The role of wisdom in the coach/mentor – AI partnership
05/Mar/2018
In all the major models of human maturity, two qualities recur constantly: wisdom and connectedness. Wisdom, as exemplified by the original mentor, Athene, relates to the process of reflection upon and learning from experience. The scope of wisdom is therefore …
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A glimpse into the pre-history of teams
29/Jan/2018
The ability of humans to collaborate in teams on large-scale projects goes back thousands of years, according to theories emerging from the evidence of excavations of ancient monuments. Ancient monuments like Stone Henge, the Egyptian Pyramids, the statues of Easter …
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Coach versus bot: how do they compare?
03/Jan/2018
The issue of coach versus AI became one of the hot topics in coaching for 2017 and looks set to continue to generate interest, debate and – hopefully – some research. As yet, there is little evidence that existing coaches …
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The Coach-AI Partnership
03/Jan/2018
If coaches are to benefit from the rise of Artificial Intelligence, then they will need to embrace the new technology and integrate it with their practice. But what does that mean? The coach-AI partnership fulfils several functions: It provides real-time …
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What if the coachee or mentee appears delusional
24/Nov/2017
Although only one person in 500 is receiving treatment for a delusional disorder at any time, the rest of us are much more susceptible to bizarre and irrational beliefs than we like to admit. A recent study asking people about …
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FKT isn’t mentoring
24/Nov/2017
In recent months, there has been a spate of articles and webinars extolling the virtues of “speed mentoring”, “flash mentoring” or similar means of fast knowledge transfer (FKT). We have also seen the rise of “Mentoring Lite” from major dot-com …
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The linguistic origins of mentoring
09/Nov/2017
An eminent US scholar in mentoring recently said at a conference “There is no such word as mentee!”, arguing instead for the word protégé. By the same logic, of course, there is no such word as protégé (French, from which …
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What’s the conversation you need to have
16/Oct/2017
We all have conversations we avoid. We can wall these conversations off to the extent that we are not even aware we are avoiding them. In helping someone get to know themselves, a coach or mentor can encourage them to …
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Having a good talk with myself
16/Oct/2017
Walking down the street 25 years ago, the sight of someone talking to themselves would probably make you want to cross the road to avoid them. Nowadays, it is nothing strange – we assume that they are on their mobile …
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Control or let go
16/Oct/2017
People often struggle to get the right balance between doing things themselves and delegating to others. Here are some simple questions to manage the conversation about this: What do you have to control? What do you feel the need to …
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Wise words create wise thinking
16/Oct/2017
One of the greatest gifts between cultures is that of new words. Our awareness of concepts is tightly bound with having words to describe them. (For example, the concept of mathematics is alien to some remote tribes, who are limited …
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Team coaching virtual teams
26/Jul/2017
Virtual teams have a number of differences compared with co-located teams. On the plus side, their geographical dispersion means that they can draw upon a wider and more diverse pool of talent. It is also easier to maintain 24-hour oversight …
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How to recognise and help a coachee/ mentee manage loneliness
24/Jul/2017
It’s a common misconception that loneliness is about isolation from or lack of contact with other people. In reality, people differ greatly in how they respond to being on their own. Loneliness is a feeling of being socially isolated that …
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A warm reception for hot stone coaching
31/Mar/2017
Coaching works best when the client is relaxed and attentive to both the conversation and to themselves. Hot stone coaching has been proposed as a means of heightening the client’s attention to their inner world and their general mindfulness. Unlike …
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Cross mentoring – Mentoring between companies
08/Mar/2017
Most formal mentoring takes place between people within the same organisation, but this isn’t the only possibility. It is hard, for example, to create effective mentoring relationships within small national branch offices – people are often too close and the …
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