reduce his risk from a genetic predisposition towards diabetes. He researched and then tried a low carbohydrate diet, and reported that after six months he was lighter, faster and healthier than he had been in the previous twenty years.
On New Year's day I tried my blood pressure monitor and was shocked to record a reading of 216/125. That's not high, it's explosive! I sanity checked the meter by testing it on others known to have normal blood pressure, and it registered a normal reading of around 120/80. I decided that urgent action was required. With Noakes as my guide, I adopted a "paleo" i.e. low carbohydrate, high protein, moderate fat diet. I dared not run initially, fearing I would have a stroke or heart attack, but started walking every day. As my weight came down, my blood pressure came down in parallel. After two weeks I began jogging and, to cut a long story short, four months later and 13 Kg (35 lbs or 2 stone 8 lbs) lighter, I ran the Plymouth half marathon.
My weight has plateaued since then and I am not yet at my goal weight, nor is my blood pressure "normal" but with the lowest reading so far of 159/96, it is a huge improvement. My challenge now is adjust my diet, increase the amount I exercise and get rid of another 5Kgs in weight while also replacing fat with muscle. Regular monitoring of my blood pressure has shown that apart from weight and diet, stress, or rather, poor management of stress is a big factor. Managing my response to stress is my next big challenge.
While blood pressure and fitness were my key goals, an enormous benefit I have enjoyed is a vast improvement in my resistance to colds and infections. The first six months of this year have been the first time I have gone that long without a cold in as long as I can remember. It is also the first time in decades that I have been without almost constant nasal congestion. I attribute this to the gluten and largely dairy free nature of my diet.
My conclusion is that you, quite literally, are what you eat. If your body isn't performing the way you'd like it to, change the fuel you put into it!
At New Year I weighed 91 Kg - overweight, bordering on obese and, having been a marathon and ultra marathon runner in my twenties, I was close to sedentary. For the previous ten years, doctors had been telling me that my blood pressure was too high, and I had been resisting their suggestions that I take medication, promising them and myself that I would change my diet and exercise regime and not following through with my good intentions.
At Christmas, Santa brought me two things that changed all that - a blood pressure monitor and a copy of Tim Noakes' Challenging Beliefs: Memoirs of a Career. I started reading the book and found it fascinating. The title refers to the fact that Noakes, a South African professor of Sports Medicine has spent a large part of his career challeging medical orthodoxies that his research has shown to be wrong. These are often based on a logical but unproven hypothesis that is expoited by commercial interests and then defended by those interests against any evidence that they are in fact not true.
Noakes has been something of a hero of mine since, with the naked eye, he diagnosed the cause of knee pain I was suffering, after my GP, a physiotherapist, a radiographer and an orthopedic surgeon had all failed to identify the cause. In his early sixties, Noakes was looking for a way to overcome his tendency to pick up weight, and to reduce his risk from a genetic predisposition towards diabetes. He researched and then tried a low carbohydrate diet, and reported that after six months he was lighter, faster and healthier than he had been in the previous twenty years.
On New Year's day I tried my blood pressure monitor and was shocked to record a reading of 216/125. That's not high, it's explosive! I sanity checked the meter by testing it on others known to have normal blood pressure, and it registered a normal reading of around 120/80. I decided that urgent action was required. With Noakes as my guide, I adopted a "paleo" i.e. low carbohydrate, high protein, moderate fat diet. I dared not run initially, fearing I would have a stroke or heart attack, but started walking every day. As my weight came down, my blood pressure came down in parallel. After two weeks I began jogging and, to cut a long story short, four months later and 13 Kg (35 lbs or 2 stone 8 lbs) lighter, I ran the Plymouth half marathon.
My weight has plateaued since then and I am not yet at my goal weight, nor is my blood pressure "normal" but with the lowest reading so far of 159/96, it is a huge improvement. My challenge now is adjust my diet, increase the amount I exercise and get rid of another 5Kgs in weight while also replacing fat with muscle. Regular monitoring of my blood pressure has shown that apart from weight and diet, stress, or rather, poor management of stress is a big factor. Managing my response to stress is my next big challenge.
While blood pressure and fitness were my key goals, an enormous benefit I have enjoyed is a vast improvement in my resistance to colds and infections. The first six months of this year have been the first time I have gone that long without a cold in as long as I can remember. It is also the first time in decades that I have been without almost constant nasal congestion. I attribute this to the gluten and largely dairy free nature of my diet.
