As children there are many people who dream of being professional athletes, but the reality is that the majority of people won’t make it that far. It’s not that people who have a real passion for their sport shouldn’t dream of being a professional athlete, they should just remember that it’s truly one in a million athletes who are that good, that consistently. While some of the people who dream of being a professional athlete make it, the others who don’t make it don’t need to think that they cannot have a career in sports. Even if you can’t play professionally, you can make a career out of sports and still really enjoy your job. Many people get so down in the dumps when they realize that they won’t be playing professional baseball, football, or basketball but there is still so much that can be done with their love for sports. There are plenty of outlets associated with sports that will be a good outlet for your talents and knowledge of the sport that you so love. There are opportunities to work with kids, and even work with professional athletes as a trainer on other capacities. So, if you love professional sports and you just didn’t quite have what it takes to play, don’t give up on sports altogether. Instead of giving up on the dream to have a career in sports, just recreate it a bit. Consider going to school to get your teaching degree so that you can teach and also coach children who are just developing a passion for sports. You can help children develop their talents so perhaps they can make it and enjoy the world of professional sports. Helping to develop other people into the professional athlete you always wanted to be will be almost as rewarding as getting there yourself. Coaching children for fun is also something you can do, even if you don’t decide to make a career out of sports. Coaching little league or fun leagues is a great way to stay in the game and make a difference in the life of someone who has as much passion for the sport as you do. You can help someone develop their talents so that they have a chance at realizing your dreams, from your experience you’ll be able to help shape and guide them on their journey to the big leagues. While you may be disappointed that you aren’t a professional athlete yourself, it doesn’t have to be the end of sports for you. You can take your experiences and let other people benefit from them. When you have a hand in the development of an athlete you’ll feel alive again, and when you can share your passion with other people it’s even better. Spanish Mortgages

A coaching skills training course delegate was recently explaining his frustration at the lack of interest and motivation his staff were showing when being coached. He explained that the normal reaction to being coached was for his staff to cross their arms, lean back in their chairs and adopt an almost ‘bet you can’t coach me!’ attitude. No doubt these same people would leave the coaching conversation thinking ‘See. I’ve won. You can’t coach me!’ How sad.

I suggested that he adopt a less well known coaching tool called Transposing to help him work this through.

Transposing works by getting you to adopt another person’s viewpoint and ask: What am I thinking, what am I feeling and what do I want?

I asked the manager to think of one particular individual – let’s call him Doug. Transposing Doug made us realise that he was thinking “Oh God, what have I done wrong? If I’m being coached, I must be seen as underperforming!”

We also figured that Doug was feeling anxious and uncertain. His interactions with management at the company in the past had usually resulted in a ‘telling off’ in some shape or form. No wonder he was acting like a beaten dog and holding himself stiff until the next beating arrived.

The real revelation happened when we considered what it was that Doug might want. We realised that given his prevailing thoughts and feelings, he would want to get out of the meeting as soon as possible; with his dignity intact.

The real reason why Doug was so reluctant to get involved was now obvious and the manager and I were able to devise a way he could position coaching to overcome these thoughts and feelings. It happened that Doug was a massive sports fan and so his manager pointed out that Tiger Woods, David Beckham and so on were all incredible performers with very little wrong with their games, and yet these same people valued their relationship with their coach above all others. He also pointed out that sports coaches were rarely, if ever, better performers than there clients, but that this was not the point. This lead to Doug realising that coaching was not about his manager just telling him what to do, how to do it, and pointing out all his mistakes. Instead it was an opportunity for Doug to explore his working life and find ways forward in the areas he found he found difficult or frustrating. In fact at a subconscious level Doug began ‘transposing’ his boss, appreciating how difficult it must be to provide coaching to such a truculent group. This mutual empathy is a wonderful by-product of the transposing tool and I’m happy to report that Doug’s relationship with his manager is now flourishing.

By the way, another good reason for walking a mile in your coachee’s shoes is that if things don’t work out, you’ll be a mile away and you’ll have their shoes!! Matt Somers is a leading voice on coaching in the UK where he writes, presents, trains and consults on all aspects of Coaching at Work. An author and regular conference speaker, he is currently producing a range of resources to help with the people side of working life; many of which can be accessed for FREE at http://www.mattsomers.comfree wii console

