This is The Coaching Inn, a podcast from 3D Coaching. Hello, it's Claire here. Thanks for tuning in to our latest book group, which is looking at simplifying coaching, simple conversations in real life. And actually, that's where the rubber hits the road, isn't it? It's the real life. the it's the places that you can apply the skills and the principles from coaching that actually make it. the most useful thing it can be.
I think we can't underestimate the fact that coaching is a multi-million pound dollar business globally. And there are reasons that people want to make it special so that it can be sold and costed and all those things. And having a coach is a really useful thing. And there is always going to be a need for independent coaches who charge money to people who want to pay a premium for having a great place to think that safe and accountable and all the other things.
But actually, most importantly, the skills that we learn in coaching can be used in all kinds of different conversations. So the thing about Chapter eight is really giving you some real live examples of where it works. So I often say to people on training courses, you know, there are some simple principles around coaching. And if you want to have a look at them, you can get the postcards on our website.
But actually, the most important thing is that each of those principles can transform different conversations. So you might take notice, don't diagnose. and use that in management conversations, you might take, change the medium and use it with your team. You could use any of the different principles in other kinds of conversations. And it's only when you use them all at the same time that actually it's formal coaching.
And I can still remember so clearly that day when somebody said to the senior team in front of me, You've got to learn about coaching. I know you're not going to be coaches, but this will impact every conversation you ever have again. And I guess probably the most significant one that applies, principle that applies across the board is the principle of right sizing. Because I think too often in one-to-ones what happens is we get very fixated on listening for the thing the other person wants.
And the minute we hear it, we start offering a solution to the thing we think they've just said. But it may be that they're just downloading or thinking out loud. So actually getting clear on those three right sizing things. What are we doing today here in this conversation? What's the best way for us to do it? And how will we know we've done it is truly transformational, even if nothing that you do after that is coaching.
At least what you've done is you've agreed and that you've co-created some good work together. I think the other place that just becomes more and more significant for me as a concept really is the idea of using coaching as triage. So I think often in organisations we think so and so needs to talk to somebody about that and it's not me. but it's really unclear who that somebody might be and what that thing might look like.
And one of the great things about coaching is that we can have a 20 or 30 minute conversation with somebody where really all we're doing is working out what the thing is that we need to be thinking about. And then at the end of the talking about the thing, we can facilitate that person to think about where they might usefully take it. Because the danger is they've got some anxiety or mental health concerns around the workplace and you send them, you suggest that they go for counselling.
Counselling is a great thing. I am a great advocate of counselling, but they're going to have to wait. And then when they go, they're going to have committed to a series of six sessions. So they need to be cut or whatever. They need to be kind of clear that it's counselling that they need. So in triage, what you do is you just get them to talk about the thing and then you help them think through different ways that they might go and usefully take that, different places they might take it.
So it might be that they go medical if it's something about anxiety, that there's a medical way forward. It might be that there's a counselling way forward. It might be that having articulated the thing out loud to somebody else that actually that's enough. It could be all sorts of things.
So coaching is triage means that means that you don't unpack the thing, you don't dig into the thing, you don't try and fix the thing, but you work with somebody else to help them work out where they might usefully go. So mentoring and coaching are often described in the same sentence, coaching and mentoring. And different people have different definitions of which is coaching and which is mentoring. One of them includes content, one of them doesn't. Call them whatever you wish.
But my definition of mentoring is coaching with content and Probably the most beautiful fit between coaching and mentoring is to use the coaching container in a mentoring kind of conversation. Because the great challenge about mentoring is you're working with somebody that you really want to see grow and develop and flourish. They want you to be their mentor. You have so much wisdom and experience to share, they really want it.
And the risk is that you give it too early and too much and too quickly, and the risk is they just suck it all in. But it doesn't actually give them the thing they need. So right sizing in a mentoring, in every mentoring conversation. so that somebody can get really clear what their question is before you start offering wisdom and experience can really increase the power and the potential in a mentoring space.
So yeah, there's lots of ways of applying coaching and we would so love to hear your examples and if you'd be willing to come and be interviewed on The Coaching Inn and just have a conversation with one of us about where you're applying some of these principles in your day job, that would be phenomenal and I know that others would really appreciate the opportunity to listen to that. So just ping us an email and the office at info at 3dcoaching.com. And yeah, that would be great.
And the other invitation I want to offer you is that chapter nine is called the journey continues because actually we're all learning all the time. I'm learning. I've learned loads this week and I've got a lot of stuff to think about to see how that fits with what I know and, about simplifying stuff. I've just been rewriting, well, revising the handouts for our transforming conversations course. And I've taken out 20 pages because I'm learning that simple works.
And I had a great conversation with somebody this week who's going to be on the podcast in a few months time, hopefully. And he said, if you understand something well, you can teach anyone. So my challenge to you is understand, learn your theories as well as you can, as Jung said, put them aside when you touch the miracle of the living soul and simplify, because if you can understand it, you can teach anyone. And that's a real sign of where you are in your coaching journey.
So instead of having me rabbiting on for the last chapter of our book group, My invitation to you is who's up for coming to have a conversation with me about what you've learned and what the next stage of your journey is. It's a great way to think out loud, it'll be fun, other people will enjoy listening to it and it's also good marketing for the work that you're doing. So I've asked you for two different things in this podcast. One is if you're up for coming and sharing with us.
how you're applying some of the coaching principles at work, then give us a shout and we'll have you on as a guest. That'll be great fun. And also if you'd like to come and do a book group podcast with me about chapter nine, The Journey Continues and about how you're continuing to learn and what your journey is in simplifying and refining your coaching, then you would be so very, very welcome. So thanks for listening. Thanks for being part of the book group.
The podcast on this book will continue ad hoc as people put their hand up and say, yeah, I'm willing to come and talk to you about that. And we'd love to hear your feedback at info at 3dcoaching.com to see what you've thought about this engagement and whether you'd like us to start on another book. by somebody else in the autumn and if so it would be great to have your ideas. Thanks for listening, have a great day, bye bye. Find out more about us at www.3Dcoaching.com