IIC Coaching Blog

" Silence is a source ...

... of great strength.” Lao Tzu

In coaching silence is one of the skills that each coach is taught. How to remain silent when the client is talking. How to remain silent when the client has just finished talking. How to remain silent and let your intuition give you your next question.

How do we learn how to do this, when silence is the one thing that makes us feel uncomfortable? Too often in our every day lives, we speak to break the silence, we turn on the TV to break the silence, we turn on our music to break the silence.

Is silence the same as meditation? Some will say yes and others will say no. We will cover meditation in a future blog, but whatever your thoughts on this question - silence is one of the most powerful skills a coach can learn, and a client can benefit from.

In my coaching course we learnt the '3-second rule'. This is where, when the client has finished talking, the student coach learns to wait up to 3-seconds before they say anything - make a comment, make an observation, request clarificfation, share their intuition, or ask a question. In those few seconds it gives the client the opportunity to truly finish their own thoughts ... to maybe carry on talking if they feel that something else should be added to what they've just said ... without feeling that the coach has just 'switched off'. It's a good balance of being silent without making the client feel uncomfortable.

It's true, after a period of time the client will become used to silence; and in my experience relish in them.

How do coaches learn to welcome silence? How do you 'train' your clients? Let us know how you do it.

Barbara J. Dalpra AFC
Vice President
www.internationalinstituteofocoaching.org

My Gratitude Video

I sometimes make short little videos to either celebrate a moment or to create a vision statement for my future.  Multimedia inspires me more often than lists and written statements do.

Please watch my Gratitude Statement Video here.




This is a very special video project for me as it is something I've done specifically to remember the wonderful feelings I was experiencing at The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference:  The Future of Coaching - Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s.

It was such an extraordinary event for me, and what I learned about myself during those three days was so incredible for me that I needed to make sure I wouldn't forget it.

This video helps me achieve that objective.

Enjoy!


Coaching Exercises

1.  How do you celebrate your achievements?

2.  How do you celebrate those moments where your self awareness jumps more than just a bit, but to a significant new level?  If you also celebrate the little jumps, how do you do that?

3.  If you don't currently have a number of strategies to help you celebrate, or you would like more, what could you do?

4.  As a result of these questions and your personal exploration and answers, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com
Join our newsletter by clicking here.
You can now get 100 days worth of The Best Little Life Coaching Blog in the World in e-book form. We call it BRIGHT IDEAS and it is our fundraising project to support The Oasis which helps out homeless youth in Sydney. We publish a new BRIGHT IDEAS volume every 100 days, so you can also order previous volumes to complete your collection. Click here to purchase your copy today and help our young people make a new start in life.

Noel Posus (MECI) is a former member of the Board of Directors and former Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org  http://www.internationalcoachinginstitute.org

Space in Heart, Head and Pocket

I was having a conversation with a colleague a few days ago about all the various projects and clients we take on and the evaluation process we go through when it's a non-profit or community organisation, when it's a small business and when it's a major corporate client.

Somewhere in the conversation the following idea popped up:

- When it's a non-profit or community organisation we do it because we have lots of space in our heart for it.

- When it's a small business we do it because we have lots of space in our head for it.

- When it's a major corporate we do it because we have lots of space in our pockets for it.

- And sometimes, regardless of the type of business, it's a combination of any or all of the above.

We also took some time shooting holes through this logic, but also found the statements as profound at some level and an interesting framework for discussion.

So, what do you think?

Coaching Exercises

1. How do you evaluate the projects you get involved in? Look at the decision making process and what you consider, why you consider it, and ultimate what guides your choices.

2. What's the difference between heart, head and pocket for you?

3. If there's anything you're not fully comfortable with about your answers, what would you like to be different?

4. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

You can now get 100 days worth of The Best Little Life Coaching Blog in the World in e-book form. We call is BRIGHT IDEAS and it is our fundraising project to support The Oasis which helps out homeless youth in Sydney. We publish a new BRIGHT IDEAS volume every 100 days, so you can also order previous volumes to complete your collection. Click here to purchase your copy today and help our young people make a new start in life.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org  http://www.internationalcoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

Mastery of Self, Coaching, Business and Industry

There was a fantastic email response to the earlier blog on the argument for coaches to get coached. One of the outcome questions raised to me was "Could you tell us more about Mastery of Self, Coaching, Business and Industry?"

Absolutely. And I'm also running a post-conference workshop on this very topic for the Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference: The Future of Coaching - Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s.

Master of Self, Coaching, Business and Industry

This one day workshop will be held on Saturday 22nd November 2008 in Sydney.

For those of you interested in coming, and for those of you who can't make it, we'll be covering the following:

Mastery of Self:

What do you want for your own life and how you operate? What needs to be worked on in terms of health, knowledge and learning, social, financial, family, the partner within, partner and significant relationships, spirituality, career, business, giving to others and giving to self? We'll be using the Wheel of Life tools to assist in this process.

Mastery of Coaching:

How do you assess your current coaching skills? How do you check in with your clients for feedback on this? What do you want to know how to do better? What do you want to learn? What are your options and in what order do you need to do things? Also, we'll look at how to minimise confusion about how many coaching skills you have and how you'll attract clients as they're not necessarily the same (but many coaches attend course after course on coaching skills but not on business building skills).

Mastery of Business:

Do you have a business plan that works for you as an ongoing guide? What are your business targets? How are you currently measuring them? What are your business skills and how are you using them currently? If there's something that needs to get done that you don't enjoy or don't know how to do, what are your options? What is your marketing plan? How much time, energy, effort are you putting into it? Do you have a coaching profile and who knows about it? We'll spend significant time here as it is generally the area where coaches admit they need the most development.

Mastery of Industry:

Do you know what is going on in the global and local coaching industry? Do you know the key players and what they're doing? Do you understand the public perception of coaching? Do you understand the differences between life, business, workplace, executive coaching and others? Do you know how to develop into new markets? Do you know the research being done and why it's important to be on top of it? Are you a member of one or more professional organisations and do you understand your intentions and objectives there? What energy and effort are you putting into the industry itself and do you understand how that can pay benefits to you directly as well?


There are a lot of questions here and many more to be asked during the workshop. This is a very focused and intense personal and professional planning day. And I can guarantee that you'll get so much value for your $150 that you'll be surprised the investment is so low.

I'm keeping the investment low because I really want everyone who wants some help to step up as a coach to be able to afford to do so. I feel it is part of my purpose right now to be running this event as part of my contribution to the health and wellness of the industry.

Read more in the Conference Invitation Pack.

Or if you're in Australia, email me directly to register.

For those of you who cannot make it to the conference, please email me with your expression of interest to attend massive teleclass on this. The class version will be two or three hours and will cost A$197.00. (The cost is higher because there will be greater operating costs on my end than a workshop event.) I'm just taking expressions of interest now and will likely run this teleclass event in January and February 2009. If there is enough interest I will run it monthly.


Coaching Exercises

1. Read the questions above in the four categories and start writing your own answers to them. If you're not a coach, still work through the questions relative to your situation and modify those that aren't a perfect fit to the logical fit they need to be for you.

