Thursday 7 October 2010

Homework on Coaching

Right, dear readers of HR Case Studies. It’s almost the weekend, so I’m setting you some homework, and in the process undertaking a sophisticated social experiment with you select band.

An article in the current edition of Management Today, written by Jamil Qureshi who describes himself as a “Mind coach and strategic consultant” argues that you can “shape your mind for success” and offers ten top tips for doing just that.

MT Expert's Ten Top Tips: Shape your mind for success

Your homework is to read the Management Today article, and then answer this simple question:
Is mind coaching a scientifically proven effective means of improving performance, or an unfounded and somewhat empty fad in personal development?
You need to post your answers in the comments box and indicate what your current role is.

For the slackers amongst you, the tips are summarised below:
  1. Be motivated by what you want to achieve, never motivated by what you wish to avoid.  
  2. Put your own house in order, before complaining about the state of the street. 
  3. Be a winner who creates other winners. 
  4. Treat everybody like they are the most important person on earth. 
  5. Lose the ‘ I, Me, and Mine.’ 
  6. How to be successful? Double your rate of failure...  
  7. Seek to understand, before being understood.  
  8. Cashflow is not the lifeblood of business. 
  9. Remember: there is no such thing as neutral. 
  10. Have purpose. 
Right. Get commenting

6 comments:

  1. A client of mine, a regional HR/Talent Manager with high street fashion retailer, sent me this link:
    http://goo.gl/o5kO
    The video is 10min 36 sec long and is well worth watching. A unique presentation to explain the motivation factors - mastery, autonomy and purpose.
    Dan Pink's insights and explanations form a compelling message.

    Generation X have different motivators to generation Y and we need to work with works for different people... which coincidentally is the topic of my current ezine, which is stored on my "Confidence Blog" http://www.eilidhmilnes.com/_blog/The_Confidence_Coach

    Twitter DMs work ... sometimes... Have a top day!

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  2. Hmm, I haven't bothered to watch the video, life is just too short, but I did read the article in MT. Those top tips look like a re-hash of basic NLP, with some key misunderstandings included. Point 1 annoyed me, since there is a good body of research to show that around 30% of the population are actually very well motivated by what they wish to avoid. Perhaps he meant to say be motivated by a well-defined goal, even if that is about avoiding something.
    On the whole, my experience as a coach suggests that the principles behind most of these tips are actually useful for most people. However, the real point of coaching is not to spout those points, but to help people implement the principles they choose, in their lives and work in a way that works for them and their natural preferences. The art of coaching is in finding how to help each individual do that.
    MT is sometimes pretty poor reading, try the Economist instead.

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  3. As they say, there's nothing new under the sun...

    I totally agree with Nick that coaching is about helping individuals develop in a way which works for them - not top 10 lists!

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  4. Generally agree with Nick and Claire. What particularly I notice is the superficiality of the statements. Wanted to respond with SO WHAT???

    And, as someone further down the road, I can forget that those new to coaching might never have previously come across these ideas before. So I can see how they could open into a much bigger conversation in the right coaching hands.

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  5. "Mind coach and strategic consultant” aka quack, charlatan, mountebank, snake-oil salesman.

    I think I have just lost the will to live.

    Good grief. Can't people just get over themselves, be adults and treat fellow human beings with kindness and respect. Oh, that advice (consultancy) will cost you £15k.

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  6. Eilidh, Nick, Claire, Sharon, Mikey:

    Just to say thanks very much for your profound input. It's good to see that there is an alternative to the snake oil salesman approach that Mikey refers to!

    Have a good week.

    ReplyDelete