If you are an IT manager and work with IT professionals on a regular basis, Coaching for High Performance will inspire you with practical advice and tips on a range of soft skills areas to help you create the ideal coaching environment for your department. Use your easy to apply coaching skills to get the best out of all of your interactions from five minutes chats, direct reports, one-to-one meetings, performance reviews, to IT project meetings.

• FOREWORD
• PREFACE
• ABOUT THE AUTHOR
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• CONTENTS
• CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS COACHING?
  • Too much to do, too little time
  • What is coaching?
  • Coaching versus other disciplines
  • What are the benefits of coaching?
  • Where coaching can be of benefit to you
  • When, where and whom to coach
  • Coaching as part of performance management
  • Summary
• CHAPTER 2: THE SKILLS AND STYLES OF COACHING
  • Introduction
  • The skills of coaching
  • So, what are the skills of coaching?
  • How do your current skills measure up?
  • How to interpret your score
  • The underlying beliefs of the effective coach and coachee
  • The styles of coaching and when they are appropriate
    • Directing
    • Guiding
    • Empowering
  • Summary
• CHAPTER 3: MODELS OF COACHING
  • The history of coaching
  • Models of coaching
  • The GROW model
    • Goal
    • Reality
    • Options
    • Will/Way Forward
    • Goal
    • Reality
    • Options
    • Will/Way Forward
  • The STAR model
    • Situation
    • Target
    • Actions
    • Results or Review
  • The CIGAR model
    • Current situation
    • Ideal outcome
    • Gap between current situation and ideal situation
    • Action planning
    • Review
  • The CLEAR model
    • Contracting
    • Listening actively
    • Exploring
    • Actions
    • Review
  • How to select a coaching model
  • Summary
• CHAPTER 4: EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK
  • Coaching and the link to feedback
  • So, what is feedback?
  • Beliefs about feedback
  • Ten tips for giving effective motivational and developmental feedback
  • Two feedback frameworks
    • Motivational feedback
    • Add your motivational feedback
    • Developmental feedback
    • Add your developmental feedback
    • Seek suggestions
    • Agree next steps
  • AID Model
    • Action
    • Impact
    • Do
    • Ideas to prepare the recipient for feedback that will be given
    • Test your feedback skills
    • Practise your feedback
  • Summary
  • Answers
• CHAPTER 5: CONTRACTING AND GOAL-SETTING
  • Contracting with the coachee
  • Setting SMART goals
    • Specific
    • Measurable
      • Achievable
    • Realistic
    • Timebound
  • Which of these objectives is SMART?
  • Pitfalls when helping the coachee to set goals
  • What to do if the coachee does not know what they want to achieve or if there are too many goals
  • Summary
  • Answers
• CHAPTER 6: LISTENING AND QUESTIONING SKILLS
  • Active listening
  • Our inner dialogue
  • Interference
    • Expressing an opinion or judgement
    • Evaluating the situation that the coachee has described
    • Telling the coachee what to do
    • Brushing aside what the coachee has said
    • Making light of what the coachee has said
    • Talking about yourself
    • Using inappropriate humour
    • Admonishing the coachee
    • Giving advice
    • Contradicting what the coachee is saying
  • Three levels of listening
  • Paraphrasing and reflecting back
  • Question types
    • Closed questions
      • Advantages of closed questions
    • Open questions
      • Advantages of open questions
    • Limiting questions
    • Advantages of limiting questions
    • Leading questions
      • Advantage of leading questions
    • Powerful questions
  • Summary
  • Answers
• CHAPTER 7: GENERATING OPTIONS AND ENCOURAGING CHANGE
  • Generating options for the future
  • Forward-moving questions
  • Brainstorming
  • What to do if the coachee runs out of ideas or cannot think of any
  • Evaluating options
  • Action planning
  • Reviewing the actions
  • Consolidating your skills
    • The skills of coaching
      • At the beginning of the coaching session
      • During the coaching session
      • At the end of coaching session
    • Phrases to use during the coaching session
    • Coaching styles
      • Directing coaching style
      • Guiding coaching style
      • Empowering coaching style
    • Active listening exercise
    • Your skills as a coach
    • GROW observation sheet
  • Summary
  • Answers
    • Coaching skills
      • At the beginning of the coaching session
    • Coaching styles
• CHAPTER 8: INTRODUCING COACHING TO YOUR ENVIRONMENT
  • Where to start
  • Gathering data
  • Self-coaching around establishing a coaching programme
    • Goal
    • Reality
    • Options
    • Will/Way Forward
  • What to watch out for
  • Summary
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• GLOSSARY
• ITG RESOURCES
  • Pocket Guides
  • Toolkits
  • Best Practice Reports
  • Training and Consultancy
  • Newsletter