2. How do you plan your own personal and professional development now? What works well for you? What needs improvement in your planning and implementation process?

3. If you don't currently have a personal and professional development plan, what are the benefits to you creating one now for both the short and long term?

4. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

You can now get 100 days worth of The Best Little Life Coaching Blog in the World in e-book form. We call is BRIGHT IDEAS and it is our fundraising project to support The Oasis which helps out homeless youth in Sydney. We publish a new BRIGHT IDEAS volume every 100 days, so you can also order previous volumes to complete your collection. Click here to purchase your copy today and help our young people make a new start in life.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

Are you a good person?

Of course you are. I believe all of us are good people or at least have the potential to be.

However there are certainly times when we observe behaviour exhibited by someone else (or ourselves) and we think, "a good person wouldn't do that."

Yes, this is all very subjective. And also an interesting topic for today's blog in my opinion.

This isn't necessarily one of my soapbox moments about other people. When selecting this topic for today I'm also thinking about myself, my own behaviour and how others may perceive me as either a "good" or a "bad" person.

We also need to be clear about generalisations. For example, just because someone may have done one behaviour that is perceived as "bad" by others doesn't then mean that the person themselves is "bad."

So, I find it intriguing to be able to separate behaviour from person; to look at once-off events and trends; to consider values, beliefs, attitudes, choices and the resulting actions and reactions.

I could go on and on about his, however I suspect that some of the questions below will be enough and helpful on their own to get the thoughts rolling in on this topic.

Enjoy good people!


Coaching Exercises

1. What makes a person "good"? Be specific, make lists, write in your journal...do whatever is going to work for you to really explore this simple, open question.

2. What makes a person "bad"? Be specific, make lists, write in your journal...do whatever is going to work for you to really explore this simple, open question.

3. What specifically makes you a good person? What behaviours do you do on a regular basis that quantifies / qualifies your "goodness"? Similarly, what behaviours occur from time to time (or more often) which are contrary to what you believe is "good". What's happening in those situations compared to those situations when you're being "good"?

4. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

You can now get 100 days worth of The Best Little Life Coaching Blog in the World in e-book form. We call is BRIGHT IDEAS and it is our fundraising project to support The Oasis which helps out homeless youth in Sydney. We publish a new BRIGHT IDEAS volume every 100 days, so you can also order previous volumes to complete your collection. Click here to purchase your copy today and help our young people make a new start in life.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Social Competence - Social Skills - Team Capabilities

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 26th and final instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

This and the rest of this series now focus on Social Competence.

Under the category of Social Skills, we find our thirteenth and final part of Social Competence - Team Capabilities.

This means creating group synergy in pursuing collective goals.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of enhancing team capabilities?

2. What does "creating group synergy" mean to you? How do you do it? What are the specific behaviours?

3. For what reasons would you want to support pursuing collective goals? How important is this to you? How important is this to the group?

4. What are your specific strengths in these areas?

5. Where is there room for improvement? How would you measure the outcome of that improvement if you were to put it into place?

6. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Social Competence - Social Skills - Collaboration and Cooperation

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 25th instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

This and the rest of this series now focus on Social Competence.

Under the category of Social Skills, we find our twelfth part of Social Competence - Collaboration and Cooperation.

This means nurturing instrumental relationships.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of collaboration and cooperation?

2. What does collaboration mean to you? When might you do it and for what purposes?

3. What does cooperation mean to you? Again, when might you do it and for what purposes?

4. What are your specific strengths in these areas?

5. Where is there room for improvement? How would you measure the outcome of that improvement if you were to put it into place?

6. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Social Competence - Social Skills - Building Bonds

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 24th instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

This and the rest of this series now focus on Social Competence.

Under the category of Social Skills, we find our eleventh part of Social Competence - Building Bonds.

This means nurturing instrumental relationships.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of building bonds?

2. What does building bonds mean to you? When and for what reasons would you do it? How do you benefit? How might others benefit?

3. What are your specific strengths in this area? When and how do you use them?

4. Where is there room for improvement? How would you measure the outcome of that improvement if you were to put it into place?

5. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Social Competence - Social Skills - Change Catalyst

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 23rd instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

This and the rest of this series now focus on Social Competence.

Under the category of Social Skills, we find our tenth part of Social Competence - Change Catalyst.

This means initiating or managing change.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of being a change catalyst?

2. What does being a change catalyst mean to you?

3. When do you have permission to be this role? What rights and responsibilities come with it?

4. What are your specific strengths in this area? When and how do you use them?

5. Where is there room for improvement? How would you measure the outcome of that improvement if you were to put it into place?

6. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Social Competence - Social Skills - Leadership

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 22nd instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

This and the rest of this series now focus on Social Competence.

Under the category of Social Skills, we find our ninth part of Social Competence - Leadership.

This means inspiring and guiding individuals and groups.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of leadership?

2. What does leadership mean to you? What are the various components, attitudes and behaviours that you would consider to be critical to good leadership? Consider making a list

3. Refer to your list from question two. Describe how you perform each of these behaviours, when you might do so, and the typical outcomes when you do them.

4. What feedback do you have from others regarding your leadership? How do you respond (good) versus react (not so good) to it?

5. Where is there room for improvement? How would you measure the outcome of that improvement if you were to put it into place?

6. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Social Competence - Social Skills - Conflict Management

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 21st instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

This and the rest of this series now focus on Social Competence.

Under the category of Social Skills, we find our eighth part of Social Competence - Conflict Management.

This means negotiating and resolving disagreements.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of conflict management?

2. What does conflict management mean to you? What are the specific behaviours involved? Consider creating a list.

3. Refer to your list from question two. Describe how you perform each of these behaviours, when you might do so, and the typical outcomes when you do them.

4. What do you do to minimise the risk of conflict in the first place? Consider your answer carefully. What are your strengths regarding this, and what could improve? How do you negotiate agreements before there is a disagreement?

5. Where is there room for improvement? How would you measure the outcome of that improvement if you were to put it into place?

6. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Social Competence - Social Skills - Communication

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 20th instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

This and the rest of this series now focus on Social Competence.

Under the category of Social Skills, we find our seventh part of Social Competence - Communication.

This means listening openly and sending convincing messages.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of communication?

2. What does listening openly mean to you? How do you perform this behaviour?

3. What does sending convincing messages mean to you? How do you perform this behaviour?

4. What are your strengths in these areas and when/how do you use them?

5. Where is there room for improvement? How would you measure the outcome of that improvement if you were to put it into place?

6. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Social Competence - Social Skills - Influence

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 19th instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

This and the rest of this series now focus on Social Competence.

Under the category of Social Skills, we find our sixth part of Social Competence - Influence.

This means wielding effective tactics for persuasion.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of influence?

2. What specific skills do you leverage to influence others? How would you evaluate each of those specific skills and the impact they have?

3. What permissions do you have regarding your efforts to influence others? What rights and responsibilities are associated with this? Do you ever try to influence in such a way that is not respecting the needs of the other person, and if so, what are you considering when making that choice?

4. Where is there room for improvement? How would you measure the outcome of that improvement if you were to put it into place?

5. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Social Competence - Empathy - Political Awareness

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 18th instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

This and the rest of this series now focus on Social Competence.

Under the category of Empathy, we find our fifth part of Social Competence - Political Awareness.

This means reading a group's emotional currents and power relationships, either in a personal or professional context.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of political awareness?

2. What does "playing to the politics" mean to you? What makes you a good player, if you play at all? (Everyone plays at some level although in many situations they're not even aware they're doing it.)

3. How do you assess the emotional currents and power relationships of groups you engage with? What responses (good) and/or reactions (not so good) do you typically demonstrate in response to what you've assessed or experienced from the group?

4. Where is there room for improvement? How would you measure the outcome of that improvement if you were to put it into place?

5. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Social Competence - Empathy - Leveraging Diversity

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 17th instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

This and the rest of this series now focus on Social Competence.

Under the category of Empathy, we find our fourth part of Social Competence - Leveraging Diversity.

This means cultivating opportunities through different people.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of leveraging diversity?

2. What are the specific behaviours you perform to identify opportunities and exploring the value of diversity of the people you know and work with?

3. How do you encourage others to leverage diversity?

4. Where is there room for improvement? How would you measure the outcome of that improvement if you were to put it into place?

5. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Social Competence - Empathy - Service Orientation

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 16th instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

This and the rest of this series now focus on Social Competence.

Under the category of Empathy, we find our third part of Social Competence - Service Orientation.

This means anticipating, recognising and meeting customers' needs.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of service orientation?

2. How would you describe your interest and sincerity of that interest in caring for your customers' needs?

3. What processes do you have in place to check in with your customers' needs? How do you respond to the data these processes produce?

4. Where is there room for improvement? How would you measure the outcome of that improvement if you were to put it into place?

5. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Social Competence - Empathy - Developing Others

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 15th instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

This and the rest of this series now focus on Social Competence.

Under the category of Empathy, we find our second part of Social Competence - Developing Others.

This means sensing others' development needs and bolstering their abilities.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of developing others?

2. How would you describe your efforts and the outcome of those efforts to sense others' developing needs and engage with them about the opportunities to meet those needs?

3. What permission do you have to engage with others about their needs? How do you seek that permission?

4. What follow-through do you perform on your part of the agreement to attend to and meet the needs of others? Consider a wide variety of situations, both personal and professional, and measure your integrity.

5. Where is there room for improvement? How would you measure the outcome of that improvement if you were to put it into place?

6. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Social Competence - Empathy - Understanding Others

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 14th instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

This and the rest of this series now focus on Social Competence.

Under the category of Empathy, we find our first part of Social Competence - Understanding Others.

This means seeing others' feelings and perspectives, and taking an active interest in their concerns.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of understanding others?

2. How would you describe your efforts and the outcome of those efforts to understand others?

3. What does taking an "active interest" mean to you in regard to this topic?

4. How would others describe your ability to understand them? What feedback do you have to support this?

5. Where is there room for improvement? How would you measure the outcome of that improvement if you were to put it into place?

6. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Personal Competence - Motivation - Optimism

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 13th instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

Under the category of Motivation, we find our twelfth and final part of Personal Competence - Optimism.

This means being persistent in pursuing goals despite obstacles and setbacks.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of optimism?

2. How would you describe what optimism means to you?

3. How would you describe how optimism serves you?

4. How would others describe your optimism and the impact is has on them?

5. Where is there room for improvement? Where could you be more optimistic and what impact would that have on you and others?

6. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Personal Competence - Motivation - Initiative

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 12th instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

Under the category of Motivation, we find our eleventh part of Personal Competence - Initiative.

This means your readiness to act on opportunities.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of initiative?

2. How would you describe what initiative means to you?

3. When you add to that the behaviour of TAKING initiative, does anything change in your definition?

4. What reputation do you have regarding initiative? What reputation do you want to have?

5. Where is there room for improvement? Where could you be demonstrating more initiative?

6. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Personal Competence - Motivation - Commitment

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 11th instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

Under the category of Motivation, we find our tenth part of Personal Competence - Commitment.

This means aligning with the goals of the group or organisation. In a personal sense, it means aligning with others we make commitments with (which also applies professionally).

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of commitment?

2. How would you describe what commitment means to you? Does it change based on personal or professional contexts and if so, how?

3. What reputation do you have regarding your commitments? What reputation do you want to have?

4. Where is there room for improvement? Where could you be demonstrating commitment at a higher level?

5. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Personal Competence - Motivation - Achievement Drive

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 10th instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

Under the category of Motivation, we find our ninth part of Personal Competence - Achievement Drive.

This means striving to improve or meet a standard of excellence.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of achievement drive?

2. How would you describe your own standard of excellence? Consider you may have different categories and definitions for personal, professional, the standards you hold for yourself and for others.

3. How well do you meet all of your own standards? Consider this carefully.

4. Where is there room for improvement? Where you could be more consistent? Where could you be exceeding standards and what would it take to do so?

5. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Personal Competence - Self-Regulation - Innovation

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 9th instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

Under the category of Self-Regulation, we find our eighth part of Personal Competence - Innovation.

This means being comfortable with novel ideas, approaches and new information.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of innovation?

2. How would you describe how you typically comfortable you are with novel ideas, implementing new approaches and exploring new information? Consider how you initially react to the new idea and what process you go through as you determine whether to accept and follow through with it or not.

3. You know your innovation patterns better than anyone. Are there any patterns you feel would be of benefit to you and others if you changed them? If so, what changes would you consider making?

4. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Personal Competence - Self-Regulation - Adaptability

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 8th instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

Under the category of Self-Regulation, we find our seventh part of Personal Competence - Adaptability.

This means flexibility in handling change.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of adaptability?

2. How would you describe how you typically think, feel and respond to change? Yes, this is a broad open-ended question, so please take the time to reflect at different levels.

3. How would you prefer to be thinking, feeling and responding to change? Most of us have room for improvement on this, or specific to certain types of change. What's yours?

4. What would the impact be on you and others if you improved your adaptability?

5. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Personal Competence - Self-Regulation - Conscientiousness

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 7th instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

Under the category of Self-Regulation, we find our sixth part of Personal Competence - Conscientiousness.

This means taking responsibility for personal performance.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of conscientiousness?

2. When you're taking responsibility well for your performance, what are the specific attitudes, beliefs and behaviours you're putting in place and role modelling?

3. When you're not role modelling this well, what specific attitudes, beliefs and behaviours are at play?

4. What are the areas you feel you could improve right now with some effort? What would the specific behaviour change(s) be? How could you implement those changes? What resources or assistance would you need to accomplish that

5. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Personal Competence - Self-Regulation - Trustworthiness

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 6th instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

Under the category of Self-Regulation, we find our fifth part of Personal Competence - Trustworthiness.

This means maintaining standards of honesty and integrity.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of trustworthiness?

