Ten Commandments of Coaching 1. Coach from a place and position of mindfulness. 2. Coaching is not therapy— don’t bite off more than you can chew. 3. Manage expectations—get agreement early about the coaching process and the relationship. 4. Keep the focus on the client—respect his or her personhood, autonomy, and resources. 5. Let the client “fly the plane”— the client is the pilot, and the coach serves as the copilot. 6. Ask powerful questions. 7. Activate the client’s resources first—only then, judiciously offer your own. 8. Give advice very sparingly, if at all. 9. Balance the use of narrative with a focus on results. 10. Use the power and elegance of language to best effect. Karl Albrecht, 2012 KarlAlbrecht.com
8
Coaching World |
entered without such a tool. There are ten questions; five of them looking at satisfactions at work; five of them at frustrations at work. Examples are; “How much pleasure do I get from my work?” and “How much pain do I have at work?” Respondents give a score based on how they feel. The job of the coach is to ask what those scores mean to the coachee. When Andrea tried out the Workscale in her training as an Emotional Fitness Coach, she saw immediately that her balance was not as healthy as she wanted. As she worked to increase the level of satisfaction and reduce the frustrations, she became clear what she needed to do. When she uses it now in her work with executives and managers, she is aware of the distinct difference in the level of satisfaction and productivity, not only with those individuals, but within the department or organization as a whole.
Storytelling The practice and art of telling stories has recently become increasingly common within organizations of all kinds. What Emotional Fitness Storytelling does is to bring home two vital truths. The first is that the perception each of us has is exactly that; our perception; and that others have a different perception of the world. That makes for a difference in understanding and how we relate to each other. The second big lesson that E-Fitness Storytelling offers is that everyone has an extraordinary talent for creative imagination, given the permission to use it. Once that imagination is applied to the work environment, through the coaching that a gifted coach can offer, anything can happen.
A positive and productive workplace We know that the contribution of coaching is already significant and can be immense in its ability to make the world a better place. My interpretation of that is that people gain and use the tools of Emotional Fitness. Used in the work environment, coaches who add E-Fitness to their repertoire have a set of value-driven, practical and highly effective processes to effect real culture change where this is desired. “My practice has really taken off,” says Andrea. “I don’t have to market myself anymore. The changes that people have already seen in the department are so positive that everyone is asking me to go work with them.”
Warren Redman
is the President of the Emotional Fitness Institute. He lives in New Brunswick, Canada, overlooking the Bay of Shediac. He has written seventeen books, has coached thousands of people and trained hundreds in the processes of Emotional Fitness Coaching. His newest book, Emotional Fitness Coaching: How to Develop a Positive and Productive Workplace for Leaders, Managers and Coaches, is available from Kogan Page, July 2012. Order your copy from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. For trade orders, contact Ingram Publisher Services at 800-9612026. He also wrote, The 9 Steps to Emotional Fitness: A Tool-Kit for Life in the 21st Century, which is available through the Emotional Fitness Institute. EFitInstitute.com Redman now also writes fiction, although he occasionally returns to the real world to speak about E-Fitness. He is past President of the Calgary Association for Professional Coaches and currently Vice President of the ICF Atlantic Chapter.
August 2012