That was the week that was

Last Sunday I hopped on a train and headed south for a week’s worth of activity in my old stamping ground of central London. ‘Twas a most interesting week for a variety of reasons and I wanted to record my thoughts and ideas here.

On Monday I delivered our workshop The Inner Game of Presenting. Our client was keen that we put together a programme that did not mean the participants having to make an actual presentation as part of the training. Quite a challenge and so I decided to work with my colleague Fiona Francis who is a corporate actor. Fiona was able to model the behaviours of a hapless presenter and then, with ongoing feedback and coaching from the group, gradually develop an effective presentation style. It proved to be a great learning experience and the feedback was quite amazing. (By the way the distance learning workbook on which this training was based is available at http://beyourownpresentationcoach.mattsomers.com/)

Tuesday had me delivering as session as part of the CIPD’s Coaching Across Teams and Cultures event. It was funny going from talking about making a presentation to having to make one myself, and I was aware of having picked up some really good tips from the previous day. The session was well received and generated some good debate on the move from coaching one on one to coaching in groups or teams. There was a great question on coaching virtual teams and I’ve produced an article on the subject which I’ve posted here too. If anyone would like the slides and accompanying notes, just email

The British Library

me or leave a comment.

Wednesday was a day of meetings and – not having any Central London premises – I was in need of a base. In the end I settled on The British Library on Euston Road with it’s combination of decent coffee, outstanding cake and free Wi-fi. I didn’t want to run my meetings in Starbucks but there were plenty of people that were. There were laptops and ringbinders everywhere and it was clear that many of the people participating in these meetings were from offices along the street. I guess meetings done this way will become more and more popular given that the chances securing a meeting room in most offices are about the same as winning the lottery.

Speaking of which, on Thursday I found myself on an upper floor of a building near Canary Wharf conducting a follow up day for a cleint of ours who had done Coaching at Work in the summer. Glorious views and little sign that the Credit Crunch had turned the finacial sector into a ghost town.

So, by now it’s Friday and another version of The Inner Game of Presenting.This version was for participants comfortable in delivering a mock presentation and the coaching from me and the rest of the group proved really effective in getting folks ready for when they have to do it for real.

With that done,  I threw myself at the mercy of the rail network and trundled back to North East England, tired but with a sense of accomplishment and a slice of British Library cake wrapped in a serviette!

Are you bright enough to figure it out?

I placed the following puzzle in my newsletter and put the answers here so people couldn’t cheat just by scrolling down. To subscribe to my newsletter please register at www.mattsomers.com.

What do the following words have in common?

1. Banana
2. Dresser
3. Grammar
4. Potato
5. Revive
6. Uneven
7. Assess

confused monkey

No, it is not that they all have at least two double letters….

GWB

still confused

Answer: In all of the words listed, if you take the first letter, place it at the end of the word, and then spell the word backwards, it will be the same word!

Well I think it’s interesting and no, I couldn’t figure it out the first time either.

More coaches……

On your marks, get set.....

We ran our core programme, Coaching at Work again this week. Here are the participants’ Personal Learning Objectives along with my closing comments.

Names have been changed to protect the innocent but I’ll send a free paper, Coaching for an Easier Life, for anyone who spots where I’ve got the replacement names from. Just leave a comment.

Jack: Coaching for the development and motivation of Team Leaders

I hope that you feel that you’ve learnt enough to pass on to your Team Leaders. Actually one of the best ways of reinforcing things that you learn on a course is to try to teach them to other people. I recommend that you cover PERFORMANCE = Potential minus Interference and the Performance, Learning and Enjoyment triangle in the first instance.

Kate: Coaching for thoroughness

The simple coaching question here is “How thoroughly can you do this?” As people figure out the answer, they naturally and automatically discover ways of being more thorough. Magic!!

Sayid: Coaching for self….then team

I think it was Gandhi who said “If we want to change the World with whom should we start, ourselves or others?” (but he did only make one film!)

