A complete fitness programme for coaches

Effective coaches equate to stronger leaders, more motivated employees, improved morale, and better communication in the workplace. So what does it take to become great?

There are many skills and attributes of an effective coach. Get Fit for Coaching identifies and assesses areas of strength and improvementin 5 critical skills Building Rapport, Observing and Analysing, Questioning and Listening, Providing Feedback, and Facilitating Learning.

Get Fit for Coaching is appropriate for managers, supervisors, and team leaders at all levels. It can be used as a stand-alone assessment or debrief, an icebreaker for new coaches or individuals new to management, or as part of a comprehensive training programme on leadership development.

The 5 conversations every manager concerned with performance should be having!

Performance Management Through 5 Key Conversations helps managers identify their skill level in engaging employees in the 5 key types of performance-related conversations, enabling managers to create a profile of skill level in each of these Conversations and providing insight on the areas for improvement.

Good conversations facilitate the development of high-performing employees through collaborative and constructive dialogue; engage employees in meaningful, performance-related conversations, to build relationships and get results in a less awkward, more productive atmosphere. 

Performance Management Through 5 Key Conversations is effective when used alone or as part of a management development programme. The instrument can be used to establish a new approach, to performance management in an organisation, or to provide basic skills for new managers or supervisors. It is also useful when used to suggest an alternate or complementary approach to existing techniques.

Some people believe that networking is simply meeting or speaking with someone new at an event!

In effect a trading or transactional relationship in which the two parties seek to discover whether or not they can sell one another anything, exchange business cards and quickly move on. But Networking is so much more!

In a world where people prefer to do business with someone they know or have been recommended to, investing a little in developing the skills and strategies that will enlarge, and make better use of the spiders web of direct and indirect contacts we all have can only be time well spent! After all think of the benefits and value of expanding those relationships over time!

Manage Conflict for Positive Outcomes

Conflicts, large and small, are a fact of life... including in your work life. This inventory was developed to help you learn more about how you and others deal with conflict at work. Conflict isn’t always a negative influence in teams and organisations. The Conflict Style Inventory assesses individual approaches to conflict and shows how to make conflict a constructive, rather than destructive, force in your workplace.

This edition includes scales to measure a team’s approach to conflict as well as each individual’s approach.

Stress Prevention in the Modern Pressurised Workplace

Stress can creep up and invade our work and home lives almost unseen and often those most deeply affected by stress are unaware of its effects. The Stress Indicator and Health Planner is a self-administered assessment of the users current stress levels and overall health. Use it to understand how to enhance overall well-being, manage stress, and improve performance. Develop a plan to enhance overall wellness and decrease stress levels.

Self administered and self scored it provides individuals confidentally with a way to ensure they are dealing effectively with stress and its health implications.

Truly a valuable tool for todays high pressure or results driven environments.

Don't let unresolved issues drain the productivity from your teams!

Teams have preferred ways of handling conflict. Some teams avoid conflict at all costs, while others find that the battle gives them energy and motivation. Start your teams on a discussion of how they choose to handle conflict - and what impact their behaviour is having on their success.

All levels of teams can benefit from the Team Conflict Strategies Inventory it helps fully appreciate their own preference, to understand different approaches and when to use them, and how to deal with disagreements productively.

The challenge of encouraging innovation

The realities of dynamic and changing marketplaces, including intense competition, new technologies, and increasing customer demands, require that traditional management methods change.

Organisations of the future will be judged on the quality of their ideas and the speed these ideas can be translated into viable products or services that sell in the marketplace.

Creative ideas are often unanticipated or from unexpected sources so the best companies are looking for ways to create a culture that actively promotes these improvements and innovations. They will typically feel like a small company culture in which ideas come from everywhere and employees have extensive relationships with customers and suppliers in order to stay close to their needs.

Companies will need to encourage 'boundarylessness,' breaking through organisational lines up, down, and across so that good ideas are invited and harvested regardless of where they originate.

Release the creators in your workplace

Everyone is capable of creative thinking at some level. However, it is revealing to look closely at the barriers and enablers of creativity and to which ones are relevant. By doing this you can gauge how creative behaviour in your workplace right now, and identify how to make it more creative.

The Personal Creativity Assessment (PCA) allows an individual to quickly determine how they measure up in the realm of creativity. The 62-item assessment correlates to 31 creativity barriers and 31 creativity enablers. The PCA also provides useful instructions on how to overcome or enhance barriers and enablers.

Presented in a non-threatening format, the PCA is an excellent activity to conduct in a workshop or group setting where creativity is an issue.

Developing Real Transformational Leadership

Leaders are made, not born. You know that effective and successful leadership is not an accident and requires specific and measurable skills. The head of every successful organisation consistently tones and maintains his leadership muscle.

The 20-page Leadership Skills Inventory (LSI-S) provides leaders with the necessary metrics to identify and develop their transformational leadership skills.

Make Flexible Working work!

Whether it’s home–based, mobile, remote,  job sharing, flexitime or part-time working... flexible working requires specific skills!

Flexible workers need to be especially skilled at motivating and managing themselves, as well as managing their interactions with team members, managers, other departments and of course customers. These skills apply equally to those  who are office-based and work  in an environment where flexible working is in place.

The 7 skills focused on in this Skills Builder are not new but in the world of flexible working they need special attention and to be used thoughtfully. They can all be developed and learnt. Spending time improving and polishing them will  enhance productivity and increase job satisfaction, well-being and morale.