Coaching draws on many different influences. For most people the word itself is connected with sporting activities and it is easy to understand how the relationship between performer and coach works in that setting. The sporting connection also offers some useful comparisons that can help make the case for coaching. Sports coaches are rarely better performers than the people whom they coach. In fact many top sports coaches these days were fairly average performers but recognize that good coaching is not about passing on skills but about being a catalyst to the development of the coachee(s). Coaching also draws on many principles from psychotherapy such as the need to establish the boundaries of the working relationship and the importance stressed on active listening. In coaching at work we can also wee many parallels with Organization Development and Management Training. Many of the structured psychological models such as Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) and Transactional Analysis (TA) have enjoyed something of a renaissance alongside the rising popularity of coaching.
I believe that it is these diverse influences that have led to the fragmentation of the coaching approach and the different branches of the profession that are emerging. For the purposes of this article I will concentrate on the main three. Firstly, we have Life Coaching. This normally takes place at the behest of an individual who wants some help in resolving issues in one or more parts of their personal life. This can often involve coaching around relationship difficulties, making a career change, retirement or any of life’s significant turning points. Where the Life Coach uncovers some deep rooted, serious issue such as physical abuse or spiralling debt they will normally refer their client for more specialist help.
Then there’s Executive Coaching which is normally brought in to help the senior team manage a piece of significant change such as a merger or acquisition. Many Executive coaches are accomplished business people themselves and probably need that credibility to get through the door and make a start. It follows that much of what they do can be thought of as more like consultancy than the coaching I’ve described here, but that is of little consequence to the executive who feels they’ve been helped. Finally we have what we might call manager-coaching (for want of a better term). This is coaching undertaken by the manager or team leader as part and parcel of their role and for the benefit of their team members. This is the most impactful type of coaching in my view and the one on which the rest of this book will concentrate.
Despite the variety of influences and the differing types of coaching now on offer, there appears to be a number of common elements that create a philosophy of coaching. Coaching adopts the same stance as humanistic psychology in its intention to bring about the release of potential. There is a nod toward existentialism in the notion that people are not hapless victims but always have choice and that their behaviour is a result of the choices they make. We can see a lot of Eastern influences in coaching in the emphasis placed on operating the present and in the belief that people are equipped with all that they need to be productive. Finally, coaching adheres to the constructivist principle that there is no one single version of truth or reality.
My aim in writing this and my many other articles concerning how coaching compares has been to ‘ring fence’ coaching so that we can understand how it fits with the other things we do as part of people management. The purpose of managing people at work is to get the job done well and help our team members take advantage of any opportunities that doing the job well presents. Coaching encompasses both of these points because it is performance focused but person centred.
We know that coaching shares aspects of instructing, mentoring, counselling and so on but also has important distinctions. Coaching requires no expertise or background on the part of the coach. Whist instructing and training are effective at developing initial skills and abilities, coaching has proven the most effective way of developing higher skills once people have reached a point where they need to develop in their own unique way. In truth, a good coach – in the widest sense of the term – will probably move from ‘tell’ to ‘coach’ and back again within the course of any coaching arrangement. Their concern will be with developing people, not with labelling the type of development they’re doing.
Coaching draws on a wide range of influences such as sport, management development and the helping professions. This has led to a fragmenting of the profession and the emergence of specialisms such as Life Coaching and Executive Coaching. However all coaching has unifying principles including recognizing different versions of reality, working in the present and seeing the individual as resourceful, with all the potential they need to achieve their goals.