2. If it helps you to break that down, use the same scale to measure your honesty.

3. You can also use the same scale to measure your integrity.

4. Are there any circumstances in which your delivery of these value-behaviours changes?

5. What are the areas you feel you could improve? What would the specific behaviour change(s) be? How could you implement those changes? What resources or assistance would you need to accomplish that

6. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Personal Competence - Self-Regulation - Self-Control

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 5th instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

The previous three components, emotional awareness, accurate self-assessment and self-confidence all fall underthe category of self-awareness. The next section described below falls under the area of self-regulation, or in other words, managing ourselves in response to our self-awareness.

The fourth part of Personal Competence is Self-Control.

This means keeping disruptive emotions and impulses in check.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of self-control?

2. How have you identified disruptive emotions as they arise? How could you?

3. How have you kept this emotions in check? How could you?

4. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Personal Competence - Self-Awareness - Self-Confidence

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 4th instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

The third part of Personal Competence is Self-Confidence.

This means having a strong sense of one's self-worth and capabilities.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of self-confidence?

2. How would you describe your self-worth? (This is a broad focused open question on purpose...just see what you come up with.)

3. What are you capable of? (This is a broad focused open question on purpose...just see what you come up with.)

4. Where could you improve which would also improve your sense of self-confidence and self-worth. (This is a broad focused open question on purpose...just see what you come up with.)

5. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Personal Competence - Self-Awareness - Accurate Self-Assessment

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 3rd instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

The second part of Personal Competence is Accurate Self-Assessment.

This means more than just being self-aware, but continuously evaluating one's own patterns, ways of thinking and being, and to do this with clear, fair and honest focus.

Sometimes being self-aware can be uncomfortable and therefore we sometimes ignore what's really there or fool ourselves into thinking that we're operating at a higher level than we actually are.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how would you rate yourself in terms of accurate self-assessment?

2. How do you currently evaluate yourself in any/all categories? What are the specific things you do to become more self-aware? Brainstorm a list of these things no matter how insignificant you think the thing is. For example, do you read self help books, do you get coached, do you have regular heart-to-hearts with a best friend, do you get assessed at work and what do you take from this about your personal and professional operating system? What else?

3. Where do you receive feedback from? How well do you accept feedback? What are the areas that you're less comfortable with receiving feedback regarding? What do you typically do with feedback?

4. What are your strengths? Where do you use these? How could you leverage these more?

5. What are your opportunities for improvement? Where do these limit you? What can you do to improve?

6. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

EQ - Personal Competence - Self-Awareness - Emotional Awareness

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the 2nd instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



Emotional Intelligence is broken up into two parts: Personal Competence and Social Competence. You need to understand yourself first before you can understand others. You need to understand how to be good at self-leadership before you can be effective leading others.

The first part of Personal Competence is Emotional Awareness, or in other words recognising one's emotions and their effects.

Therefore, here are today's coaching questions for you.

Coaching Exercises

1. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest, how emotionally aware would you say you are right now?

2. What are your key emotions and what triggers them?

3. Consider creating a list of all of your emotions, common and not so common, and write down a few notes in a journal about the effect those emotions have on you when you're experiencing them and also the effect on others when you are experiencing the emotion.

4. There is always room for further growth and understanding of our emotional awareness. Where is your immediate opportunity to become more emotionally aware? What do you need to look at? What do you need to do? Does anything need to change and if so what?

5. As a result of these questions and your considered responses to them, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

The Emotional Intelligence Series

This series looks at what Emotional Intelligence is by exploring the 25 components over 26 days!

This is the first instalment of a series of 26 blog entries looking at Emotional Intelligence.

The series is based on the work of Daniel Goleman in his book Working With Emotional Intelligence .



We're going to start this exploration together with a blank slate and only one coaching question for your consideration.

See how you go.

Coaching Exercises

1. In your opinion, regardless if you've ever even heard about Daniel Goleman's book or done any work in Emotional Intelligence before, what do you think Emotional Intelligence is?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com  Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Check out The Inaugural ECI Australasian Coaching Conference - The Future of Coaching: Embracing the Opportunities of the 2010s at http://www.europeancoachinginstitute.org/conference_2008/

November 20-22, 2008 - Sydney Australia

Celebrating Achievements

One of the key components of goal setting and achievement that coaches work with their clients on is "celebrating", and yet it also just happens to be one of the things coaches often forget to do themselves about their own achievements.

Therefore, I thought this might be a nice topic to explore together. And yes, I'll be asking you to celebrate you achievement at the end of it.


Coaching Exercises

1. In your opinion, what are the benefits of celebrating your achievements?

2. How about celebrating the achievements of others with them?

3. What do you think may be being put to risk if the celebration doesn't occur? In other words, what's the downside?

4. What are the "obstacles" that get in the way of celebrating? For example, thinking the achievement wasn't big enough to warrant a celebration, thinking it's too self-indulgent or showy, or maybe just simply forgetting to do it?

5. For all the obstacles you came up with in question four, now come up with at least two opposing and positive viewpoints and/or solutions for each.

6. Celebrating doesn't have to mean throwing a party. It could be simply giving yourself 30 minutes of personal time out of a busy schedule, and being specific that this time is your reward/celebration for achieving what you set out to. So, brainstorm a list of celebration options, from the simple and no cost to the slightly or hugely more elaborate. You don't need to focus on what's an appropriate celebration for the achievement, just brainstorm celebration options on their own.

7. As a result of these questions, what are you committing to?

8. As a result of this total exercise now being completed by you (the achievement), how will you celebrate what you've just accomplished?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Behaviour Modelling - Big and Small

While watching the news last night I saw a report where the opposition party was saying that their current policy on the environment is (and yes, I'm really over-simplifying this) "Anything we do will be futile unless the world's big polluters do something first so we should wait."

There is a life coaching lesson in here! Honest, just read on.

On a big scale (whole governments), this message is talking about behaviour modelling. One side (the current government) is saying that we have to model the right behaviour now and set a world-class example of best practice (although personally I think their proposed policy is far off from best practice but at least in a positive direction), while the other side (the opposition party) is saying that others (USA, Europe, China and India) have to model the right behaviour before we will. (UGH!)

On a smaller, everyday sort of scale (individual human behaviour), I hear statements all the time such as:

"If other people don't behave nice, then what's the point if I do?"

"Isn't it counterproductive if I live and operate by my values but the people in my personal/professional life don't?"

"People will just walk all over each other to get what they want, so what chance to I have?"

Now, I can certainly empathise with my client's statements. I think all of us may have more than a few of our own examples where we can feel out of sync with the world around us, in big or small ways.

I also feel strongly that each of us can model behaviour to inspire others and that we don't have to wait for others to model the behaviour first in any situation. We can self-lead and lead others responsibly if we are willing to take up the challenge.

So that has inspired today's coaching questions and exercises below.


Coaching Exercises

1. What does "self-leadership" means to you?

2. What does "behaviour modelling" mean to you?

3. How do you feel about the argument (you choose the context or many contexts of your choice) that others need to demonstrate and model the appropriate behaviour first, or that we need to do it first regardless of the others' behaviour choices? What's your position on this, and does it change by context?

4. On a small scale (every day life), what behaviours do you feel it is important for you to model? What impact do you think that could have on others?

5. On a big scale (world view), what behaviours do you feel are important for people, groups, governments, etc to model? What impact do you think that could have on others?

