Following on from the differences between Coaching, Training, Mentoring and Counselling, this post will look at different types of coaching. These should not be seen as rigid categories but areas of specialisation, and many coaches work in more than one of these areas.

Sports coaching

This is what many people think of when they hear the word ‘coach’. The term ’sports coach’ encompasses a wide range of roles and approaches, from the football manager on the touchline, through one-to-one coaches for athletes and players, to specialist coaches for fitness and health. There are also coaches who focus on the ‘mental game’, helping sports players fine-tune their psychological preparation for high-pressure events.

Several coaches have bridged the gap between sports and business coaching. Tennis pro Timothy Gallwey proposed a radical new approach to tennis coaching in his book The Inner Game of Tennis, which he later adapted for business in The Inner Game of Work. Another coaching classic is Coaching for Performance by John Whitmore, a former champion racing driver, which is chiefly concerned with coaching as an approach to management in business. Another example of a cross-over between sports and business coaching is The Little Book of Coaching by business author Ken Blanchard and the American football coach Don Shula.

Life coaching

A life coach works with clients to help them achieve their goals and reach fulfilment, in the personal and/or professional sphere. Finding a healthy balance and integration between work and personal life is often a key feature of life coaching. Coaching can encompass a wide range of issues, from inner work on thoughts and emotions through relationships with significant others, to very specific career goals and practical action plans.

The difference between life coaching and business coaching is often one of degree of emphasis, and will depend on the individual coach and client. Broadly speaking, in life coaching the main focus of attention is on the client’s life as a whole; while in business coaching, the main focus is on someone’s work, while recognising that truly effective professional development requires a healthy balance between work and other areas of life.

Another difference between life coaching and business coaching is that life coaching clients are more likely to be private individuals, whereas business coaches are more typically employed by organisations. There are exceptions - some companies engage life coaches to help their employees balance their personal and professional needs, and business coaches are also hired by individuals to help them achieve their career goals.

Business coaching

Business coaching is primarily concerned with improving performance at work and facilitating professional development. Formerly confined to senior management and known as ‘Executive coaching’, the more general term ‘Business coaching’ recognises the importance of coaching for people at all levels within an organisation.

Whereas coaching was formerly identified with external consultants brought in to provide a fresh perspective and specialist expertise, many companies now expect their managers to act as coaches for their teams. In my next two posts, I will look at the differences in the type of coaching provided by external consultants and managers.

My version of business coaching - ‘coaching creative professionals’

I’m a slightly unusual business coach in that I work mostly with creative professionals. I describe myself as a business coach rather than a life coach because the main focus of my coaching is on my clients’ work - their creative process, their working relationships and their professional goals.

Working within the creative industries however, the line between the personal and professional is often blurred, since most artists and creatives seek to make a career out of their passion rather than to keep the two separate. I describe my clients as ‘creative professionals’ to emphasise the importance of balancing creativity, authenticity, and a professional approach to high-level creative performance.

This may be a good place to point out that I do not believe the term ‘creative’ should be reserved for the ‘creative department’ - it includes everyone involved in the creative process, whether as writer, artist, designer, performer, programmer, director, manager, producer, editor, account handler, planner, marketer or client. And maybe even the artist formerly known as ‘the audience’.

Next in this series - ‘The External Coach’

I’ve not posted much over the past week due to my other commitments, but I had to write something when I heard that Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users fame has been receiving death threats. She describes the intimidation here on her blog - be warned it contains some very unpleasant language and images.

Maybe I’m being naive but I find this depressing. Kathy’s blog is in my blogroll because it’s one of the most inspiring, interesting and funny blogs out there. It radiates positive energy, just like her books. I actually found myself in Borders the other day admiring her Java book and thinking it was a shame I’ll never need to learn Java as it looked such a fun way to do it…

Anonymous insults and spam can be annoying, but this goes far beyond that. For Kathy’s peace of mind it would be great to think the person who did it will be caught. At the very least, I hope she’s able to put this behind her and get back to enjoying her blogging soon.

