Coaching Approach
Tools & Techniques ~ Assessments & Reports
The Type of Coaching that I Practice:
There are many different types of coaching. The type of coaching I offer is Organisational (Executive and Leadership).
Note: other types of coaching, which I do not offer, include – career coaching, life coaching, business coaching, performance coaching, sports coaching, wellbeing coaching, health coaching…
Most coaches work one-to-one, with groups, and teams.
There can be overlap between the different types, but whatever the area of coaching the thing that distinguishes coaching is:
- Coaching is not therapy.
- A coach does not give solutions.
Mentoring, consulting and advising can all be extremely valuable – but they are quite different to coaching. This is because coaches do not add value by providing solutions to problems.
The real value coaching offers is to help you see and understand your problems at a much deeper level, so you can solve them for yourself – long after the coaching engagement ends. If you really understand what’s going on for you and you understand your thinking, then it’s like having the key to unlock future problems – to find the solutions and possibilities for yourself.
I am an Executive and Leadership Coach offering one-to-one coaching, group coaching and team coaching.
Having worked as part of executive groups and managed teams of varying sizes, I have a first-hand appreciation and deep understanding of the challenges faced by leaders – and with more than two decades of experience as a manager, mentor and coach, I am committed to helping leaders achieve personal and professional growth.
Every engagement is bespoke. In coaching we will focus on your strengths and explore the shifts you might need to make to enhance your effectiveness as a leader.
All coaching services are available face-to-face (in Adelaide), or virtually (virtual across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region).
Testimonials from leaders I have recently worked with provide the best insight into how these leadership capabilities have been enhanced through my coaching.
A list of client organisations I have worked with can be viewed here.
My Areas of Coaching Specialisation
- Making the shift from operational to strategic.
- Developing your confidence, resilience and self-care.
- Overcoming your inner critic (self-criticism) and managing self-doubt.
- Reducing unhelpful thinking, ruminating, and worrying.
- Building better relationships and influencing others.
- Giving and receiving feedback and having difficult conversations.
- Better time management – learning to say no (and when to say yes!)
- Responding (instead of reacting) to conflict.
- Transitioning to a new role, or to retirement.
- Making important decisions about your career (direction, impact & legacy).
Through a process of inviting introspection and self-reflection, I will help you develop increased awareness of how you might be limiting yourself… to naviate a way through what is in the way of you achieving what you want and being the best version of yourself.
Tools and Techniques I Use
All professional coaches use various skills, tools and techniques to facilitate personal and professional growth in their clients.
When I first studied to become a coach, I learned to coach using the GROW model. As I gained experience, I also learned how to utilise the CLEAR principles in my coaching work. Along the way I completed additional coach training programs (including things like Conflict Coaching, Positive Psychology, Cognitive Behavioural Coaching) and learned to work with a variety of coaching models and tools.
Being able to structure a coaching conversation and demonstrate an ability to meet the ICF’s ‘minimum requirements’ is what enables coaches to gain their initial coaching credential with the ICF (ACC). At this level, coaching can be effective, but quite transactional
When you progress to the higher level of credential with the ICF (PCC) – which I achieved in 2018 – you are required to make a significant shift in the way you coach. At PCC level there is less of a focus on ‘coaching the problem’ and more of a focus on ‘coaching the person’. The ICF have a clear set of core coaching competencies and there are specific markers that indicate a PCC level of coaching – the skill of being able to coach in alignment with these markers is what differentiates an experienced coach (with at least 500 hours of coaching experience) and can create a transformational coaching experience for the client.
For many years I have been mentoring other coaches in demonstrating understanding and application of the ICF’s ‘PCC Markers’ in their coaching. I am on the pathway to becoming a Master Certified Coach (MCC) and undertaking professional development activities that will assist me to coach at Master level.
I believe in continuous learning and development, and I draw on contemporary research in psychology, management, and adult development to support my coaching clients. I am fascinated by many approaches, so I have completed qualifications in areas like Positive Psychology, and Cognitive Behavioural Coaching. I also studied Coaching Supervision, which utilises different models and frameworks that I can draw upon in my coaching work.
