Tag: Coaching

  • Trishanku’s Heaven

    Trishanku’s Heaven

    ‘Trishanku’s Heaven’ is the state of limbo between one’s goals and one’s current state. It’s based on the tale of a handsome Indian King, Trishanku, who asked a sage to send him to heaven with his physical body. The sage refused to partake in such stupidity and told him to do good deeds and then…

  • Willing to change (till you get punched in the head)

    During a press conference before their third fight for the heavyweight title between Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder, Wilder’s new trainer was talking about some of the new changes that Wilder had made. Would these new changes work? They needed to if Wilder wanted to win. He had been severely beaten up in the last…

  • The Advice Trap Review and Summary

    The Advice Trap Review and Summary

    I’ve just read through The Advice Trap – a new book which was very kindly given to me as a leaving present, and very much a thoughtful gift to help me continue my learning in the coaching domain. So, as part of that learning process, my key takeaways are: When we assume one of the…

  • My Own Top Ten Agile Coaching Principles

    I’ve been working through the book, ‘Professional Coaching for Agilists’, for the second time round (that’s how good it is) and whilst reviewing Damon Poole’s and Gillian Lee’s principles, I figured I’d have a go at distilling them from 21 down to 10 and then refining them, in order to ‘make them my own’. After…

  • How are you?

    We’ve been doing some annual reviews and making a renewed effort to check in with people’s well-being. One thing that was pointed out was that it might be necessary to ask someone ‘how are you’ more than once because the first time people are inclined to just say ‘fine’. It reminded me of learning Arabic…

  • Future proofing your Agile career

    Future proofing your Agile career

    Last week at the Agile Coaching Academy, we talked about future proofing your agile career. Were others doing this, and if so, what approach were people taking? This was initially prompted by reading Jeff Gothelf’s book ‘Forever employable’ as well as a keen interest from myself in the idea of antifragility. I also read somewhere…

  • Learning to Cycle & the Role of a Mentor

    Learning to Cycle & the Role of a Mentor

    Yesterday my daughter learned how to cycle.  She perched herself on the seat of red bicycle, put both her feet on the pedals, and then I slowly started pushing her forward till she could cycle on her own. She was pedalling and steering at the same time. After a short while she started wobbling, started…

  • Weekly Agile Coaching Reflection

    Weekly Agile Coaching Reflection

    This morning I loaded up my calendar after a few days off work, only to discover that I was late for my own ‘weekly review’ with myself! After quickly apologizing to myself and making up an excuse about connection problems, I started reflecting. In fact, I had completely forgotten that I had even committed myself…

  • The subtle power of coaching conversations

    A colleague at work was overstretched (fearing burn out) and the response from the business was inadequate to his predicament. In the past I would’ve gladly offered my opinion about the situation. Instead, this time, I offered a coaching session, and booked some time in the diary. In the end, my colleague didn’t need the…

  • What’s still missing from Agile Coaching? A comparison with Teacher Training

    After completing the agile coaching course, I have been trying to think of a way to continue to develop my skills and competencies. I thought back to my teacher training and I wondered whether I can apply the models that we used in teacher training. After all, there are a lot of similarities between the…