6. As a result of these questions and your considered answers, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

People Behaving Badly - Enough Already!

I'm having a professional soap-box moment, or as I like to call it, a recreational whinge.

Today's recreational whinge is about people behaving badly.

In my opinion (and I hear my mum's voice in my head at the same time), there is never an excuse for bad behaviour. Period.

But then, I also think about lessons I've learned from NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) that in every individual's unique view of the world, they continue to make the best choices they believe are available to them in that moment, and that they have the best of intentions (even if only self-focused) and they put in what they believe to be their best efforts at the time.

Ugh! It can be so difficult to balance these two perspectives, particularly when I work with so many different types of clients who routinely express their own frustration about the people behaving badly in their lives.

Nearly every day I hear examples of the boss, colleague, friend, family member, partner and strangers who do and say the most astonishingly negative and/or cruel things. Sometimes it just downright inpoliteness, while other times it can be quite malicious behaviour.

Of course, I'm also hearing these stories as my client's narratives, which are based on their own impressions of the experiences.

But let's say for the moment that even half of the stories I hear are relayed completely accurately to the situation, there's a whole lot of bad behaviour out there.

Well, my soap-box comment (scream actually) is Enough Already!

I'm trusting that today's coaching questions and exercises will help some people to explore how they wish to respond, versus react, to bad behaviour in their own lives.


Coaching Exercises

1. Let's look at history first. Consider one or more instances in your past when others treated you badly. How did you react (or respond) at the time? What did you learn from those experiences?

2. Also in history, consider one or more instances when you may have treated others badly. How did the other person react (or respond) to you at the time? What did you learn from those experiences?

3. For the above two questions, how did you apply your learning to your values and daily operating system? What did you change? What decisions did you start making differently?

4. Now to the present. Is there anyone in your personal or professional life who is currently behaving badly? What effect does that have on you and/or others? Are you being fair about the effect is has on you? Are you sure, or are you assuming, the effect is has on others?

5. In the same situation from question four, what is your first emotional reaction you experience? Be honest, as there's no judgement here.

6. Continuing on with the same situation, what is your logical, well-thought out response options to the situation? This does involve a bit more discernable judgement to the situation. One way of looking at this is to consider the question, what would the wise thing to do?

7. What do you really want to say to this person? What do you think is the best way of saying it?

8. Consider the XYZ statement approach: "When you do X in Y situations, I feel Z." So for example, "When you speak to me with your voice raised in front of our colleagues at work, I feel like a child being scolded. That may not be your intent, but this is how I feel. Can we speak about this and look for ways in which we could communicate with each other more effectively and everyone still gets what they need and want?" So, over to you...How could you use this communication model to address bad behaviour?

9. There are no guarantees that any strategy will work if the other person is not committed to the process. So consider worse case scenario that the other person refuses to play along. What are your options? Is there any way you can gain peace from this process, and how?

10. OK, your turn. Are you behaving badly at the moment? Be honest, I'm not judging you (we all have bad behaviour experiences at one time or another). When you consider all of the questions and exercises already displayed here, what have you come to understand about why you're behaving badly and the impact it has on you and others?

11. As a result of all of these potentially hard-hitting questions, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Negotiating by Allan Parker

Learn from the master himself...

My dear friend (and coach!) is Allan Parker, one of the most extraordinary people I've ever met. And I'm incredibly grateful for all I've learned from this wise, elegant and masterful coach, trainer, consultant, speaker and author.

In today's blog I want to share with you Negotiating, which is another wonderful video about the sophisticated ways of understanding how people communicate and relate with each other, including setting agreements and managing boundaries. This includes of course, how we negotiate on many personal and professional levels.

There is no one in the world, in my opinion, who is more of an expert on this topic than Allan Parker, and this is a must have video for everyone no matter what your personal or professional circumstances are.

You can secure your own copy today by clicking here and PLEASE put "askacoach" in the "Other Comments and Requests" box at the bottom of the order form.

It's a pretty amazing opportunity to see a values master at work, on DVD, in the comfort of your own home/office. Be sure to check it out today.


Coaching Exercises

1. What is your understanding of a "negotiating"?

2. How well do you feel you communicate in general?

3. How well do you feel you set agreements in general?

4. How well do you feel you manage boundaries effectively?

5. How well do you feel you negotiate, either within interpersonal relationships or at a professional level?

6. What do you want to learn how to do better?

7. What are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Values at Work by Allan Parker

From the master himself, Allan Parker!

My dear friend (and coach!) is Allan Parker, one of the most extraordinary people I've ever met. And I'm incredibly grateful for all I've learned from this wise, elegant and masterful coach, trainer, consultant, speaker and author.

In today's blog I want to share with you Values at Work, which is a brilliant video for everyone to gain an incredible understanding of your values and how they guide and support you, and how you can best put them "at work" in all of life's personal and professional situations.

You can secure your own copy today by clicking here and PLEASE put "askacoach" in the "Other Comments and Requests" box at the bottom of the order form.

It's a pretty amazing opportunity to see a values master at work, on DVD, in the comfort of your own home/office. Be sure to check it out today.


Coaching Exercises

1. What is your understanding of a "value"?

2. If you had greater awareness of your values and how they work for you now, what impact would that have on you?

3. Sometimes we do things that are not necessarily in line with our core values, and yet we do it anyway. What do you think is happening in those times for you?

4. If you lived by your values more consistently, how would your life change?

5. What are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

The Prosperity Game

What I'm sharing here today has been around a while but not that many people know about it. It's called The Prosperity Game .

The Prosperity Game, first introduced by Abraham-Hicks (teachers of Deliberate Creation), is a simple, fun, and empowering way to activate one's ability to create prosperity - from the inside-out.

You can read more about it and play it for yourself here .

The fun part of this is that every day you receive a "virtual cheque" of money to spend and you have to spend all of it; you can't save it.

You enter what you'll spend you money on that day, and you rate your desire level, your resistance level, and enter comments about how truly and energetically aligned you are.

OK, for some people this may seem a bit "woo woo", but I must say that I've played the game a few times over the years and it's really amazing how it has shifted by thinking from one of lack (about money and other topics) to one of abundance; where I believe more that things are possible and therefore my actions tend to follow suite and become more productive, efficient and effective.

I'm not saying that playing this games makes me or others financially rich. (By the way, there's not cost to play the game!) To be honest, I wouldn't personally play it for that reason anyway. I do play it for the mental and emotional shift it helps to bring about.

Then when I'm operating in a more effective state of mind and emotions, I tend to be more successful. And sometimes those successful outcomes also have a financial benefit to them.

Have a read, and if you like, a play!

Coaching Exercises

1. Using some of the exercises from The Prosperity Game, if I gave you $100 today to spend anyway you like, and you had to spend it all, what would you spend it on? What would it mean to you (desire)? How much resistance might you have about that?

2. Same again, but this time I give you $1000 and you have to spend it all today.

3. Same again, this time for $10,000.

4. Same again, this time for $100,000.

5. Same again, this time for $1,000.000.

6. What have you learned/gained from answering the previous five questions? Any interesting insights about yourself, such as how you're physically feeling right now?

