50 Top Tools
for Coaching
fifth edition
50 Top Tools
for Coaching
A complete toolkit for developing
and empowering people
Ro Gorell and Gillian Jones
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ISBNs
Hardback 978 1 78966 657 1
Paperback 978 1 78966 655 7
Ebook 978 1 78966 656 4
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.
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This book is dedicated to Lawrence and Elly,
for being my reason to live every day!
Gillian
I would like to dedicate this book to my dad,
who always used to encourage me to ‘go for it!’
and to my husband Ryszard for being there always.
Ro
CO N T E N T S
List of Figures xi
List of Tables xiii
Foreword xv
Preface xvii
Acknowledgements xxvii
Introduction 1
01 Setting up the coaching relationship – The tools
to create clear expectations and outcomes 9
The coaching process 9
Coaching assessment form 11
Coaching brief and contracting form 13
Coaching self-assessment questionnaire 18
Checklist for establishing contract rules 21
Action plan 25
Coaching evaluation 28
02 Foundation tools – Key tools for managing coaching
relationships 33
Listening model 33
Questioning skills and techniques 37
Feedback techniques and examples 42
The ORACLE model 48
Coffee-break coaching 55
Self-coaching 58
03 Goal setting – Tools for gaining clarity on desired
outcomes 61
Creating powerful intentions 61
Goal setting 66
Breaking down previous goals 70
Spatial action planning 71
viii Contents
Goal visualization 74
Goal visualization script 76
04 Problem resolution – Tools for exploring solutions
and creating positive options 79
Logical levels 79
Positive problem solving (reframing) 83
Problem mapping 86
05 Values and beliefs – Tools for discovering what
motivates behaviours 89
Internal conflict negotiation 89
Helping individuals reduce stress 92
Changing negative thought patterns 96
Determining values 99
Prioritizing values 103
Belief assessment 107
06 Confidence strategies – Tools to create confidence
and develop personal performance 111
Reprogramming negative language 111
Personal centre of excellence 114
07 Working effectively with others – Tools for analysing
and achieving enhanced relationships 117
Behavioural conflict resolution 117
Analysing and resolving conflict 121
360-degree perspective 124
08 Personal impact and influence – Tools for increasing
presence and impact 127
Communication skills audit and skills inventory 127
360-degree feedback 134
09 Enhancing leadership style – Tools for developing your
strategy and increasing team performance 145
Team climate inventory 145
Improving the delegation process 149
Contents ix
Planning to delegate 152
Prioritizing: paired comparison 158
Prioritizing: importance–urgency grid 162
10 Planning for the future – Tools for defining where
and what you want to be 165
Life events 165
The discovery model 169
Ideal work designer 173
Managing my career 177
11 Developing women – Tools for coaching women 181
Identifying super powers through strengths-based portraits 181
Reflected strengths portrait exercise 183
Improving confidence by changing beliefs: Internal dialogue
and managing the ‘voices’ 188
Questions to change limiting beliefs 189
Part 2 190
Confidence building: Defining the inner team 191
Emotional intelligence through modelling 195
Managing upwards 198
12 Coaching during change – Tools for co-creating
organizational change 201
Creating a group coaching environment 201
Creating tools for group coaching 205
Lean change canvas 210
Mapping different perspectives 214
Hot seat coaching 218
13 Ten extra tools from our coaches 223
Goal setting – ensuring goals are aligned 223
Targeting what’s important 227
Guiding others through the change journey 230
SLOBA model for building credibility 233
The alignment process 237
Accountability review 241
Breaking the gridlock 246
x Contents
Building resilience 249
Building and using a supportive network 254
Establishing a real purpose, meaning and value for client
progress 258
14 A manager’s guide to coaching 261
Coaching to improve performance 261
Coaching to retain talent 265
Coaching people who are in conflict (individuals, groups or whole
team) 271
Coaching upwards: How to manage your manager! 274
Coaching for resistance to change: Dealing with negativity 277
15 Building a coaching practice 279
Your value proposition 279
Creating coaching packages 282
Pricing your coaching services 289
