Coaching Counts

Your people do more and achieve more when you use a few proven coaching skills in your accountancy firm...

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Improve the skills of your team by improving your own coaching skills

When you improve your ability to coach you improve the skills and enthusiasm of your team

What happens to the performance of your team when you improve your own coaching skills?

Your business is at risk if you do not invest in your own coaching skills

Develop your coaching skills and your business future is secured

Stop thinking that coaching is something other people do…

Start making time to improve the skills of your team by improving your own coaching skills

If you invest in improving your coaching skills, you invest in your team

Invest in the future of your team by making time to improve your coaching skills

Learn from a global survey about the importance of coaching to the future of your business

Make time for coaching in your business and gallop ahead of the competition

Engage your team in coaching and watch this impact the results of your business

Gallup to success in your business when you invest in coaching

How to invest more time to improve your coaching skills and the skills of your team

Improve the skills of your team by asking the right questions

How to use the skills you already have to ask the right coaching questions in your business

Time to take coaching seriously by asking your team the right questions

How to ask the right questions in your business and develop the skills of your team…

Should you be investing time in asking the right coaching questions in your business?

How do you ask exactly the right questions alongside your newly developed coaching skills?

Time to improve your coaching skills by asking the right questions

How to ask the right questions and unlock the potential of your team

Asking the right questions in your business could unlock business wins

Your business wins when you start to take coaching seriously

Should you be using a proven framework when it comes to asking the right questions in your business?

Focus on the future of your business by asking better coaching questions

Why risk the future of your business by not taking coaching seriously?

What happens to the future of your business when you get better at asking coaching questions?

How can a simple coaching framework make you ask better questions?

Coaching questions around a proven framework – should you be using this in your business?

How can a MAD framework help you improve your coaching questions?

How can MAD thinking and triangles help you get the best out of your team?

Because your team matter to you, be better at asking the right coaching questions

Improve the results of your business by improving the performance of your team…

How to use a proven MAD framework to ask the right questions…

Should you go MAD about making a difference in your business?

Realise the full potential of your team by using the right coaching framework

Stop thinking that coaching is something that only happens in sport

Start making time in your diary each week to improve and develop the skills of your team

Make the right coaching changes in your business and unlock the hidden potential in your team

How much better could your team be in you invested in your own coaching skills

Time to unlock the potential in your team by investing in coaching

Build a better team and business by asking the right coaching questions

LinkedIn Updates

1. Have you ever thought about investing time and money in improving your coaching skills? Have you ever wondered if this investment could be beneficial to your business? As a business owner or manager, one of your key responsibilities is to develop and improve the performance of your team. You know that if your team improves, your business improves… Click here to learn more…

2. There is always a shortage of time in your business, always too much work to do – along with constant expectations from customers to do more, be better, be faster…This will always be the case if you do not make time to focus on the success of yourself and your team? Click here to discover how you can grow your team and your business when you improve your coaching skills.

3. The future of your business depends on the performance of your team, and it’s your job as a business owner or leader to develop your team so that they grow, improve and enhance the performance of your business. Click here to learn how to unlock the potential of your team by enhancing or developing your coaching skills.

4. I am sure you have team members who are keen to learn new things, grow and develop, and they would see coaching as an opportunity to improve and progress within your business. I am also sure you have team members who are less enamoured with learning new things and who are happy to stay as they are and to do things the way they have always been done. However, click here to learn that the development of your team is a pipe dream unless you make time to first develop your own coaching skills.

5. Developing your own coaching skills will help you develop your team’s knowledge, skills and motivation for the work they do. And a motivated and engaged team means more profit for your business! So why not build your own coaching skills to have an even greater impact on those team members and on your business, every day and every week. Click here to learn more.

6. In sport, we all know how important good coaches are to the success of any sports team or sportsperson. Alex Ferguson, Ivan Lendl, Dave Brailsford and many more have been lauded with praise for their achievements as coaches. A good coach is a major part of an athlete’s or a team’s success – they take on legendary status. Could you? Click here to learn more.

