In my last three posts, I have talked about the differences between knowledge and skills coaching (Just scroll down to read them). Consider this post a summary of them all. To answer the title of this post – “Is all coaching the same?”  The answer is no. There is a difference between skills and knowledge.

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Over the last couple of days I have posted about some challenges we face when coaching and mentoring.  I talked about Why We Coach and Coaching For Knowledge.  Both dealt with the differences between knowledge and skills.  Today I briefly tackle a major blind spot we face in this area as a leader and coach.

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In yesterday’s post I talked introduced some thoughts about why coaching and mentoring is so hard. In that post I discussed the difference between knowledge and skills and that to coach effectively we need to know why we are coaching. Are we coaching for knowledge or skills? Consciously or not, once we determine the answer

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Ask anyone to give a list of roles or tasks of a leader, especially in the context of organizational leadership, and coaching and mentoring will quickly rise to the top. This is no surprise, and even the most novice supervisor recognizes the importance of coaching.  Any yet for a variety of reasons, we don’t always

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I’m a sports fan. I read Sports Illustrated, watch ESPN, listen to sports radio and generally keep up with what’s going on across all sports. There are leadership lessons from all across the sports landscape, but the latest “big story” in sports made me think about leadership development – and possibly for a different reason

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I don’t know David Armano, but I follow him on Twitter. Does me following him make us friends? Hardly. But there are quite a few people (like David) I’ve ‘met’ on Twitter that I spend more time with than my ‘real’ friends. I seek their advice. I listen to what they say. I trust their opinion.

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For the last two summers I’ve had the good fortune to speak at “intern day” for one of our Clients. I recently found my flipchart from last summer’s session and thought some of what we talked about that fun morning applies to any of us doing leadership skill training (for college students, up-and-comers and seasoned veterans

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You may have heard by now that President Obama has persuaded security folks that he can keep his Blackberry.  It seems that while his phone will be limited to top staff and a small circle of friends, he will be able to keep it. One report I read said the “BarackBerry”, with it’s extra security,

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A couple of days ago President-Elect Obama gave his first speech since being elected.  Without getting into the all of the political details, from a leadership communication perspective, I believe his goals were to: 1.  Recognize the current economic situation as less than desirable. 2.  Create a sense of urgency 3.  Outline a plan of

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Last night I watched Jim Carrey in Bruce Almighty.  The premise is that Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey) is given God’s powers.  As you might imagine, this leads to some funny scenes that are all Jim Carrey – as you may have seen Jim Carrey many times before – sight gags, voices and uses of the incredible

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