Marie Taylor - Business Coaching and Mentoring For Dummies

Business Coaching & Mentoring For Dummies

Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester,www.wiley.com

This edition first published 2016

2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Chichester, West Sussex

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ISBN: 978-1-119-06740-5 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-07378-9 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-07377-2 (ebk)

1. Table of Contents

There was a time when business owners who told colleagues they had a coach or mentor were asked Why do you need a coach? Whats wrong with you? The thinking used to be that if you have a coach, you must have problems you cant sort out for yourself. Meanwhile, in sports and the arts, it has long been common practice for top-class athletes to have performance and psychological coaches and for stars of stage and screen to have voice and acting coaches.

Fortunately, in the past 1520 years, the coaching conversation in business has shifted. Savvy business leaders are reaping the benefits of having a professional coach or mentor by their side. Its not uncommon for such leaders to ask each other, Do you know a really great business coach or mentor? as they would for any other professional, such as an accountant. Business coaching and mentoring is becoming widely regarded as an essential professional service.

One of the reasons for the growing demand for professional business coaching and mentoring is that todays business landscape is changing quicker than ever. Who would have imagined 20 years ago the transformations brought about by technology, the emergence of the Chinese and Indian economies and the global effects of the credit crunch, recession and depression of the last decade. A lot has changed. Business coaching is all about change, dealing with change and assisting clients to deliver and adapt to political, economic, social and technological changes. Business coaching is about supporting business leaders to create businesses that flourish and thrive. A more exciting time to be in business and to be a business coach would be hard to find. The changes in thinking and in the ways business operates means even more demand for great coaches. You can find opportunities to do great work everywhere.

With a combined coaching experience of three decades between us, we (co-authors Marie and Steve) have seen the positive differences that great coaching can have in any business. In Business Coaching & Mentoring For Dummies, we share some of that experience and introduce you to approaches, tools and techniques that enable you to be an amazing business coach or an amazing business person equipped to handle changing circumstances.

This book is about inspiring coaching excellence and about encouraging peak performance for the coach and business user alike.

If youre a coach, read the chapters and use the techniques with yourself first so you not only have a hands-on approach to coaching clients but can do so congruently, knowing that you have practised what youre coaching. In addition, you get the benefits of making positive changes to your own coaching practice.

We include mentors, and this book is for you too. We consider that mentors use the coaching skill set and can apply many of the models described in this book. The difference is that mentors are often sharing specific knowledge and skills from their professional area of expertise. For more detail on the distinctions between coaching, mentoring and other helping professionals, see the explanatory grid in .

If youre a business owner or entrepreneur, or are reading this book because you want to self-coach or are simply curious to know more about coaching, then read the chapters and practise the techniques as if youre being coached.

To help you navigate this book and use it as an easy, accessible reference, we have set up a few conventions.

• We have used sidebars to add extra gems of information. These contribute to the chapter subject and can be skipped if you want.
• Where we introduce a new term we italicise and then define it.
• We have numbered exercises and techniques so you can easily work your way through the steps.
• Throughout, we have used stories to coach concepts. These stories are in the forms of real-life examples from our own work and metaphors.
• Within this book, you may note that some web addresses break across two lines of text. If youre reading this book in print and want to visit one of these web pages, simply key in the web address exactly as written in the text, pretending that the line break doesnt exist. If youre reading this text as an e-book, youve got it easy just click the web address to be taken directly to the web page.