Managing your business process 297
Systems for delivering your coaching services 301
Coach yourself first: A coach’s guide to self-reflection by Mark
Bisson 307
Tools for supervision by Mark Bisson 312
Index 317
LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURE 2.1 Coaching process questions 38
FIGURE 2.2 ORACLE model 49
FIGURE 2.3 Coffee-break coaching 57
FIGURE 2.4 Self-coaching 60
FIGURE 3.1 Timeline action planning 73
FIGURE 4.1 Problem mapping model 88
FIGURE 11.1 Emotional intelligence 196
FIGURE 12.1 Lean Change coaching manifesto 204
FIGURE 12.2 Example tool categories 206
FIGURE 12.3 Example tool categories 207
FIGURE 12.4 Limit and limitations 209
FIGURE 12.5 Strategic Change Canvas 213
FIGURE 12.6 Example Perspective Map 217
FIGURE 13.1 The targeting dartboard 228
FIGURE 13.2 The change journey 232
FIGURE 13.3 The SLOBA Model of Credibility 236
FIGURE 13.4 Goals and action review 245
FIGURE 13.5 Purpose into action 260
FIGURE 15.1 Client journey 286
FIGURE 15.2 Thoughts, feelings, emotions 287
FIGURE 15.3 Sample coaching package 288
FIGURE 15.4 Coaching package pricing worksheet 294
FIGURE 15.5 Engaging clients 299
L I S T O F TA B L E S
TABLE 1.1 Coaching process 10
TABLE 1.2 Coaching assessment form 12
TABLE 1.3 Coaching brief and contract 15
TABLE 1.4 Aims of meetings and schedule 17
TABLE 1.5 Coaching self-assessment questionnaire 19
TABLE 1.6 Checklist for establishing contract rules 23
TABLE 1.7 Action plan 27
TABLE 1.8 Reflection and evaluation 29
TABLE 1.9 Coaching session evaluation 32
TABLE 2.1 Listening levels 35
TABLE 2.2 Listening model: the four Rs of effective listening 36
TABLE 2.3 Questioning techniques 41
TABLE 2.4 ORACLE model 51
TABLE 2.5 ORACLE overview 52
TABLE 2.6 Questions for the different steps of the ORACLE model 54
TABLE 3.1 Creating powerful intentions: template 65
TABLE 3.2 Goal-setting framework 68
TABLE 4.1 Logical levels 82
TABLE 4.2 Positive problem solving 85
TABLE 5.1 Reducing stress 95
TABLE 5.2 Changing negative thought patterns 98
TABLE 5.3 Values 102
TABLE 5.4 Prioritizing values 105
TABLE 5.5 Example of prioritizing values 106
TABLE 5.6 Belief assessment 109
TABLE 6.1 Negative language indicators 113
TABLE 7.1 Behavioural conflict resolution 120
TABLE 7.2 Analysing and resolving conflict 123
TABLE 8.1 Communication skills audit: feedback sheet 130
TABLE 8.2 Communication skills audit: overall results 132
TABLE 8.3 360-degree feedback questionnaire 136
TABLE 8.4 360-degree feedback: overall results 139
TABLE 9.1 Team climate inventory 148
TABLE 9.2 Improving the delegation process 151
xiv List of Tables
TABLE 9.3 Delegation planning 155
TABLE 9.4 Delegation framework 156
TABLE 9.5 Effective delegation checklist 157
TABLE 9.6 Example prioritizing grid 160
TABLE 9.7 Prioritizing grid 161
TABLE 9.8 Importance–urgency grid 163
TABLE 10.1 Life events chart: part one 167
TABLE 10.2 Life events chart: part two 168
TABLE 10.3 Discovery model 172
TABLE 10.4 Ideal work designer: part one 175
TABLE 10.5 Ideal work designer: part two 176
TABLE 10.6 Managing my career 179
TABLE 11.1 Strengths feedback example 184
TABLE 11.2 Strengths portrait example 184
TABLE 11.3 My strengths 185
TABLE 11.4 Strengths feedback 186
TABLE 11.5 My strengths 187
TABLE 11.6 Defining the inner team 193
TABLE 11.7 Emotional intelligence through modelling 197
TABLE 11.8 Emotional intelligence through modelling 200
TABLE 13.1 How much do I want it? 225
TABLE 13.2 Short-form assessment of current strength of resilience
characteristics 251
TABLE 14.1 Self-reflection tool: Why is the person under
performing? 263
TABLE 14.2 Preparation for talent discussion 266
TABLE 14.3 Job characteristics 1 267
TABLE 14.4 Job characteristics 2 269
TABLE 14.5 Coaching upwards 276
TABLE 15.1 Coaching package topics 284
TABLE 15.2 Calculating sales leads 291
TABLE 15.3 Worksheet: Getting systems to work for you 305
FO R E W O R D
This coaching toolkit contains a selection of forms, models and exercises,
and an explanation of how and when to use them. We have also included a
chapter on setting up the coaching relationship, which provides valuable
resources on managing the coaching relationship and supports your own
continuous development.
The toolkit is designed to be used like a reference document so that you
can dip into the topic you need when you need it. Each tool contains an
overview and model diagram to provide both the words and the big picture.