7. As a result of these questions, and any insights you may have discovered about yourself, including anything you think you might want to celebrate more (a strength) or modify (an opportunity for improvement) what are you committing to today?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Fact: 74.8% of all statistics are made up on the spot!

Yes, of course I just made that up on the spot!

Why?

Well, yesterday I was having a conversation with someone who is thinking about becoming a coach (as I frequently do) and we were discussing an often professed statistic that life coaching is the second-fastest growing industry after IT.

I've been coaching for a long time, and I've heard this quote often, and yet I haven't found anyone who can give me a reliable source to that statistic. Even if they did, I'm quite sure it was originally quoted quite a few years ago and there hasn't necessarily been any recent studies conducted which might validate it.

So why is it still used?

It would seem logical that many coaching schools looking to recruit new students need to sell their courses with a bit of positive outlook about the possibilities to earn an income after the studies are completed.

Now to be fair, there certainly has been a fair amount of new coaching students enrolling in coaching courses around the world in the past years. Maybe there's some study I don't know about that compares the amount of students enrolling in coaching compared to other industry courses.

Maybe there's some data that extrapolates how many executive coaches there must be based on market demand for executive coaching, and therefore some connection is being made with life coaching.

Every organisation who quotes that statistic must have their own reasoning behind using it and it wouldn't be fair for me to try to make statements with any certainty about what those reasons may be.

Is the life coaching industry growing? In my opinion, yes.
Is the life coaching industry going through some growing pains? In my opinion, yes.
Are there also coaches leaving the profession and going back to their old, or to other new careers? From my experience, certainly.
Is life coaching the second fastest growing industry after IT? I have nothing to back up my opinion, but I do certainly have my doubts.

So, with that little soap box moment, here are some questions for your exploration.

Coaching Exercises

1. There's a difference between quoting a statistic as a fact, and offering an estimated statistic. Both can be used to illustrate a point or persuade an argument. In your opinion, and from your own experience talking about statistics in whatever format you may have, what are the "ethics" of using statistics? (I acknowledge that this may be a simple or complex question for you. Thank you in advance for taking the time to seriously consider it.)

2. When you hear a statistic being used by someone else or an organisation, what process (if any) do you go through to evaluate the validity of the statistic? What consideration do you give for why this statistic has been offered in the first place? Do you ever question the information presented to you as fact, and if so, how do you do it?

3. Consider your own behaviour for a moment. Sometimes we throw out a statistic without much thought. For example, if someone asks me how I'm recovering after having a cold, I might say something like, "Well, I'm feeling about 70% today. Thanks for asking." How often do you use a statistic that isn't really objectively measured, but is actually a subjective "phrase"? There's not necessarily any "right" or "wrong" about your answer to this question. It's simply about raising awareness to see how tuned in we are to our language choices.

4. Based on the exploration of these questions, relating both to others use of statistics and your own, including just habits of language, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Podcast - On Creating a Truly Effective and Profitable Coaching Business

While searching around for various media interviews and things which I thought might be useful for blog content, I came across this interview I did for Coach Radio here in Australia.

The topic is on how to create and effective and profitable coaching business and you can listen to that interview here .

One of the key messages near the beginning of the interview is about running our coaching business "as a business" and that we have to embrace the mindset of "business operators and owners".

This may sound like a really simple and obvious statement, but to be honest, I know many people in many different types of businesses (not just coaching) who struggle to get their head around that concept.

Here are some questions for you today that can apply whether you're in business for yourself or employed by someone else, and regardless of the type of business.


Coaching Exercises

1. If you run your own business, what thinking patterns and behaviours could you be integrating to be a more successful business operator/owner? What would the benefits be to you and others if you did this? What would you be putting to risk if you didn't?

2. If you are an employee in someone else's business, what thinking patterns and behaviours could you be integrating to ACT MORE LIKE a successful business operator/owner yourself, and therefore contribute more to the business and your own career path? What would be the benefits to you and others if you did this? What would you be putting to risk if you didn't?

3. What are the specific business ownership skills you need to pick up? Which business ownership skills do you already have which are strengths and can be leveraged more? Who can you enlist for assistance in developing your skills further?

4. With respect to your thoughts on these questions what are you committing to now?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercises, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Noel Posus is on the Board of Directors and is the Head of Marketing - Asia Pacific for The-ECI - www.europeancoachinginstitute.org

Thought as a Sculptor

Henry David Thoreau said, "Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be."

I'm a big fan of short powerful quotes which you really have to think through to get the various and many layers of value from.

With that said, here are today's coaching exercises:

Coaching Exercises

1. Describe the person you want to be. You may already be that person, so describe who you are now if that's the case. Be sure to include attributes, qualities, strengths, behaviours and values.

2. Now for the Thought Sculptor layer. What thoughts are required to sculpt you into the person you want to be, or are?

3. If negative, self-limiting or in any other way unhelpful thoughts had to be replaced with the thoughts from question two, what did you get rid of? What was the specific positive thought which replaced the negative thought?

4. If you still have some negative thoughts to replace, which are they? What positive thoughts are you going to replace them with, when and how?

5. What are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercies, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com

Join our newsletter by clicking here.

The Habit of Moral Excellence

Today's quote to explore is from Aristotle:

Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.

Coaching Exercises

1. What does "Moral Excellence" mean to you?

2. What does being just and "just acts" mean to you?

3. What does being temperate and "temperate acts" mean to you?

4. What does being brave and "brave acts" mean to you?

5. As a result of this exploration, how would you currently describe your own habits of moral excellence?

6. What habits do you want to develop?

7. What are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercies, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com

Join our newsletter by clicking here.

What Every Coach Needs to Have - Coaching by Example

One of my colleagues in the States, Barbra Sundquist , has developed a product which will be very useful for every coach in the world!

Just as great musicians surround themselves with the sound of great music, so too must any masterful coach surround themselves with the sounds of expert coaching.

This programme teaches, by example, the masteries required for the International Association of Coaches certification exam.

It's called quite simply, Learn by Example .

I won't go into the big sales-spin here. I'll just say that if you're a coach, you need to check this out!

Enjoy, and happy coaching!

Coaching Exercises

1. What benefit do you see, regardless of your profession, to access the wisdom of experts who have come before you?

2. Is there anything in your life, some goal or aspiration, which could benefit by you seeking out a mentor, coach or someone else? (No, this is not a pitch for coaching, but a question entirely focused on you identifying what you need.)

3. What are your options? Who could you turn to? If you don't know anyone now, where could you go to find them?

4. As a result of today's exercises, what are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercies, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com

Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Have a Laugh Today

I love talking about laughter in my coaching. Actually, I enjoy have a good laugh with my clients anyway.

Humour is such a powerful thing.

In fact, most of the major religions and philosophical movements have discussed how in that moment of abandonment to laughter, we are the most at peace, the most true to who we really are, and the most open to new ideas.

Why?

Because when we're laughing at that level, the little negative voices in our head stop talking. We are not able to both laugh deeply and have a negative internal conversation at the same time.

I love this! More laughing moments, please!