Hugo: Coaching for proactivity

This is about our second key principle of Responsibility. It’s about getting people to choose to be proactive rather than trying to make them proactive. In turn this is about creating an interest in the benefits of the proactive approach knowing now that focus follows interest.

Sun: Coaching for “Emotional Intelligence”

The term itself was brought to our attention by Daniel Goleman, with his book ‘Emotional Intelligence and Primal Leadership’ in 1995. Essentially it’s about being aware of your own emotions as well as the emotions of those around you, understanding how those emotions impact on behaviour and learning how to adapt your behaviour to achieve the desired outcome.

What better way than coaching, with its emphasis on the raising of non judgemental awareness, to get people in touch with these things?

Aaron: Coaching through challenging times

There are few more challenging times than helping people come to terms with possible or actual job loss. Just remember that some people and organisations pay an absolute fortune to outpalcement organisations for career coaching. You now have the ability to provide real, meaningful support to people facing this major change. You might not be able to stop the waves, but you sure can help them surf!

All change!

Been a while since I’ve posted as I’ve been very busy this summer making some changes in the business.

Firstly, we have moved offices. After 10 years at the Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) in Sunderland, I decided it was time for a change and we’re now based at The Old Brewery in Castle Eden.

The Old Brewery

So why the move after all that time?

Well it was certainly nothing to do with the level of service from the BIC which was always excellent. I don’t think my business would ever have taken root without their help and I would recommend that any new (or indeed existing business) based in the area check out their offering at www.ne-bic.co.uk

Coming here to The Old Brewery was more to do with creating a change in thinking. I was tired of getting in my car and undertaking the same journey each day. I was tired of waving at the same people as I arrived in the car park, much as I loved them all!

I felt my mind was getting stale and flabby and I wanted to shake things up.

My new office looks out on a leafy lane and  a golf course. There is an Italian restaurant on site which is lovely but I won’t be eating there very day for fear that my next blog post will be about gargantuan weight gain.

The second major change came about because my IT guru, Kris was moving on to pastures new. I was following the usual channels of talking to agencies to find a replacement when I friend of mine got in contact asking if I knew anyone with a vacancy for a marketing graduate.

I met with Ashley and offered her the role there and then. Being a graduate this summer must be pretty miserable I reckon and my own family is affected as my nephew and his girlfriend work hard to get themselves fixed up. Ashley had not a whiff of ‘victim’ about her though and was just keen to find something that would enable her to build her experience and strengthen her CV. I’m glad I had something to offer her.

So, we’ll unpack our crates and so on, then I’ll post again soon on all things coaching. I’m away on a business trip next week too, which means airports and planes and  a strong possibility therefore of some dreadful customer service for me to rant about when I get back.

Introducing Colin

Finding the right focus

Following my post ‘Focus’ the other week, many people got in touch asking about the back story behind the clip of this guy hitting a golf ball.

Here’s the link again if you need it.  www.mattsomers.com/mattgolf.htm

So….

Colin was a participant in our coaching skills training programme a year or so ago. Like many of our clients he was keen on discovering modern, up to date ways of getting results through people. He was finding that his tried and tested techniques of ‘command and control’ just weren’t working anymore.

We got to the stage of the course where I expose the limitations of an overly directive, telling style approach and begin instead to illustrate how a coaching approach based on questioning creates much more learning and insight. We were also discussing how a coach does not need to have any actual expertise in the subject on which they coach.

This was a step too far for Colin and he began to protest quite loudly. “That’s nonsense”, he said ” you must need to know what you’re talking about.  I can’t hit a golf ball to save my life,  so someone would have to teach me what to do. You couldn’t coach me through that!”

The clip – and here’s the link again www.mattsomers.com/mattgolf.htm – shows what happened next.

Game, set and match!

That's it, he's done it

Like a lot of English people I turn into an expert on tennis for Wimbledon fortnight each year. I thought yesterday’s final was a magnificent advert for sport and although neither player deserved to lose I’m pleased to see Roger Federer get the record for Grand Slam victories.

