Coaching for Performance
Chapter 1: What is Coaching?
Coaching focuses on future possibilities, not past mistakes (9)
Opponents within one’s own head is more formidable than the one on the other side of the net
(10)
Coach recognizes that internal obstacles are often more daunting than external ones (10)
Coach can help player to remove/reduce internal obstacles to their performance unexpected
natural ability to learn and perform will occur without need for much technical input from
coach (10)
Coaching: unlocking people’s potential to maximize their own performance (10)
May be harder to give up instructing than it is to learn to coach (11)
Good coaching can and should take performer beyond limitations of coach’s own knowledge
(13)
Coaches must think of their people in terms of potential not performance (14)
To get the best out of people, we have to believe the best is in there (14)
To use coaching successfully we have to adopt a far more optimistic view than usual of the
dormant capability of all people (15)
Coaching can be used proactively, during performance or in review (15)
Coaching can occur spontaneously in a minute or hour-long session (16)
Two Key Principles of Coaching: (17)
1. Awareness
2. Responsibility
See people in terms of future potential, not past performance (17)
Building awareness, responsibility, and self-belief is goal of a coach (18)
We build self-belief when we make decisions, take successful actions, and recognize our full
responsibility for both our successes and our failures (18)
Treating each player as an equal even if their role is lesser (19)
Intent of every coach interaction is to build the coachee’s self-belief (19)
Chapter 2: The Manager as Coach
Manager must be experienced as support, not as threat (20)
For coaching to work at its best, the relationship between coach and coachee must be a
partnership of trust, safety, and minimal pressure (20)
Coaching demands highest qualities of a manager: empathy, integrity, detachment, and
willingness to adopt fundamentally different approach (20)
Traditional Management: (21)
Dictates: Boss feels in control Persuades: performer wonders if they have a choice
Debates: both feel involved but it may be slow Abdicates: performers feels obliged or
dumped on Boss’s Behavior: effects on each other
Coaching: (24)
- Performer chooses to take responsibility
, - Boss knows what is going on
Manager’s task is simple- to get job done and grow staff. Time and cost pressures limit the
latter. Coaching is on process with both effects. (25)
When Managers Should Coach: (25)
If time is predominant criterion in a situation, doing the job or telling someone else
exactly what to do will be the fastest way
If quality of result matters most, coaching high awareness and responsibility is likely
to deliver the most
If maximizing the learning is predominant, clearly coaching will optimize learning
and its retention
Chapter 3: The Nature of Change
If we do not change direction, we are liable to end up where we are headed (27)
Pace of technological innovation frequently leads to managers finding that they have never
learned the skills of the teams they employ (27)
Any new culture will have to deliver higher levels of performance but be far more socially
responsible than ever before (28)
Culture change will be, and needs to be, performance driven, but the definition of performance
is much broader today (28)
Competition and growth are both losing currency; stability, sustainability and collaboration are
gaining traction (28)
Deep down people want choice and responsibility (31)
Responsibility demands choice. Choice implies freedom. (31)
Companies often talk about getting rid of the “blame culture” – but don’t take action (31)
Blame is about history, fear, and the past. We need to refocus on aspiration, hope, and the
future. Not only does fear of blame inhibit even most calculated risk taking, it blocks honest
recognition, identification, and acknowledgement of inefficiencies in a system. (31)
Blame invokes defensiveness-defensiveness reduces awareness (31)
Stress results from long periods of suppression (32)
Offering someone choice and control whenever possible in workplace acknowledges and
validates their capability and self-esteem which eliminates stress (32)
Full acceptance of personal responsibility becomes a physical and psychological necessity for
survival (32)
Chapter 4: The Nature of Coaching
Building awareness and responsibility is essence of good coaching (33)
First element of good coaching is awareness, the product of focused attention, concentration,
and clarity (34)
I am able to control only what I am aware of. What I am unaware of controls me. Awareness
empowers me (34)
Awareness encompasses self-awareness (34)
Increase individual efficiency is for performer to become increasingly aware of sensations (34)
Chapter 1: What is Coaching?