From a coach perspective, I also understand the power these moments have in coaching. I can ask an important question, on the back-side of a laughing moment, and I'll get the most truthful and/or open answer. Trust me, I don't tell jokes to create this environment. I just happen to know it's true because every now and then the laughter and the key question just happen to occur in a complementary time frame, and that's very cool.

Here are some questions for you to consider:

Coaching Exercises

1. What makes you laugh? Not just the internal laugh, but the "out-loud" laugh?

2. Do you enjoy yourself when you're laughing? It may sound like an obvious question, but actually, some people feel awkward when they laugh. That's OK. I just want you to explore what happens for you when you laugh.

3. Do you have a sense of humour? How would you describe it? (By the way, you don't have to be a good joke teller to have a sense of humour.)

4. How do you feel you can (or maybe you already do) use humour as a tool to acheive a particular outcome? What outcomes are you after?

5. If you think any of your answers to these questions could be improved, what are you committing to? (And no, I'm not being funny.)

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercies, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com

Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Getting One's House in Order

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has used his trip to Japan recently to announce the creation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Commission, to be co-chaired by Japan and Australia.

Along with this announcement came one from Greenpeace that stated that Australia, one of the leading exporters of nuclear material used to create such catastrophic weapons, needs to get it's own house in order before it would be a credible co-chair of such a committee.

I won't get into the politics of this here, but found this story compelling for this blog because it does raise the issue of when an individual or group stands up for a particular cause, the responsibility for perception, credibility and integrity must also be accepted.

That said, here are some potentially hard-hitting questions for you:

Coaching Exercises

1. What is the "big issue" you have a strong opinion about? (Yes, you're allowed more than one.)

2. How do you communicate your opinion? Do you have permission to do so (including if you're simply just giving yourself permission)?

3. How would others describe how you communicate you opinion? Would they use any of the following words: fair, one-sided, factual, mis-guided, strong, weak, emotional, compelling, right, wrong, in-your-face or something else? How do you feel about the perception others may have of your ability to articulate your opinion?

4. Do you just talk about your opinion or do you also do something? If you have a "call to action" for others, do you also take up your own challenge? What do you do?

5. If you are not fully satisfied with any of your answers here, what are you committing to now?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercies, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com

Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Are you being wise?

A colleague of mine sent me this quote today:

"The first step to wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice and the fifth teaching others.

Solomon Ibn Gabriol

I found this a fascinating gem of wisdom itself and have come up with the following questions/exercises for you:

Coaching Exercises

1. How comfortable are you being silent? What do you gain when you are? What are you putting to risk when you're not?

2. How skilled of a listener are you? What do you gain when you are very effective at listening? What are you putting to risk when you're not?

3. How good is your memory? How do you record thoughts and experiences if not in your head? What are you putting to risk if you do not remember your past?

4. The word "practice" in the quote refers to how well you are living as well as following through with what you personally believe is a wise course of action or path to follow. How well are you living? How wise are you living? (Those last two questions are very different, so please consider both with that in mind.)

5. What are you teaching others? What do you gain when you teach? What is being put to risk if you don't teach others, or share your wisdom?

6. As a result of these exercises, is there anything you wish to change? What are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercies, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com

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My Video Vision Statement 2008 - Half way there?

Each year I create a new Video Vision Statement to keep me inspired throughout the twelve months (and beyond as I will keep revisiting previous years' statements as well).

Here's the Video Vision Statement for 2008, and thank you in advance for being open to me sharing something so personal.

I'm thrilled to say that so much from that vision statement is on track. There are a lot of things in motion, and some big achievements yet to get to - and I will. This video inspires me and I make sure I watch it nearly every day to keep the inspiration momentum happening.

So today's blog is all about vision and keeping track of your progress toward it.

Coaching Exercises

1. What is your vision for the rest of this year? For the next twelve months? For the next five years?

2. How do you capture that vision in your dreams and document it someplace else? For example, is it written down? Is it then displayed someplace like on the door or the fridge or your bathroom mirror? Have you ever made a collage or a video vision statement?

3. If you recognise that you have not documented your vision, first I'd like you to create a list of the benefits to you if you did. What would you gain? Would you be more inspired, and how? Would it remind you of what's important to you? Would it help you make decisions? What else? You may also want to ask youself what you're putting to risk if you DON'T document your vision.

4. Now that you're more clear about your vision and the benefits of creating a vision statment (and the risks if you don't), what are you now going to do about it? What are you committing to?

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercies, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com

Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Business Coaching - The Balanced Scorecard - Part Five of Five - Financial Perspective

Today we're looking at the Financial perspective of The Balanced Scorecard. As a reminder, there are four areas of the scorecard methodology:

- Financial Focus
- Customer Focus
- Internal Business Process Focus
- Learning and Development Focus

Kaplan and Norton, in designing The Balanced Scorecard, do not disregard the traditional need for financial data. Timely and accurate data will always be a priority, and managers will do whatever is necessary to provide it. In fact, often there is more than enough handling and processing of financial data for many organisations.

Be clear about what financial data you want to track and what the purpose is to you for knowing that information. Also, as shown in the previous entries of this blog series, it's important to understand what all of the various input factors are for each financial target.

If you have a target of making $X this quarter, then how many new customers do you need to attract? What processes are in place to attract those customers and ensure they convert to sales and are satisfied? And who knows how to do this, or if they don't now, how can you teach them?

Coaching Exercises

Today, we're asking some general questions about your business. There are many more to be asked, so this is just a starting point.

1. What are your high-level financial objectives?

2. When do they have to be achieved by?

3. Is there a particular order in which they need to be achieved?

4. How are you evaluating these as important?

5. How are you measuring these objectives? In other words, what data and reporting mechanisms do you have in place?

6. What strategies do you have in place already, or which could be designed, to address each of the objectives? In some cases, there may be more than one strategy required to achieve the desired outocome?

7. For each strategy, do you have any dates identified to achieve them?

8. For each strategy, what are the measurement criteria and how specifically are you going to collect the data?

9. Who is responsible for each strategy? What reporting do you need from them?

10. For each objective, and for all stakeholders related to the achievement of that objective, what learning and devleopment objectives must also be met? These may also link to the internal business process objectives and the customer objectives.

11. For each objective, what internal business process objectives must also be met? These may link to the customer objectives as well.

12. If you have already been measuring certain financial objectives, and have been able to identify that one or more of them is underperforming, which related financial, customer, internal business process and/or learning and development objectives are also underperforming? This information may help you in identifying root cause of the problem, and from this awareness, you can explore new choices and actions to implement to correct the issue.

13. If you're unsure about the objectives, the data, causes of problems or opportunities to improve the situation, whom wihin or outside of your organisation could you be turning to for assistance? This is potentially part of your own learning and development.

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercies, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com

Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Business Coaching - The Balanced Scorecard - Part Four of Five - Customer Perspective

Today we're looking at the Customer perspective of The Balanced Scorecard. As a reminder, there are four areas of the scorecard methodology:

- Financial Focus
- Customer Focus
- Internal Business Process Focus
- Learning and Development Focus

Recent management philosophy has show an increasing realisation of the importance of custoemr focus and customer satisfaction in any business. These are leading indicators: if customers are not satisfied, they will eventually find other suppliers that will meet their needs. Poor performance from this perspective is thus a leading indicator of future decline, even though the current financial picture may look good.