So amid all the positivity and creativity generated by blogs, this is a reminder of potential dangers. As usual it’s a case of a miniscule proportion of readers causing a problem, but that’s probably not much consolation if you’re the blogger singled out for abuse. Last year Darren Rowse at Problogger wrote about his experience of being stalked, and offered some advice about Personal Safety for Bloggers. You probably can’t think of any reason why someone would want to intimidate you, but I can’t think why anyone would want to do it to Kathy or Darren.

Anyway, to end on a positive note, if you haven’t read Creating Passionate Users yet, go have a look - you’re in for a treat.

I recently came across these notepads for creative meetings from Behance (via PSFK). They are designed to make creative people more productive by providing highlighted spaces for you to record agreed ‘next actions’ during meetings. There are also spaces for noting your ‘prep/focus’ for a meeting, as well as general notes.

So what? You might think. Do I really need a special notepad to do that for me? Well logically you probably don’t - but in the middle of a meeting/discussion/argument, when ideas are flying thick and fast, it’s easy for agreed actions to get lost in the thickets of scribbled notes. I’ve printed off the sampler and found that the highlighted ‘Action steps’ slots make it blatantly obvious afterwards what you’ve agreed to do. Let’s face it, creative projects can get pretty complicated, so I’m glad of anything that makes things a bit more obvious and easy.

Have a look at the pads for yourself - no, they’re not paying me to write this, and you can download a free PDF sample. The Behance site also includes an outline of their Action Method for processing action steps and meeting notes. If you’re a hardcore Getting Things Done fan, it should probably slot quite easily into your GTD system.

Behance also have a section featuring creative professionals who make ideas happen so if that’s you you might like to let them know.

I’ll be discussing creativity and innovation with other bloggers in this field at the Innovation Bloggers Virtual Forum on 26 April, organised by Jeff de Cagna at Principled Innovation.

The event will take the form of two audio roundtable discussions - numbers are limited but the tickets are free! I’ve got 20 tickets to give away, to the first 20 people to leave a comment on this post.

You don’t need to be a blogger to get a ticket, but if you are, we’d appreciate it if you would also link to the Innovation Bloggers Virtual Forum page.

I’m looking forward to a stimulating discussion and intrigued by the prospect of a live audio forum. I had a lot of fun doing a live virtual conference session on creativity at Successful Blog earlier this week - there’s nothing like speeding up the blogging conversation - so it will be great to do another live session.

Here’s the lineup of bloggers - some very interesting blogs on the list, well worth having a browse:

Morning Forum Roundtable (11 am EDT)

Renee Hopkins Callahan, IdeaFlow
Chuck Frey, InnovationTools
Jeffrey Phillips, Innovate on Purpose
Dave Pollard, How to Save the World

Afternoon Forum Roundtable (2 pm EDT)

Dominic Basulto, Endless Innovation
Sanjay Dalal, Creativity And Innovation Driving Business
Mark McGuinness, Wishful Thinking
Joyce Wycoff, Heads Up! on Organizational Innovation

(I’ll work out the GMT times nearer the day, once we’ve all got used to the new DST in the States.)

Thanks to Jeff for organising the event and inviting me to join in. I hope you will too!

A few reflections in the light of yesterday’s kerfuffle, with Annette and Johnnie as worthy sparring partners. Plus a sandy cat, of course - where would we be without sandy cats?

You never know what people will make of your words

One of the funny things about blogging is you never know which bits will provoke a response. You can slave away for ages at a post, only to watch it sink without trace in the digital ocean. Or you can write something off-the-cuff or with a feeling that it’s a bit dull, only to find people getting irate or excited, with links coming in from vertiginous heights in the Technorati rankings. I think I’ve said elsewhere that my original enthusiasm post was like that - something I’ve been saying for years to clients, that I thought would make a nice ‘filler’ post on the blog, which turned out to be the most popular page on Wishful Thinking.