7. The words ‘coach’ and ‘coaching’ are mostly associated with sport. These words are not commonplace or really taken seriously in business, but just as athletes need to be coached to reach their full potential, so does your team. Click here to discover the benefits to you and your team of you carving out a little time each week to use your newly developed coaching skills

8. If coaching questions help create an environment where your team is inspired to learn, succeed, grow and do the right thing, then it’s vital that you improve your coaching questioning skills. Click here to discover the six words used when asking questions and the importance of open questions in unlocking the potential of your team.

9. The future success of your business and the development of your team means it’s worth taking the time to get your coaching right, and the way to do this is to ask your team the right questions. Click here to learn the simple but powerful equation developed by Tim Gallwey which enables you to ask the right coaching questions around three key elements.

10. If you don’t grow your people, you won’t grow your business. Click here to learn the importance of the Inner Game Equation when it comes to providing a positive and optimistic framework for asking the right coaching questions.

11. For more than 25 years and across 40 countries, Andy Gilbert and his team at Go M.A.D. Thinking have helped business leaders and managers to coach effectively and to see the benefits and importance of coaching. Click here to learn a practical and easy-to-understand framework for coaching success.

12. Click here to discover the M.A.D. (Make a Difference) framework of 2 triangles which demonstrates how easy coaching can be when you design and ask high-quality questions and structure your coaching conversation to guide the individual or team to Make A Difference.

13. As a business leader or manager, an important part of your job is developing the skills of your team, helping them succeed will grow your business. Click here to discover the importance of asking great coaching questions, getting these questions right will allow your team to achieve their full potential.

14. When you ask your team the right coaching questions you prompt them to think differently about their situation, their work, their motivations, their self-belief, and the team around them. Click here for 4 pointers to help you to start asking the right questions in your business.

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Blog 1 – Why risk the future of your business by not improving the skills of your team…

Have you ever thought about investing time and money in improving your coaching skills?

Have you ever wondered if this investment could be beneficial to your business?

As a business owner or manager, one of your key responsibilities is to develop and improve the performance of your team.

You know that if your team improves, your business improves…

So why is it that, in business, coaching is viewed as something you may like to do at some point, rather than something you should do now?

If you fail to improve your coaching skills, then your wider team is less likely to achieve the results you seek.

It’s hardly surprising that coaching is sometimes side-lined by short-term business pressures and that the development of employees is the lowest of four criteria that compel us to adapt our leadership behaviour.

The three criteria that precede employee development are time pressures, fear and the quality and quantity of the work. These are all constant pinch points in any business and, I am sure, are also pinch points in yours.

There is always a shortage of time, often a sense of fear, especially to change and the uncertainty of the future, and there is always too much work to do – along with constant expectations from customers to do more, be better, be faster…

But how do you change any of this if you are not focusing on the success of yourself and your team?

A better question is – how can you grow your business and secure its future if you don’t grow your team?

To do this, you need to improve your coaching skills – you cannot improve the skills of your team if you don’t first learn or improve simple coaching skills.

Click here to discover how to improve a few easy-to-implement coaching skills, coaching skills you are probably already using in your business, and how to enhance them with learning and structure.

Blog 2 – Invest in the future of your team by making time to improve your coaching skills

The future of your business depends on the performance of your team, and it’s your job as a business owner or leader to develop your team so that they grow, improve and enhance the performance of your business.

But - if you were to mention the word ‘coaching’ in your business, how would your team react?

I am sure you have team members who are keen to learn new things, to grow and develop, and they would see coaching as an opportunity to improve and progress within your business.

I am also sure you have team members who are less enamoured with learning new things and who are happy to stay as they are and to do things the way they have always been done.

But the development of your team is a pipe dream unless you make time to first develop your own coaching skills.

You probably think that this is a time-consuming, mammoth task…

Not true – all it takes is the improvement, with a little learning and structure, of a few coaching skills, skills you are probably already using within your business without even realising.