My conclusion is that you, quite literally, are what you eat. If your body isn't performing the way you'd like it to, change the fuel you put into it!
Sunday 30 June 2013
Six Months In - How are your New Year's Resolutions doing?
Did you make any New Year's resolutions? Or are you among those who cynically reject the whole concept, knowing that most people who make New Year's resolutions have abandoned them half way through February?
If the only planning you do is a last-thing-in-December resolution that "I'll eat less in the New Year" based on guilt over your over-indulgence at Christmas time, then the chances are that your New Year's resolutions won't last. But planning is an essential part of a successful life.
Imagine building a house without any plans... no idea where to dig the foundations; when to have the concrete delivered; how many bricks to buy... not a good idea. It's a cliche that many people spend more time planning their summer holidays than they spend planning their lives, but sadly it's true.
If we are to make the most of the opportunities life offers us, we would do well to think it through, plan it, monitor our progress and get some accountability for actually doing what we plan to do. Of course, our plans need not begin on the first of January, but periodic reviews are essential and January and July are as good a time as any to begin a new cycle.
So here's my review of goals I've achieved over the last few months:
1) Completed my first degree - 36 years after first enrolling at university!
2) Run my first half marathon in 25 1/2 years.
3) Enrolled for a Certificate in Mentoring and a Diploma in Coaching, which will take me a long way towards a long held goal of becoming an expert in personal development.
4) Been accepted as a "matriculated" student for an MBA - another long held goal.
5) Launched my career as a professional coach. Professional status and paying clients are still to come, but I am coaching and my coaching is making a difference. I'm on my way.
6) Last, but not least, I've broken out of a six year long mental slump, feeling a failure, and I'm getting back to feeling like the high achiever I was previously.
I've set myself a list of new goals ... which I'll share with a small group of people who support and believe in me, and I'm on course with plans to achieve them. I'll be writing more about setting and achieving goals in the coming weeks.
If you'd like some help planning your life, rather that letting in be "what happens while you're busy making other plans" give me a shout.
If the only planning you do is a last-thing-in-December resolution that "I'll eat less in the New Year" based on guilt over your over-indulgence at Christmas time, then the chances are that your New Year's resolutions won't last. But planning is an essential part of a successful life.
Imagine building a house without any plans... no idea where to dig the foundations; when to have the concrete delivered; how many bricks to buy... not a good idea. It's a cliche that many people spend more time planning their summer holidays than they spend planning their lives, but sadly it's true.
If we are to make the most of the opportunities life offers us, we would do well to think it through, plan it, monitor our progress and get some accountability for actually doing what we plan to do. Of course, our plans need not begin on the first of January, but periodic reviews are essential and January and July are as good a time as any to begin a new cycle.
So here's my review of goals I've achieved over the last few months:
1) Completed my first degree - 36 years after first enrolling at university!
2) Run my first half marathon in 25 1/2 years.
3) Enrolled for a Certificate in Mentoring and a Diploma in Coaching, which will take me a long way towards a long held goal of becoming an expert in personal development.
4) Been accepted as a "matriculated" student for an MBA - another long held goal.
5) Launched my career as a professional coach. Professional status and paying clients are still to come, but I am coaching and my coaching is making a difference. I'm on my way.
6) Last, but not least, I've broken out of a six year long mental slump, feeling a failure, and I'm getting back to feeling like the high achiever I was previously.
I've set myself a list of new goals ... which I'll share with a small group of people who support and believe in me, and I'm on course with plans to achieve them. I'll be writing more about setting and achieving goals in the coming weeks.
If you'd like some help planning your life, rather that letting in be "what happens while you're busy making other plans" give me a shout.
Saturday 29 June 2013
FREE COACHING - LIMITED OFFER
I am currently studying for an Advanced Diploma in Coaching with Kingstown College in Dublin and a Certificate in Mentoring with Moorlands College, and I am coaching clients in three countries on two continents. The feedback I have had so far is 100% positive. I am looking for more clients in order to build up the experience needed for International Coach Federation accreditation.
Sign up in the next week and I will give you 3 x 45 minute coaching session free of charge.
I coach by Skype, telephone and for those in Malvern/Worcester, face to face. My clients include professionals, students, stay at home moms, aspiring novelists...
