Julie Starr - The Coaching Manual: The Definitive Guide to The Process, Principles and Skills of Personal Coaching

There are many people who have contributed to the development of the ideas and thoughts in the book and I hope Ive remembered to acknowledge most of them. So I would like to express gratitude for the work of the following people: Richard Bandler, Brandon Bays, Kevin Billett, Deepak Chopra, the late Stephen R. Covey, Frank Daniels, Landmark Education, Milton H. Erickson, John Grinder, Byron Katie, M. Scott Peck, Anthony Robbins, Eckhart Tolle and Brian Tracey.

Id also like to thank Rachel Raymond, Lisa Barton, Eloise Cook, Belinda Noakes, Dr Xanthe Wells and Marcia Yudkin for their challenges, thoughts and ideas in preparation of the text.

Welcome the present moment as if you had invited it.

Pema Chodron

Welcome to the fourth edition of The Coaching Manual. This new and revised edition is informed by my ongoing quest to distinguish the core principles and truths that underpin effective coaching practice. The core goal of this book remains the same: to offer you simple principles, insights and guidance that support whatever type of coaching you choose to do.

Since the book was first written in 2002, I have watched the profession develop in very exciting ways. Ive seen the interest in coaching accelerate as people realise the impact, benefits and value of this type of support and development. Anyone coaching, or interested in coaching, now has access to a vast wealth of knowledge, training, support and guidance to help them navigate their development path forward. In organisations, coaching is increasingly acknowledged as something that makes a positive contribution to business goals. So coaching engages people personally and professionally, for at the heart of coaching is an awareness of our basic interdependency as people, and the need to support each other. I see that much good is being created from this simple truth.

The Coaching Manual has been translated into many languages and supports the practice and development of coaching far and wide. Since the publication of the first edition I continue to work and study within the field of personal development with a clear focus on coaching.

Embracing change, weve made the manual more versatile by offering the Toolkit (towards the end of the book) as documents that are also free to download online. My intention is to give you flexible access to practical information, routines and processes to help develop your skills and support you as you coach. , Become a coach, helps you consider how you will use these principles and skills for yourself for example as a style of behaviour or indeed by becoming a coach yourself. So whatever your current interest is in coaching, I hope you enjoy this book and find that it strengthens the work that you do.

This book explains the principles and approaches of coaching and shows you how to apply them in any coaching situation, from business coaching in the workplace to more holistic life coaching in a personalised setting. If you are new to coaching, the manual is a practical guide to support your learning and practice, often in everyday situations. For those already coaching, the manual offers fresh insights and thought-provoking ideas. For the busy manager, the manual provides techniques to use with your team.

I will often talk to you as though you are already a coach or are coaching in some way. Please know that you do not have to be a coach to benefit from the ideas which follow. If you are in any situation where you are helping others to create change through learning, Im confident that the manual has something to offer.

This book encourages you to adopt a collaborative style of coaching. By collaborative coaching I mean that the coach and the person being coached work together to create change. As a coach, you bring your specific skills to work with the situation, intention and need of the person being coached. In order to engage and empower the person you are working with, Ill encourage you to adopt a less directive style of behaviour and language, while staying supportive of change. To enable you to coach effectively, Ill cover the ideas and beliefs that underpin coaching and offer fresh views on the skills you need to strengthen. Youll also have simple examples of positive coaching behaviour and language to help develop your self-awareness, such as I need to spend more time getting clearer up front or Right now I talk too much in these situations. Ive included the natural structure of a coaching conversation, to help you navigate from the first hello to a typical farewell. Ill also offer practical guidance on what to watch out for, in the shape of unforeseen barriers or blocks that hinder great coaching. To help you build an approach to coaching someone over a number of sessions, youll find the common stages of a coaching assignment. When youre ready to leap into action, the Toolkit will help give you even more confidence to get started.

As you read, youll notice bite-sized inserts that support your practice and learning. When you use them, these items will help you to increase both your self-awareness and your ability to coach others. These inserts comprise:

Testing Questions

These are a series of questions to help you link ideas specifically to your own situation and reflect on them to gain personal insight. You can write your answers down, speak them out loud, try them on to see how they feel, or just pause and think them through. The important thing to remember is that the questions are intended to provoke thought and action. By pausing and attending to the questions, youre letting the book go to work for you.

Checklists

These are quick summaries of points to confirm your understanding and also serve as memory joggers for future reference for example, to help you consider how much structure is appropriate in a coaching assignment, or how you can work with a coachee to understand the impact of your coaching conversations.

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