And you should not underestimate the impact of coaching on your team as it frequently creates a fundamental shift in their approach to their own work.

The global survey company, Gallup, has conducted in excess of 2.7 million employee surveys across more than 50 diverse industries.

Gallup’s study is just one of many that categorically shows how the engagement of your team in the work that they do profoundly impacts the results your business achieves.

The Gallup survey shows that high-engagement businesses make
23% more profit than those with low employee engagement.

Worth investing in, don’t you think?

Click here to learn more about the importance that developing your coaching skills can have on your team and business, as well as Gallup’s 12 questions to assess your team’s engagement.

Blog 3 – Make time to ask the right coaching questions in your business

You work with your team every day, every week – you know them well, and you know their strengths and weaknesses.

You know which members of your team have the skills and motivation to go further in your business – this is all good news for you.

So why not build your own coaching skills to have an even greater impact on those team members and on your business, every day and every week.

Developing your own coaching skills will help you develop your team’s knowledge, skills and motivation for the work they do. And a motivated and engaged team means more profit for your business!

In sport, we all know how important good coaches are to the success of any sports team or sportsperson. Alex Ferguson, Ivan Lendl, Dave Brailsford and many more have been lauded with praise for their achievements as coaches. A good coach is a major part of an athlete’s or a team’s success – they take on legendary status. Could you?

The answer is Yes, and the key to this Yes is questions – the right questions, asked at the right time.

Within your business, you already spend time asking questions of your team and listening to their responses.

These are two core coaching skills.

Yet they become so much more valuable when you apply strong and proven frameworks to help you and your team.

Click here to discover what these proven frameworks are and how better questions can help you unlock the potential in your team and remove the barriers holding them back.

Blog 4 – Are you creating an environment for learning and growth in your business?

The words ‘coach’ and ‘coaching’ are mostly associated with sport. These words are not commonplace or really taken seriously in business, but just as athletes need to be coached to reach their full potential, so does your team.

The pressure to deliver immediate, high-quality results, as well as the fear of failure, means that the medium/long-term payoff of coaching is overlooked by the short-term demands of your business.

All it takes is your commitment to carve out a little time each week to use your newly developed coaching skills.

So, what makes a great coach?

“No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking” – Voltaire

Sustained thinking requires better questions. Better questions can unlock your team’s potential and remove the obstacles in their way.

If coaching questions help create an environment where your team is inspired to learn, succeed, grow and do the right thing, then it’s vital that you improve your coaching questioning skills.

There are six words used when you ask questions: WHAT? HOW? WHEN? WHERE? WHO? and WHY?

WHY? is deliberately last on the list as it can sometimes produce emotive and defensive responses.

These six words provide the basis for an infinite number of questions, especially open questions, and when used in proven coaching frameworks can unlock your team’s performance.

Before we learn more about the frameworks, it’s important to understand the difference between open and closed questions.

A closed question is where ‘Yes’, ‘No’ or ‘Maybe’ are the only possible answers.

Example: Are you happy with your current level of results?

An open question can generate a number of possible answers and allow your team to think for themselves.

Example: What results are you hoping to get?

Just adding a single word to an open question can increase the focus:

What else do you want?
What more could you do?

An open question will unlock layers of insight that may prove valuable and, used with proven coaching frameworks, can really help elevate the standards of your team and encourage their development.

Click here to advance your questioning skills and discover more about 2 proven frameworks that you can use in your business to guide your coaching questions.

Blog 5 – Use the right equation to unlock the right coaching questions in your business

When coaching is done well it has the power to transform individual team members, your team as a whole and your business.

The future success of your business and the development of your team means it’s worth taking the time to get your coaching right, and the way to do this is to ask your team the right questions.

Tim Gallwey is considered a giant in the coaching field thanks to his insights around the simple but powerful Inner Game Equation, which enables you to ask questions around these three elements:

(P) Performance =

(p) potential – (i) interference

This equation lies at the heart of coaching – when you ask questions that focus on improving performance (P) by growing or making more of existing potential (p) and by decreasing interference (i) you help grow your people’s capabilities and results.