The word coaching is synonymous with sports teams. A coach can help athletes to develop the mindset to achieve, to set and achieve goals that to many people seem insurmountable, but with focus and clarity, can be met or exceeded. They can help a sportsperson to reach their full potential by planning structured training programmes, providing feedback on performance, and helping them to become more effective. However, coaching has become more prevalent in other areas. Life coaching has developed significantly over the last few years, with many coaches specialising in niche areas such as health, financial and career coaching to name a few.    To concentrate on the rising demand for employing a career coach, why should you choose a coach to help you to progress in your career?   A career coach will help you in many ways. Like in the description of a sports coach above, they will help you to develop and reach your potential, be successful and achieve results. A career coach will normally work with you on a one-to-one basis and will often offer group workshops, teleseminars and e-books to support you to progress in your career.    A career coach can help you in the following areas:   Career exploration and discovery   You may be unhappy or dissatisfied in your job and feel that there is something else out there, but are not sure what it is. A career coach can help you to discover what is important to you in your job and make sure that it uses your talents, skills, and strengths, and provides you with the reward you deserve.   Understand your strengths and weaknesses   A career coach will help you to develop an insight into your strengths and weaknesses. This will allow you to understand yourself better and support any decisions you make in your career. It will highlight areas you may not have considered before and you can address any weaknesses that may be holding you back or use them to your advantage.   Develop your career vision and design your career   A career coach can help you to structure a plan to progress your career. By helping you to understand your skills and abilities, they can help you to plan your ideal job and how you are going to get there.   Develop confidence in your own ability   You may have a plan for your future, but you may be consciously or subconsciously holding yourself back. A career coach can help you to develop greater confidence in your ability as well as providing you with the support and motivation to help you to achieve your goal.   Provide job search support   A career coach can help you during all stages of your job search. From helping you to develop your CV, to finding the ideal job and then succeeding at the interview, a career coach will support you every step of the way.   Help you to get ready for promotion   You don’t need to want to change your career to benefit from employing a career coach. They can help you to get ready for promotion, plan for the next step in your career, and support you to develop your talents.    Support you in the workplace   If you are unhappy at work, there may be many reasons why this may be so. A career coach can also help you to deal with difficult situations or people and become more assertive. You can increase your profile at work, build better relationships and improve your own personal effectiveness.    Make sure that your goals are congruent with other parts of your life   A career does not exist on its own and is part of your overall life. It is important that a career coach makes sure that your career goals fit in well with other parts of your life. For example, if work/life balance is essential for you, they will ensure that you consider this when planning or progressing your career.   Provide you with greater self awareness   Some career coaches will use psychometric tests or other techniques that will help you to develop a greater self awareness of yourself. A greater self awareness will help you to understand yourself better, build stronger relationships, and communicate more effectively.   Support you every step of the way   Like other coaches, career coaches will support you every step of the way.  Their role is to:    - Challenge you and ensure that you commit to making the changes you desire. – Hold you accountable to the actions you want to take.  You will need to report on your results, which means that as well as being accountable to yourself, you need to demonstrate what you have achieved to your coach. – Question you and challenge your ideas and thoughts. – Listen to you without any agenda for themselves, which gives you a chance to come up with your own solutions which are right for you. – Celebrate your successes and recognise when you have overcome difficulties or challenges. – Keep you motivated even when the going gets tough! Copyright Karen Williams 2008. All Rights Reserved For more information about career coaching, go to http://www.selfdiscoverycoaching.co.uk/. You can sign up to receive the free e-book “7 steps to recession-proof your career” and find out more about one-to-one coaching, group workshops and e-books (http://www.lifecoachingebooks.co.uk) to help you to rediscover your career.
Karen Williams is a Personal Development Coach and runs her own coaching practice, Self Discovery Coaching. She has over ten years experience of working in Human Resources, training, coaching and management roles and is a Chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).Free Wordpress Plugins

Ask anyone to define the word coach and you will get a wide variety of responses. Some will say a coach is a sort of tutor or instructor, but others will say it’s a large, multi-wheeled railway carriage. Unfortunately, the second definition is about as helpful as the first in deciding what coaching at work is all about.

To receive ‘coaching’ and to be a ‘coach’ are both very popular terms right now but they are both widley misunderstood. Coaching is ultimately about raising the levels of human performance and, as such, has connections with teaching, training, counselling and mentoring. However, there are subtle but important differences that we need to understand.

Essentially, coaching comprises two main facets. First it is performance focused. It is about doing the job as well as it can be done, hitting targets, getting results and doing the right things in the right way. Secondly,it is person centred which means that it is the individuals being coached who are seen as having the important insights. In the most fundamental terms then, coaching is not about ‘putting in’, rather it is about ‘drawing out’.

By using coaching we can tap into the huge reserves of talent and potential which lay dormant in most people. As managers, we can develop people without having to rely on passing on our own skills and knowledge, which may already be out of date. Without an ability to coach we are left to trust the tired old methods of teaching and instruction which are proving increasingly ineffective in the world of constant change to which we are all having to adjust.

When most people think about coaching, they think about a sports coach shouting and yelling at the players and trying to help them succeed without being directly involved. In sport,the role of coach is crucial in helping people perform at their peak, and even the most accomplished sportspeople such as Tiger Woods or Roger Federer still gain huge benefit from a good relationship with their coach.

The role of the organizational coach is much the same. Whether the coaching is delivered by a manger as a general part of their duties or by a specific coach, they will still be trying to achieve results through others. In thinking about coaching in this way we can see that there is great benefit to be had from having someone in the organization who has the skills and abilities to draw the best out of others. If it were possible to have everyone in an organization improve their performance by as little as one or two per cent then the results would be staggering.

Many organizations are now taking the power of coaching very seriously and appointing people to the specific role of coach. Whilst managers may have the skills and abilities to coach well they are often preoccupied with more task oriented matters and can struggle to find the time to coach effectively.

Increasingly we are able to tap into coaching outside our organizations. There are many small consultancies offering Executive Coaching, where top-level managers in organizations can have regular weekly or monthly sessions with a trained coach to help them work through their current issues. It can often be of great benefit to have a coach who does not work in the organization and who is, therefore, not involved in the same issues. Similarly, some people are now seeking the services of Life Coaches to help them work through personal problems, achieve goals and strike an effective work/life balance.

Whatever the context, we can see that coaching is intended to be a means by which one individual seeks to help another move forward and develop in some way. Matt Somers is a leading voice on coaching in the UK where he writes, presents, trains and consults on all aspects of Coaching at Work. An author and regular conference speaker, he is currently producing a range of resources to help with the people side of working life; many of which can be accessed for FREE at http://www.mattsomers.com whitesmoke software