Mindfulness is a useful mechanism for harnessing the power of the unconscious and there are a range of mindfulness techniques that aid coaches and mentors make the unconscious conscious. Yours and your client’s! Facilitating change is central to any…
Optimising Coaching Blogs
Contracting 10: 6 Key Questions for Contracting in an Organisation
Asking yourself some key questions . . . when coaching in organisations, before you start the contracting process, is likely to prevent misunderstandings further down the line. This is particularly important when the person who is commissioning you is not…
Posted in Blogs, Contracting
Contracting 9: How Many People are in Your Coaching Relationship?
Understanding who is a stakeholder . . . in the outcome of the coaching and mentoring process is an important part of contracting especially if somebody other than your coachee or mentee is your client. By ‘client’, in this context…
Posted in Blogs, Contracting
Contracting 8: Reflecting Before the Event
Time spent reflecting on contracting BEFORE you contact each client is time very well spent! If clarity and transparency, which we explored last week, are at the heart of good coaching and mentoring then reflecting on contracting BEFORE you contact…
Posted in Blogs, Contracting
Contracting 7: Clarity, Transparency . . . and then a List?
Clarity and transparency are at the heart of good coaching and mentoring . . . clarity of purpose and transparency of process. Once this is secured then everything else just falls into place. Honestly! Effectively managing – or not managing…
Posted in Blogs, Contracting
Contracting 6: Timing is Everything!
Timing is everything . . . in contracting coaching and mentoring. And the active engagement of your client. The temptation to get everything you need to cover out of the way in one fell swoop is often difficult to resist.…
Posted in Blogs, Contracting
Contracting 5: Optimising Coaching’s 3 P’s of Contracting
Principles, Practice, Procedures The Principles, Practice and Procedures underpinning coaching and mentoring – what I call Optimising Coaching’s 3P’s of Contracting – need to be clear from the outset of the coaching or mentoring relationship. This will enable you to…
Posted in Blogs, Contracting
Contracting 4: Negotiating the Contracting Maze
Spending time exploring . . . what we mean by ‘contracting’ in coaching and mentoring helps us put into perspective – as well as negotiate – what can sometimes feel like a contracting maze. Scoping the territory before venturing into…
Posted in Blogs, Contracting
Contracting 3: The Medium is the Message
HOW . . . You go about coaching and mentoring will set the scene for an effective and ethical relationship right from the outset of the process. The medium really is the message. As coaches and mentors we forget that…
Posted in Blogs, Contracting
Contracting 2: First Impressions Count?
When does the coaching or mentoring relationship start? This is an essential question for you to ask yourself as a coach or mentor and to answer. It also needs to be asked and answered separately for each one of your clients.…
Posted in Blogs, Contracting