Let me leave you with a tip…
Before you do anything else get together with the people whom you’ll coach and decide on a working definition for yourselves. It doesn’t matter if your chosen version doesn’t exactly match an official definition but it must provide a consistent approach that everyone can sign up to. Matt Somers is the UK’s leading trainer of managers as coaches. His training programmes, books, articles and seminars have helped thousands of managers achieve outstanding results through their people. To get your FREE guide “How to build a Coaching Culture” visit www.mattsomers.comcharacter education

Using the Athlete DISC to Create High Performance Teams Great teamwork happens when those on the team have a philosophy of being the best person for the team rather than the best person in the team. Often athletes compete brutally against each other in order to be selected on the team and then once they are on the team, they are expected to put the team first. This is quite a departure from their previous thinking when they had to fight for themselves. However, if their thinking does not change, then we end up with a non-united team. A team of individuals. A team that without question, will fail to produce their best when it matters the most. As coaches, we may or may not have a role in selecting our team. Some do and some don’t. Regardless of this, every coach, must understand the interplay of behavioural styles / personalities that exist of their team. This interplay is called Team Dynamics and just by observing a team, it can be quite a challenge to accurately understand the diverse mix of these styles. To fully and accurately understand, coaches can turn to the Athlete DISC and the Team Dynamics Profiling. After all, most teams fail due to clashes of behaviour patterns (”personality clashes”). Clashes that could have been managed had the coach and team been aware of them. Creating Great Teams Some coaches assume any group can automatically be a team. One of the biggest single reasons that teams misfire is that personality differences are ignored. In short, who’s selected for the team will affect the outcome. For best results, we must be strategic about the athletes on the team, what their behavioural style is and what the outcome of these behavioural styles is in creating the Team Dynamics Profile. With this knowledge coaches can begin to understand likely team behaviours and the most effective way to coach the overall team. Coaches can also see where gaps are in the team’s diversity and can, where able, recruit athletes of particular profiles to fill those gaps. When coaches create a sporting team and employ their knowledge of the four Athlete DISC behavioral styles, they can greatly improve the team’s chances for success. Coaches will need to take into account that there are natural allies and antagonists among the styles and also that each style functions best at a different phase in the life cycle of a team. For information on Team Development Stages, stay tuned as an article is coming out soon on this topic. For example, Interactive styles (I’s) often see Compliant styles (C’s) as overly-analytical and rule governed. Dominant styles (D’s) might sooner die than have to continually wait on the more considerate style of the Steady team members (S’s). Compliant styles, while often drawn to Steady styles, have difficulty understanding the Interactive style’s lack of focus or the Dominant style’s impatience. And Steady styles only wish everyone was as amiable and tolerant as they. So while the potential for conflict is always there, it needn’t become the reality. In creating a team, think about who you are putting on it and monitor how they function during the group’s evolution. That way you’ll not only make the best possible use of the strengths of each team member, you can help create a whole that’s much larger than the sum of the parts. Discovering what styles you have on your team is easy. When each of your team, complete an Athlete DISC Profile, they will be mapped onto a Team Dynamics Chart like the one below. Visit our site to see the article on this topic and view the Dynamics Profile Chart. In the Team Dynamics Profile example, a coach can see that there are two different percentage measures in each Behavioural Style. The first percentage is the Norm Group. The norm group is a measure of the % of team members that theoretically form a healthy amount of a certain behavioural style. The other percentage is Your Group. This is the actual percentage of a certain behavioural style that exists in your team. The first aspect to look at in the Team Dynamics Profile, is the Norm Group vs Your Group percentage. We ideally want these percentages to map to the theory percentages. Successful teams tend to have healthy diversity within the behavioural profiles. Can you think of what may occur if one behavioural style is oversupplied? In the above example, the first team issue to notice is the lack of D’s. In teams, D’s provide a sense of urgency, a pace setting style of leadership, a love of a challenge, a strong results focus and a what ever it takes style of play. What do you think may be the outcome for a team that is missing these qualities? Think about team members who naturally want to assume a leadership role, what profile do you think they are most likely? The second observation is that there are too many I’s. Interactive (I) style behaviours are fast paced, people oriented, motivated by change and fun, are impulsive with their choices, will be interested in the social side of sport as well as the need for individual recognition. As well, I’s are talkative types who tend to wear there heart on their sleeve more so than the other styles. With roughly twice as many I’s as the theory suggests is required, this team will likely struggle at times to switch on a focus. There may be a lot of off topic communication and if their coach does not