Converting a discussion into a decision

The big thing about coaching is that the person being coached has to DO something, but that the coachee has to remain in control - s/he has to have choice and ownership which means that it is possible the coachee may decide to take no action.  Here are some questions that John Whitmore in his book Coaching for Performance advocates using as part of the coaching process:

• What are you going to do?  Often a plan will involve a number of different options.
• When are you going to do it?  When we give something a time frame it makes it real.
• Will this action meet your goal?
• What obstacles might you encounter?  It's important to prepare for these!
• What support do you need?  Sometimes it's enough to share your intended action with another person as a way of encouraging you to do it.

In order to improve performance there needs to be learning - and learning involves self-motivation so that you want to change.  Whitmore writes that performance, learning and motivation are linked - if you don't have one of the three then the other two will suffer.  Performance cannot be improved if there is no learning or no motivation.  

Original artwork by an ASB student