In developing metrics for satisfaction, customers should be analysed in terms of kinds of customers and the kinds of processes for which we are providing a product or service to those customer groups.

NOTE: Lead indicators refer to behaviours that the organisation must consistently demonstrate in order to achieve the strategic objectives. Lead indicators are forward thinking and focused. Lag indicators, on the other hand, are often past performance focused, meaning that an analysis is performed against past performance and new decisions made to enhance current performance. Typically a balance of both lag and lead indicators works well for an organisatoin, where lead indicators are the key strategic measurement.

Coaching Exercises

Today, we're asking some general questions about your business. There are many more to be asked, so this is just a starting point.

1. What are your high-level customer objectives?

2. When do they have to be achieved by?

3. Is there a particular order in which they need to be achieved?

4. How are you evaluating these as important?

5. How are you measuring these objectives? In other words, what data and reporting mechanisms do you have in place?

6. What strategies do you have in place already, or which could be designed, to address each of the objectives? In some cases, there may be more than one strategy required to achieve the desired outocome?

7. For each strategy, do you have any dates identified to achieve them?

8. For each strategy, what are the measurement criteria and how specifically are you going to collect the data?

9. Who is responsible for each strategy? What reporting do you need from them?

10. For each objective, and for all stakeholders related to the achievement of that objective, what learning and devleopment objectives must also be met? These may also link to the internal business process objectives and the financial objectives.

11. For each objective, what internal business process objectives must also be met? These may link to the financial objectives as well.

12. If you have already been measuring certain customer objectives, and have been able to identify that one or more of them is underperforming, which related financial, customer, internal business process and/or learning and development objectives are also underperforming? This information may help you in identifying root cause of the problem, and from this awareness, you can explore new choices and actions to implement to correct the issue.

13. If you're unsure about the objectives, the data, causes of problems or opportunities to improve the situation, whom wihin or outside of your organisation could you be turning to for assistance? This is potentially part of your own learning and development.

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercies, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com

Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Business Coaching - The Balanced Scorecard - Part Three of Five - Internal Business Process Perspective

Today we're looking at the Internal Business Process perspective of The Balanced Scorecard. As a reminder, there are four areas of the scorecard methodology:

- Financial Focus
- Customer Focus
- Internal Business Process Focus
- Learning and Development Focus

This perspective refers to internal business processes. Metrics based on this perspective allow the leaders of the organisation to know how well their business is running and whether its products and services conform to customer requirements. These processes need to be designed and measured with the customer experience in mind.

For example, how to collect and manage customer feedback is a critical process for any business. This isn't just about how to address complaints well, but on a bigger scale, outline management responsibility in a measurable way. How does customer feedback influence future strategic direction of the business and the design of its products and services?

In addition to the strategic managment process, two kinds of business processes may be identified: a) mission-oriented processes, and b) support processes. Mission-oriented processes are the special functions related directly to the higher-level and customer-centric strategic objectives of the organisation. The support processes are more repetitive in nature, and hence easier to measure and benchmark using generic metrics.

Examples of support metrics could include on-time delivery of the product, regular internal communications like newsletters being consistently produced as agreed, or responding to all potential/existing client queries within 24 hours.

Coaching Exercises

Today, we're asking some general questions about your business. There are many more to be asked, so this is just a starting point.

1. What are your high-level internal business process objectives?

2. When do they have to be achieved by?

3. Is there a particular order in which they need to be achieved?

4. How are you evaluating these as important?

5. How are you measuring these objectives? In other words, what data and reporting mechanisms do you have in place?

6. What strategies do you have in place already, or which could be designed, to address each of the objectives? In some cases, there may be more than one strategy required to achieve the desired outocome?

7. For each strategy, do you have any dates identified to achieve them?

8. For each strategy, what are the measurement criteria and how specifically are you going to collect the data?

9. Who is responsible for each strategy? What reporting do you need from them?

10. For each objective, and for all stakeholders related tot he achievement of that objective, what learning and development objectives must also be met?

11. For each objective, what customer objectives must also be met? These may link to the financial objectives as well.

12. If you have already been measuring certain internal business process objectives, and have been able to identify that one or more of them is underperforming, which related financial, customer, internal business process and/or learning and development objectives are also underperforming? This information may help you in identifying root cause of the problem, and from this awareness, you can explore new choices and actions to implement to correct the issue.

13. If you're unsure about the objectives, the data, causes of problems or opportunities to improve the situation, whom wihin or outside of your organisation could you be turning to for assistance? This is potentially part of your own learning and development.

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercies, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com

Join our newsletter by clicking here.

Business Coaching - The Balanced Scorecard - Part Two of Five - Learning and Development Perspective

Today we're looking at the Learning and Development perspective of The Balanced Scorecard. As a reminder, there are four areas of the scorecard methodology:

- Financial Focus
- Customer Focus
- Internal Business Process Focus
- Learning and Development Focus

As the learning and development (or sometimes referred to as Learning and Growth) perspective feeds into all other objectives, we shall start our exploration fo the balanced scorecard here.

This perspective includes employee training and corporate cultural attitudes related to both individual and corporate self-improvement. This is a lot more than just training however. It also includes having mentoring programmes, developing ways to share knowledge amongst key stakeholders, and helping people learn how to take responsibility for problem solving. Do people know how to do what you expect and/or need them to do? What are you doing to support them develop in these areas? If your team doesn't know how to perform, or how to perform better than they are now, then their ability to meet operational, customer and financial targets is diminished.

Coaching Exercises

Today, we're asking some general questions about your business. There are many more to be asked, so this is just a starting point.

1. What are your high-level learning and development objectives?

2. When do they have to be achieved by?

3. Is there a particular order in which they need to be achieved?

4. How are you evaluating these as important?

5. How are you measuring these objectives? In other words, what data and reporting mechanisms do you have in place?

6. What strategies do you have in place already, or which could be designed, to address each of the objectives? In some cases, there may be more than one strategy required to achieve the desired outocome?

7. For each strategy, do you have any dates identified to achieve them?

8. For each strategy, what are the measurement criteria and how specifically are you going to collect the data?

9. Who is responsible for each strategy? What reporting do you need from them?

10. For each objective, what financial targets are required to be met to achieve the desired outcome?

11. For each objective, what internal business process objectives must also be met? These may link to the customer objectives as well.

12. If you have already been measuring certain learning and development objectives, and have been able to identify that one or more of them is underperforming, which related financial, customer, internal business process and/or learning and development objectives are also underperforming? This information may help you in identifying root cause of the problem, and from this awareness, you can explore new choices and actions to implement to correct the issue.

13. If you're unsure about the objectives, the data, causes of problems or opportunities to improve the situation, whom wihin or outside of your organisation could you be turning to for assistance? This is potentially part of your own learning and development.

As always, if you need any further personal support in response to any of these coaching exercies, please consider using the askacoach.com service.

All the best,
Noel

Noel Posus - Master Coach
www.askacoach.com

Join our newsletter by clicking here.