I had a different kind of surprise yesterday, with my post about how Coaching is not Training, Mentoring or Counselling. I thought this was a bit of an obvious post, and that it would be clear that - as a trainer and therapist myself, as well as a coach - I was only highlighting some well-established differences, and that I wasn’t intending any slight on disciplines that I practise myself in other contexts.

But context is everything, as they say - having discussed it with Annette in her comments section, I can appreciate how fed up she gets if she meets people arguing that emotions have no place at work. It was a slightly surreal experience to be mistaken for one of them, but I think we’ve cleared that one up. Read the rest of this entry »

In my previous post I answered the question What Is Business Coaching?

Now I’ll sharpen up that definition by distinguishing coaching from other approaches - training, mentoring and counselling.

Coaching is not Training

While training and coaching both promote learning, they do so in different ways:

• Training is about teaching specific skills or knowledge - Coaching is about facilitating someone else’s thinking and helping them learn by working on live work issues.
• Training usually takes place off-site or in dedicated training sessions - Coaching takes place in the office and (when carried out by a manager) can be integrated into day-to-day workplace conversations.
• Training is more typically carried out in groups - Coaching is usually a one-to-one process and is tailored to the individual’s needs.
• Training is usually delivered by an external consultant or dedicated internal trainer - Coaching can be delivered by an external consultant or by a manager.

Although they are distinct activities, training and coaching can work very well when used together. One classic obstacle encountered in business training is the difficulty of transferring skills and enthusiasm from the training room to the workplace. Coaching is an excellent way of helping people apply what they learn from a course to their day-to-day work.

A research study found that post-course training had a dramatic effect on the effectiveness of one training programme - the paper is available here or via Amazon.

Coaching is not Mentoring

There are some superficial similarities between coaching and mentoring, as they are both typically one-to-one conversations aimed at facilitating professional development, but there are also significant differences:

• A Mentor is usually a more senior person who shares experience and advises a junior person working in the same field - A Coach is not necessarily senior to the person being coached, and not typically give advice or pass on experience; instead s/he uses questions and feedback to facilitate the other person’s thinking and practical learning.
• A Mentor is not typically the line manager of the person being mentored, but someone who is available for advice and guidance when needed - Coaching is frequently delivered by line managers with their teams.

Coaching is not Counselling

Again, there may be a superficial similarity in that both of these activites are one-to-one conversations, but their tone and purpose are very different:

• Counselling and therapy deal with personal problems - Coaching addresses workplace performance.
• Counselling begins with a problem - Coaching can begin with a goal or aspiration.
• Counselling is sought by people having difficulties - Coaching is used by high achievers as much as beginners or people who are stuck.
• Many (but not all) forms of Counselling focus on the past and the origins of problems - Coaching focuses on the future and developing a workable solution.

Next in this series - ‘Different Types of Coaching’

Here’s my simple definition of business coaching:

A focused conversation that facilitates learning and raises performance at work

The ‘coach’ can be either a manager or an external consultant. The ‘coachee’ (yes, I know it’s a horrible word, I’ll avoid it as much as I can) can be anyone who wants to get better at their work.

While coaching sometimes takes place in designated ‘coaching sessions’ it is also used by many organisations as a style of management, and takes place in a series of informal discussions between managers and their staff as they go about their daily business. In Eric Parsloe and Monica Wray’s words, this is coaching as “the way we do things round here” (Coaching and Mentoring*).