Coaching focuses on future possibilities, not past mistakes (9)
Opponents within one’s own head is more formidable than the one on the other side of the net
(10)
Coach recognizes that internal obstacles are often more daunting than external ones (10)
Coach can help player to remove/reduce internal obstacles to their performance unexpected
natural ability to learn and perform will occur without need for much technical input from
coach (10)
Coaching: unlocking people’s potential to maximize their own performance (10)
May be harder to give up instructing than it is to learn to coach (11)
Good coaching can and should take performer beyond limitations of coach’s own knowledge
(13)
Coaches must think of their people in terms of potential not performance (14)
To get the best out of people, we have to believe the best is in there (14)
To use coaching successfully we have to adopt a far more optimistic view than usual of the
dormant capability of all people (15)
Coaching can be used proactively, during performance or in review (15)
Coaching can occur spontaneously in a minute or hour-long session (16)
Two Key Principles of Coaching: (17)
1. Awareness
2. Responsibility
See people in terms of future potential, not past performance (17)
Building awareness, responsibility, and self-belief is goal of a coach (18)
We build self-belief when we make decisions, take successful actions, and recognize our full
responsibility for both our successes and our failures (18)
Treating each player as an equal even if their role is lesser (19)
Intent of every coach interaction is to build the coachee’s self-belief (19)
Chapter 2: The Manager as Coach
Manager must be experienced as support, not as threat (20)
For coaching to work at its best, the relationship between coach and coachee must be a
partnership of trust, safety, and minimal pressure (20)
Coaching demands highest qualities of a manager: empathy, integrity, detachment, and
willingness to adopt fundamentally different approach (20)
Traditional Management: (21)
Dictates: Boss feels in control Persuades: performer wonders if they have a choice
Debates: both feel involved but it may be slow Abdicates: performers feels obliged or
dumped on Boss’s Behavior: effects on each other
Coaching: (24)
- Performer chooses to take responsibility
, - Boss knows what is going on
Manager’s task is simple- to get job done and grow staff. Time and cost pressures limit the
latter. Coaching is on process with both effects. (25)
When Managers Should Coach: (25)
If time is predominant criterion in a situation, doing the job or telling someone else
exactly what to do will be the fastest way
If quality of result matters most, coaching high awareness and responsibility is likely
to deliver the most
If maximizing the learning is predominant, clearly coaching will optimize learning
and its retention
Chapter 3: The Nature of Change
If we do not change direction, we are liable to end up where we are headed (27)
Pace of technological innovation frequently leads to managers finding that they have never
learned the skills of the teams they employ (27)
Any new culture will have to deliver higher levels of performance but be far more socially
responsible than ever before (28)
Culture change will be, and needs to be, performance driven, but the definition of performance
is much broader today (28)
Competition and growth are both losing currency; stability, sustainability and collaboration are
gaining traction (28)
Deep down people want choice and responsibility (31)
Responsibility demands choice. Choice implies freedom. (31)
Companies often talk about getting rid of the “blame culture” – but don’t take action (31)
Blame is about history, fear, and the past. We need to refocus on aspiration, hope, and the
future. Not only does fear of blame inhibit even most calculated risk taking, it blocks honest
recognition, identification, and acknowledgement of inefficiencies in a system. (31)
Blame invokes defensiveness-defensiveness reduces awareness (31)
Stress results from long periods of suppression (32)
Offering someone choice and control whenever possible in workplace acknowledges and
validates their capability and self-esteem which eliminates stress (32)
Full acceptance of personal responsibility becomes a physical and psychological necessity for
survival (32)
Chapter 4: The Nature of Coaching
Building awareness and responsibility is essence of good coaching (33)
First element of good coaching is awareness, the product of focused attention, concentration,
and clarity (34)
I am able to control only what I am aware of. What I am unaware of controls me. Awareness
empowers me (34)
Awareness encompasses self-awareness (34)
Increase individual efficiency is for performer to become increasingly aware of sensations (34)