provide excitement and fun elements at training, then they will start to disengage. The other factor in this team, is that their Steady style (S) is under represented. S styles are described as the ultimate team player. They listen, are observant of others, portray tolerance, are highly amiable and generally will naturally put the team before themselves. Some describe S’s as the glue that binds the team together. What do you think may happen in this team given that there are not enough of the S’s? Finally, the Compliant style. You will notice that this style is also over represented by 25%. Compliant styles (C’s) are rule guided, motivated by structure and systems being effective and efficient, are stubborn and inflexible to change unless there is sufficient evidence such as facts and figures to support the change. They are also likely to be highly conscious of quality above all else, are interested in the “right” process before the result and are more a thinker than a feeler who will be reticent to express themselves. Whilst fantastic people to have on a team, they can often be prone to preferring to work alone. So knowing this what impact do you think the impact on the team will be? In summary, Team Dynamics Profiling gives us concrete indications on how the team will bond, interact and ultimately perform. Obtaining accurate information on Team Dynamics is easy and inexpensive using the Athlete DISC Profiling system. I have noticed that when teams significantly underperform, there is almost always critical behavioural issues (”personality clashes”) that were never addressed by the coach. Sport is tough enough. Coaching is one of the most challenging roles a person can have. In a recent survey of elite coaches from a diversity of sports, coaches rated the three most challenging aspects of their roles. 50% rated “Understanding individual athlete’s personality and how to best motivate them”. 46% rated “Personal life balance – managing sport, career, home and social life.” And 31% rated “Team/squad dynamics and managing relationships within the team/squad”. Don’t make your job any harder by neglecting this critical aspect of team performance. Use the knowledge available with Athlete Assessments and the Athlete DISC to assist you to make better informed decisions. Boden Hanson is a four time Olympian and Triple Olympic Medalist. He is one of Australia’s most dynamic speakers on sport and business performance. He founded Athlete Assessments to assist coaches and athletes to improve their results through better understanding of themselves and others. He can be contacted through http://www.athleteassessments.com or bo.hanson@athleteassessments.com •Four Times Olympic Rowing Representative for Australia.
•Three Times Olympic Medalist.
•Specialist Coaching Consultant.
•Corporate Training Consultant and Presenter.Student Aid

Being a sports coach can be an incredibly rewarding job, even if it is just a part time you can still enjoy the experience of nurturing an individual or a team which has talent and developing them into top level professionals of their sport.  Much like a school teacher teaching a child to read and write, you are able to notice a hidden talent in your athletes and being the best out in them, leading them to succeed at their sport.But what makes a good coach?  Experience is no doubt a key factor.  Having played a sport for many years you will have learnt many great skills, strategies and tactics from your own coached.  This has undoubtedly helped successful managers in the world of Football, Basketball and Rugby.  The same can be said for any sport, a coach who understands the game and how it’s played is always going to have the edge over a coach who has learnt everything they know from a book.Another sign of a good coach is studying the game, as well as personal experience a good coach will study other teams and other coaches for tips.  Many professional sports teams will have entire teams of scouts whose job it is to spy on the upcoming opponents to deduce their strategy, it isn’t unheard of for rival football managers to go to each other’s games to get the low down on how the team play.  Watching past game videos if they’re available is a great training aid to point out weaknesses and where the team can improve.The key factor in any sporting coach is the ability to motivate and inspire your team.  This is often a tough and rare skill to master, even the poorest performing team need congratulating for positives in their game but also encouragement to improve for next time.  Even during a success the more critical coach will reiterate that no one’s perfect and there may have been a time when winning that the team let their guard down and allowed the opponents to score a goal or get a slight advantage.The final and most underestimated skill a good sporting coach should have is an understanding of the team as individuals.  Many players may feel disheartened or that they are lacking in some areas, this happens a lot with younger athletes.  They may become so disheartened that they want to quit the sport, a good coach should notice any players that are feeling this way and deal with it appropriately.  Enforcing how important they are to the team may not be the advice they are looking for, it’s important to let the player know that they should partake in the sport only if they want to, if they aren’t having fun then maybe they need a change, this may not mean quitting altogether but maybe changing position.  These tips should help you become a better coach, friend and source of inspiration for your players and team as a whole. Phil Adams-Wright has written on sports and coaching related subjects for many years. sport coach insurance can cover some expensive situations such as lost or stolen equipment and liability, if you’re a golf tutor then golf instructor insurance can set your mind at ease when teaching how to play golf.necklace storage