My interest in tennis picked up some years ago when I began training as a coach with Sir John Whitmore. He advised me to look into the work of Tim Gallwey, starting with The Inner Game of Tennis. This I did and found a world of insight into the nature of people and performance; insights with a reach far beyond hitting a little fluffy ball.

So began my 15 years of coaching and providing coaching skills training including publishing my own three books. Despite the super-fast growth of coaching and the vast array of new principles and insights I still return time and again to the core principles of the inner game. Something I would encourage anyone with more than a passing interest in coaching to do.

The Inner Game of Tennis

Of course there’s an absolute plethora of coaching literature out there, so I have provided an up to date ‘recommended reading’ list of my Coaching Books website.

Focus!

Andy Murray wins the match

So shouted Andy Murray to himself last night as he prevailed in a tough five-setter at Wimbledon.

‘Tis a funny old thing focus; hard to gain in the first palce and hard to keep once we’ve found it.

During my talk at the Training Journal conference last week I ran an exercise I like to use around finding focus using ball catching as a metaphor.

We might conclude that keeping your eye on the ball would be a useful quality to bring to the task of ball catching. Let’s consider four ways I might try to help you do that.

1.    “Watch the ball!”
2.    “Are you watching the ball?”
3.    “Why aren’t you watching the ball?”
4.    “What do you notice about the ball as it comes towards you?

Find the right focus and performance takes care of itself

Let’s consider the impact of these. 1 is a command. It does not actually give you anything to try in an effort to focus on the ball and if you don’t like me or feel under pressure, you’ll probably elect to look at something else. 2 is a closed question. You will probably answer, yes, but I won’t know if you were truly watching the ball or not. 3 is an interrogative question and likely to be met with a defensive, justifying response. Only 4 is a focus generating, coaching question because you cannot answer it without paying attention to the ball.

Now imagine I was coaching you on something complex like selling. We might conclude that asking your customers open questions would be a useful quality to bring to the task. Again, here are four ways I could try to help.

1.    “Use open questions!”
2.    “Are you using open questions?”
3.    “Why aren’t you using open questions?”
4.    “How would you rate the quality of the open questions that you ask?”

Contrast approaches 1 and 4. 1 will create anxiety and tension or fatigue and resentment. 4 will have me thinking about the questions I’m asking and deciding on what basis I would rate their quality. I really have to think about my questions to do this and so I’m going to be learning about questions to a much higher degree than normal and in my own unique way. Powerful stuff.

Which approach will promote best focus on the qualities you’re seeking to develop? In the same way that the ball can teach us how to catch, our customers can teach us all we need to know about selling our products and services. Similarly, our staff can teach us all we need to know about how to get the best from them. We just need to become keen and attentive students. We need, in other words, to focus on the right things. Using coaching questions creates focus infinitely better than commands and instructions, we’ve just become used to a command and control world. Time to develop some new habits I think, Andy Murray included.

For more on using coaching questions to create focus go to www.mattsomers.com/mattgolf.htm

Oh You’re that coaching bloke!

How much of your people's potential do you currently see at work?

So said a fellow speaker at this year’s Training Journal conference in London. (Perhaps this ‘personal branding’ mularkey has something going for it after all)

An interesting day it was too.

We just about made our train to London having battled with an unexpected traffic jam, but settled in for a pleasant journey made all the more enjoyable by the presence of the world’s jolliest train attendent. If this guy can scoop up rubbish and soak up coffe spills with a smile and a whistle then I’m sure the rest of us should be able to perform our own (presumably more pleasant) tasks with a lot more humour and good grace.

Take for instance the so called Receptionist at the conference venue who managed to drag herself away from her lunch just long enough to mumble a couple of incoherent registration instructions through a mouthful of Coronation Chicken.