There are also hundreds of different psychometric tests and leadership assessments, measuring everything from psychological fitness to cognitive ability, skills and performance. Diagnostic and psychometric tools can also be used to support coaching. I have chosen to be certified in a number of these, but their use will always be carefully matched to the client’s coaching objective – and it is not always useful to introduce such a tool into the coaching engagement
Coaches collect many coaching tools and techniques over time, but the key is to never become too attached to any of them. That means there may be coaching engagements where we don’t use any specific tool or technique, but then we may need something for one client in one coaching session and that’s what makes it worth having!
Master level coaches describe coaching as the ‘process of making people think’. The coach’s capability to help you to think differently can make you feel differently and when you feel differently you will behave differently.
It sounds too simple, but the most important capabilities a coach needs to help you think differently are presence and listening. These are skills that take hundreds-thousands of hours for a coach to master, but ultimately, they are more important than any specific tool or technique.
Assessments and Reports I Use
There are many different psychometric tests, measuring everything from psychological fitness to cognitive ability, skills and performance.
- Certified in PRINT® Diagnostic Tool.
- Certified in Hogan Assessments and Hogan360.
I am also experienced with many other assessments, including: DISC, Gallup Strengths, EQ360, Lominger 360, IDG Insight.
Hogan Assessments
Why it’s useful: Reputation matters and knowing how to manage your reputation is really important. Hogan Assessments assist you to understand the disparity between how you think of yourself and how others see you:
Personality can be defined from two perspectives:
Identity – this is how we think of ourselves and how we want others to think of us – whether we see ourselves as smart, funny, creative, etc.
Reputation – how other people describe us, because how we see ourselves is rarely the same as how others see us.
The Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) measures how you behave in day-to-day life when you are at your best – it’s the Bright Side of your normal personality.
The Hogan Development Survey (HDS) measures how you behave when you’re under stress and pressure – it identifies the personality-based derailers that can limit your potential.
The Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI) measures your core values, goals and interests – these are the things that determine satisfaction and drive your career, helping to identify ideal roles and work environments.
Hogan’s personality tests are based on decades of research on personality psychology and measurement, and they have been validated against external criteria, including job performance and peer ratings.… [read more]
Strengths Surveys
Why it’s useful: Your strengths report will help you understand what makes you unique, so you can focus on becoming better at what you’re already great at.
40+ years of research in positive psychology indicates the greatest room for growth is in understanding, leveraging (and sometimes dialing-down) use of your strengths. There are lots of different tools you can use to give you a clearer understanding of your own unique strengths…
PRINT®
Why it’s useful: Knowing your own Triggers, as well as prevention and recovery techniques, and strategies to limit Triggered responses, will help you stay in Best Self more often.
PRINT® uncovers the core motivations that drive people’s actions. These are called Unconscious Motivators and everyone has two, a Major and Minor. Unconscious Motivators get to the heart of why people act or behave as they do when certain things occur in their life.
PRINT® also reveals the spectrum of Best Self (positive and productive) and Shadow (sometimes subtle, but always negative, unproductive and automatic) behaviours exhibited by people and explains why Best Self is chosen in some circumstances yet in others, the default response is Shadow. Everyone exhibits Shadow behaviours to some degree, especially when under pressure or stress. Knowing and owning Shadow behaviour is that when it shows up, it is an instant reminder to return to Best Self.
Each Unconscious Motivator has its own set of Triggers – events, situations, or actions of others that can propel you into Shadow if you’re not mindful. What sets off one PRINT® may have little impact on another. Knowing your own (and other’s) Triggers, as well as prevention and recovery techniques and strategies to limit Triggered responses. This will help you stay in Best Self, and also help others stay in Best Self.…[read more]
Hogan360°
Why it’s useful: Hogan 360° is a comprehensive multi-rater feedback tool designed to help career-minded individuals and leaders at any level of an organisation gain a better understanding of how they are perceived by managers, peers, direct reports, and others.
360-degree feedback is often used to inform executive coaching assignments because it offers feedback on performance and behaviour from all levels of the organisation.
The report uses an easy-to-interpret framework to provide a real-time look at an individual’s attitude, behaviour, and performance. Commonly used for development purposes, the report offers constructive feedback and sets priorities for improvement. [read more]
“…the thing that happens in the roots changes what happens in the branches for generations. If you just polish leaves you get one season of shiny leaves” (quote by Jennifer Garvey Berger, Introduction to Developmental Coaching).