Interference can often consist of self-imposed obstacles such as fear, self-doubt, lapses in focus, insecurities and uncertainty – normal human emotions that often stand in the way of people believing and realising their full potential.

The Inner Game Equation provides a positive and optimistic framework for asking questions that change people’s thinking, remove obstacles and improve performance.

And if you don’t grow your people, you won’t grow your business.

“Coaching focuses on future possibilities, not past mistakes.”

– Sir John Whitmore, Coaching for Performance.

Sir John Whitmore explains more about this classic framework for asking great questions, in a prescribed running order, in his book Coaching for Performance, probably the most referenced book in the world of coaching. He uses this framework alongside the GROW model.

Click here to learn more about the Inner Game Equation and the GROW model and how this framework can ensure you unlock the full potential of your team by asking the right coaching questions in your business.

Blog 6 – Time to ask the right coaching questions, using a proven framework in your business

“Imagine knowing the right questions to ask, at exactly the right moment, in order to help others to think in a solution-focused way and achieve greater results. Imagine mastering a coaching framework that enables you to help yourself, your team and your organisation to make differences that matter.”

– Andy Gilbert, Go MAD About Coaching

For more than 25 years and across 40 countries, Andy Gilbert and his team at Go M.A.D. Thinking have been training trainers in business.

He and his team have helped business leaders and managers to coach effectively and to see the benefits and importance of coaching.

Back in 1998, Andy set up a research project to answer the following question:

“What is the simplest way of explaining the success process that people naturally use when making a difference?”

From this emerged a practical and easy-to-understand framework for success, made up of key principles that link together and provide a helpful questioning framework.

In his organisation, training coaches begins with getting them to ask questions around two triangles:

The first triangle focuses on questioning the ‘softer’ internal issues – the development of self.

The second triangle focuses questioning more on the ‘tangible’ elements that you can see and touch and for which you can provide evidence.

These 2 triangles form part of the 7-part coaching framework fully explained in Andy Gilbert and Ian Chakravorty’s brilliant book, Go MAD about Coaching.

This framework demonstrates how easy coaching can be when you design and ask high-quality questions and structure your coaching conversation to guide the individual or team to Make A Difference.

Click here to discover more about the Make A Difference (MAD) framework and how you can use it in your business to ask high-quality coaching questions.

Blog 7 – Are you holding back your team because you are not investing in your own coaching skills?

As a business leader or manager, an important part of your job is developing the skills of your team, helping them succeed and growing your business.

Helping your people succeed might seem like an overwhelming task for which you don’t have time because you are busy being busy in your business.

But when you invest in your own coaching skills, you will learn how to ask great coaching questions, questions that will remove the obstacles holding back your team, allowing them to achieve their full potential.

Now you can ask questions that prompt them to think differently about their situation, their work, their motivations, their self-belief, the team around them, the things holding them back and the actions they can take.

All very promising for your business…

Remember – a highly-engaged team can make your business more profitable.

So, it’s time to start asking the right questions in your business – here are 4 pointers to help you on your way to coaching stardom:

1. Remember it’s not about you – it’s about enabling your team by asking great questions, questions that prompt them to think for themselves and act on the insights and decisions your questions generate. You are not telling them what to do – they are working it out for themselves.

2. You cannot force growth – your people need time to grow, and they need your time to nurture the way they think, believe and behave.

3. Ask great questions using proven coaching frameworks – rather than using trial and error, build your coaching question skills by using the Inner Game Equation and the M.A.D. triangles to help you build your questioning skills faster and stronger.

4. Practice, practice, practice – asking great questions is a skill and skills require practice and a willingness to make mistakes. Coaching is a life skill, worthy of your investment, as you are investing in your team and your business.

Click here for more insights into becoming a better coach and discover the benefits to your team and your business that improving your coaching skills using proven frameworks can have.

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