The kind of topics we discuss are life balance, goal setting, time and energy management, anger management etc, etc. The idea is not that I am an expert on all these areas, but that you, a healthy, well educated, balanced individual have all the potential you need to achieve your dreams. What might help you is the trained ear of someone who will listen to you, challenge you and help you to work out your own solution to getting from where you are to where you want to be.
Go on, give it a try!
Sign up in the next week and I will give you 3 x 45 minute coaching session free of charge.
I coach by Skype, telephone and for those in Malvern/Worcester, face to face. My clients include professionals, students, stay at home moms, aspiring novelists...
The kind of topics we discuss are life balance, goal setting, time and energy management, anger management etc, etc. The idea is not that I am an expert on all these areas, but that you, a healthy, well educated, balanced individual have all the potential you need to achieve your dreams. What might help you is the trained ear of someone who will listen to you, challenge you and help you to work out your own solution to getting from where you are to where you want to be.
Go on, give it a try!
Friday 31 May 2013
Life Coaching and Christian discipleship
I first read about life coaching in 2005. At the time I was assistant pastor of a York church, and my thought was "It sounds new agey and it'll never be accepted in church circles." So when in February 2006, an article titled "Coaching for life - Putting a secular idea to spiritual use" appeared in Direction Magazine, the monthly magazine of the Elim Pentecostal Church, it grabbed my attention.
The author, Karen Green together with husband Dave are pastors of the Elim church in Halifax, not far from York. I gave them a call, took a drive to Halifax and spent a morning hearing about how they were using coaching techniques as a means of helping people in their church grow in confidence and become doers - disciples. Karen recommended a book, Christian Coaching by Gary R Collins, and a correspondence course taught by a college in Newcastle. My scepticism behind me, I began to study and apply what I learned, and was thrilled to discover how simple techniques of listening, questioning, feedback, etc, could help a person achieve clarity about their values, goals and the path needed to get from where they are to where they want to be.
A few extracts from the article:
The introduction states: "Many have heard of 'Life Coaching' and may be suspicious of this latest trend in personal development. But Christians hold the secret of 'life to the full' - so shouldn't we be doing the coaching?
"Karen writes, "Make disciples, make disciples..." - that was all we could hear God saying to us. "We get the message, God, but how?" ... Then I began to hear about life coaching. It's a tool to help people move forward in their lives through asking the right questions, clarifying their values, setting goals, identifying plans of action, and establishing accountability. ... The tools in life coaching help us in discipleship in that they work by helping the individual make his or own decisions, not by imposing our ideas on them. ... 'What do you want?' was a common opening line Jesus would use. It is invariably the opening line in life coaching.
From my recent reading on Christian leadership, I've concluded that Jesus' leadership training was so broad that it encompassed much of what is taught today as "coaching," "mentoring," and "leadership development." As one of my lecturers would say: "good research only reveals what God already knew."
Tuesday 16 April 2013
Coaching - what's it all about? Part 5
Chad Hall writes that “all coaching is life coaching; coaching brings forth life for a client, a company, a church, a team, a community, a family, or anyone touched by the coaching relationship." That is true, and as I've indicated so far in this series, the primary tools that all coaches use are good listening skills and good questions. I've also indicated that each coach has specific tools in their tool box, depending on their background, experience and training.
So, as in counselling, we find specialisms within the field of coaching. Life, or personal coaches work with individuals, dealing with the broad scope of “life”: priorities, relationships, purpose etc. Corporate coaches deal with individuals or teams within a corporate setting: values, teamwork, and customer service are some of the areas corporate coaches may deal with. Executive coaches work with senior leaders, who are often assumed to “know it all,” and are least likely to receive training and mentoring, but, like everyone else need someone who will journey with them and provide a sounding board.
An area of interest to many people today is wellness coaching. A coach whose specialism is wellness may have a background in sport, nutrition etc, or perhaps they have themselves overcome health problems, giving them valuable insights and experiences to share. I am in the midst of such a transformation, having lost 2 stone, 9 pounds (37 pounds), and reduced my blood pressure by 49/23 in 14 weeks. In two weeks time I will run the Plymouth Half Marathon after a break from running of 27 years. This has been achieved through diet, exercise and stress management. My experience is equipping me to help others achieve their weight management, fitness and health goals, and this is a specialism I am building into my coaching practice.
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