My talk on “Coaching through the Credit Crunch” seemed to go down well and it was encouraging to see so many people committed to providing proper, meaningful development to their people depsite dwindling or non-existant training budgets.

Less encouraging was the dismay felt by an Organisation Development director we spoke to who felt patronsied and ’sold to’ in another seminar she had attended and here’s where I need your help and comments.

When we agree to talk at these events (usually for free) we suppliers are keen to promote our wares and strike up helpful conversations. Conference participants are there to learn something and want to leave with some practical ideas and/or some genuinely new thinking.

How best can we rationalise these two sets of needs?

Please let me know what you think.

Coaches: we just keep churning ‘em out.

What comes after left again?

Been doing some coaching skills training again this week with a group of managers with the usual frustrations that come from having to get results through other people.

Happily everyone left with a bagful of ideas to try back at work.

Here are their personal learning objectives (albeit with names changed to protect privacy) along with my parting advice.

Terry: Coaching to achieve results through others

To go from achieving results oneself to achieving results through others is a big, big step to take. The real challenge comes not from taking up new behaviour but from giving up old behaviour. We need to give up the need for control. ‘Telling’ gives us control, ‘Delegating’ gives them control. Coaching gives both control.

Lynval: Coaching for motivation

You cannot motivate people; they can only motivate themselves. You can use coaching to find out what ‘needs’ your people want to be satisfied at work and look to create conditions which meet those needs. Assuming a reasonable degree of satisfaction with pay and conditions you are better off looking at the higher level needs around performance, learning and enjoyment.

Neville: Coaching for responsibility/ Buy-in

For people to take up responsibility they need to:

•    Believe they are capable
•    Value the outcome
•    Be willing to try

They will continue to resist until these conditions are satisfied and so you can now use coaching to explore their views on these three areas.

Jerry: To start a coaching culture

One big indicator of a coaching culture is when ‘performing’ and ‘learning’ are no longer seen as separate, competing activities. Enabling line managers to coach and making HR supporters of learning – rather than drivers of learning – creates a great start.

Horace: Coaching for direction and decision making

This is all about clarity around Aims:

Dream                         WHY are you doing this?
Performance Goal      WHAT exactly are you going to do?
Processes                   HOW are you going to take this forward?

Rico: Coaching to take ideas forward

When we make suggestions we might improve the quality of somebody’s idea by say, 5%, but if their commitment to it is then lessened by 50%, it’s not a good outcome. Put the stress on YOU when asking the Options and Way Forward questions e.g. What are YOU going to do? When are YOU going to do it?

PS I will send a FREE copy of my report “How to Build a Coaching Culture” for the first comment that correctly identifies where I’ve got these names from.

Good to go again in September!

Wow! Britain really has got talent.

Reminds me of my own break dancing days

We were big fans of BGT in our house. It’s easy to sneer, but for me it was good, old-fashioned family entertainment and I enjoyed watching it with my wife and daughter each night and joining in the endless analysis the next day at work.

I thought that Diversity were worthy winners and was quite stunned by the innovation and creativity that went into their routine. Real ‘out of the box’ thinking if ever I saw it.

There were lots of examples of good and bad coaching throughout the series although I doubt the producers or contestants saw it in those terms. I guess the prime example was when 10 year old Hollie forgot her lyrics and broke down in tears in her semi final. Well done to all concerned for letting her have another go; the incident could have haunted her for life otherwise. She went on to give a remarkably assured performance a few minutes after being in bits; a testament to the resiliance of children!

Of course, it’s impossible to watch a programme like this and not feel slightly uneasy that we’re being entertained at the expense of rather desperate and often deluded people, but they’re there through choice I suppose.

As I write, the runner-up, Susan Boyle has been admitted to hospital suffering from a breakdown of some kind. My learning from this is that when coaching people to perform at their best under presure we must make sure that the support continues after the event whatever level of success our coachee has achieved.

If a 10 year old can go on to sing her socks off in front of 10 million people, then you or I can recover from a fluffed presentation or a lost sale.