There are many other definitions in the business coaching literature. Some focus on coaching’s collaborative, conversational style:

Coaching is a collaborative, solution-focused, result-oriented and systematic process in which the coach facilitates the enhancement of work performance, life experience, self-directed learning and personal growth of individuals from normal (i.e. non-clinical) populations.
(Anthony M Grant, Solution-Focused Coaching)

Other definitions emphasise the dual function of coaching - improving performance and facilitating learning. For example:

“A manager’s task is simple – to get the job done and to grow his staff. Time and cost pressures limit the latter. Coaching is one process with both effects.”
(John Whitmore, Coaching for Performance)

“• Coaching is an approach to management – how one carries out the role of being a manager
• Coaching is a set of skills for managing employee performance to deliver results
Being a coach means that you see and approach the role of a manager as a leader: one who challenges and develops your employees’ skills and abilities to achieve the best performance results.”
(Marty Brounstein, Coaching and Mentoring for Dummies)

Here are some of the distinguishing characteristics of business coaching conversations.

A collaborative style

The words ‘coach’ and ‘coachee’ are slightly unfortunate in implying that the coach is a senior person who is there to dispense wisdom and advice. In fact, coaching can take place between peers and even ‘upwards’ with a more junior person coaching a senior, as well as in the classic manager-team member relationship.

Coaching is a collaborative process, in which people have clearly defined roles: the coach is responsible for keeping the conversation focused on a clearly defined goal, facilitating the other person’s thinking, keeping track of progress and delivering constructive feedback; the coachee is responsible for generating ideas and options, taking action to achieve the goal, and reporting progress.

One of the commonest ways for coaching to get ‘stuck’ is when these responsibilities are confused - for example, if the coach becomes attached to a particular way of doing things, and starts to tell the coachee what to do. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to Liz at Successful Blog for inviting me to do a Q&A Session on Creativity this afternoon. It was great fun - you can read the questions and my responses in the comments over there.

The virtual conference is still going on Successful Blog - here’s the full lineup (all times CDT, which is 5 hours behind GMT):

8:00 AM - Robyn McMaster on Laughter and Mistakes
9:00 AM - Sandra Renshaw on Graphics
10:00 AM - Mark McGuinness on Creativity
11:00 AM - Joe Hauckes on Navigation
12:00 PM- Rodney Rumford on Videoblogging
1:00 PM - Chris Garrett on Blogger Blunders
2:00 PM - Ellen Weber on Sleep and Music
3:00 PM - Wendy Piersall on Blogging Beyond the Blogosphere,
4:00 PM - Mike Wagner on Branding
5:00 PM - Terry Starbucker on What to Look for
6:00 PM - Chris Cree on Business Blogging
7:00 PM - Phil Gerbyshak on Being a Relationship Geek
8:00 PM - David Armano on the 4 Cs of Blogging

One of the questions I get asked most often is “So what exactly does a business coach for the creative industries do?”. My research project has also highlighted the fact that coaching is not really ‘on the radar’ for managers in most creative businesses.

So this is the start of a series introducing business coaching - what it is, who does it and how it works. I’ll be placing particular emphasis on the role that managers can play as coaches for their teams, to manage their performance and help them learn on the job. This is an often overlooked and undervalued role, since many people associate coaching solely with an external consultant (like me).

I also explain why coaching skills are particularly useful for managers in a creative businesses - such as an advertising agency, a design studio, a computer games developer or a TV production company.

I’m doing a live Q&A session about Creativity tomorrow on Liz Strauss’ Successful Blog - 3pm UK time, which I believe is 10am in that part of the States. I’ll start by posting a 5-point ‘Creativity Manifesto’ after which you’re free to wade in with questions and comments, and I’ll be responding in the comment section.

It’s billed as a Virtual Conference and a trailer for the SOBCon event in May, and Liz has lined up a marathon show with 13 ‘virtual speakers’ throughout the day. David Armano is the headline act (1am GMT, 8pm CDT) and there are lots of great bloggers appearing throughout the day, so I’m pleased to be on the bill.

Hats off to Liz for hosting the event - her attention to detail can be seen in the fact that she’s possibly the only blogger on the planet I can 100% trust to spell my name right without prompting!

It should be a lot of fun - hope to see you there…