If you want to download the tools, you will find all the templates on the
Kogan Page website. Please feel free to use these forms, but we do ask that
you give us credit when you use them.
To help you get the most out of your toolkit, as an added bonus we
have recorded some samples of the tools so that you can watch them on
the Kogan Page website. Watching the tools in action demonstrated by the
authors will add considerably to the experience, as you will see some of
the questions that enhance the use of the tools. Enjoy our 50 top coach-
ing tools. To access both the templates and the demonstrations go to:
www.koganpage.com/50tt5
If you would like to buy the DVD with 10 of the key tools demonstrated
in full, or to find out what other coaching resources we offer, go to our
websites www.emergeuk.com and www.growtalentro.com.
P R E FAC E
Gillian
We have no idea what the world is going to look like when we come out of
the Covid-19 pandemic, and we can only hope that there will be a business
world and that the economy will manage to hold up. As always writing with
my co-author Ro, who is based in Australia, has been a great experience –
fortunately we are used to remote working which is the way the whole
world is working now. Ro has also authored some other excellent books on
group coaching and talent management which are really useful to read in
conjunction with this.
However, even though we cannot predict the shape of the business land-
scape to come, what we do know is that coaching is, and will still be, a mas-
sive part of our world. During the last two weeks I have had to really review
my style as a leader so I can support my staff through these difficult times
and coaching has been more important than ever to keep up morale. There is
so little that can be done to practically help them to cope with isolation that
allowing them to talk and listening at the highest level are imperative. And
for any managers during this period and afterwards coaching will be abso-
lutely critical to keeping their team together, productive and able to cope.
Ironically, we had already decided to include a chapter on coaching for
managers in this edition and these tools will be vital to anyone who has
people who report to them, whether directly or indirectly. In the training
that we deliver to managers we spend huge amounts of time discussing how
to manage performance, how to develop talent and how to coach people
through conflict or through change so we are delighted to use this edition to
introduce some tools to support these areas.
In 2017 when we published the fourth edition, I felt that the world of
coaching had changed beyond recognition, both in the way coaches perform
and in the way organizations utilized external coaching. And in 2021 it has
changed even further. There are thousands more coaches available and
organizations use them very differently, for personal coaching, career coach-
ing and business coaching. However, while clients are much better at selecting
external coaching, using effective processes and working with external
coaching organizations, I still see them struggling with measuring the impact
of coaching and truly realising value from the process, particularly at a very
xviii Preface
senior level. There is progress and we should congratulate those clients who
are truly managing the process and their investment and share this good prac-
tice with others. However, we cannot take our eye off the ball in continuously
looking for ways to demonstrate that coaching is working in organizations
As I reflect on my coaching journey in the last ten years, I have been lucky
enough to coach CEOs and Managing Directors from a whole variety of
disciplines, finance, media, music, engineering, defence, construction and
many others and, as they grow and develop, so do I. As one of the earliest
adopters of coaching over 20 years ago, I have watched the philosophy of
coaching evolve and take shape and in our business we have applied many
different tools to work on major contracts with clients.
As a female Managing Director and owner of my own business consul-
tancy for the past 20 years, I have always been keen to support women’s
development and have been fortunate enough to coach senior women in a
whole range of positions. I particularly enjoyed working with females from
every walk of life and, in doing this, have learned a lot about the challenges
women are facing in the workplace, both internally and externally. This led
me to take on the challenge of designing a women’s development programme
that we now run internationally called RISE. We run this in the Middle East
and also in Saudi which has given us great insight into how to shape the
coaching offering for women.
In our last edition we included a new chapter on coaching women in
development. It feels like that it is only the past eight years that diversity and
inclusion has upped its game and now is high on everyone’s agenda – but is
it something that organizations really want to solve or is it just lip service?
Some organizations truly seem dedicated to growing their female talent but
in some situations, it is difficult to tell. Sadly, research seems to suggest that if
we continue to increase our attention on women’s development at the current
rate it will be 100 years before we get true gender parity. Not soon enough!
There has been a huge shift in the last three years on gender parity and how
organizations are supporting their female population to get to board level, or
just to feel that they are being fairly treated so we are glad that we have
included a chapter on women’s development. However, a big problem is that
women feel uncomfortable about sharing their strengths, and often, when
I am coaching women, they tell me that the visibility and networking part of
business is truly difficult for them. They consider it ‘politicking’ or feel they
are showing off and are extremely uncomfortable. Yet research has clearly
shown that it is simply not good enough for us to do a great job nowadays.
This message does not always sit comfortably with women. Doing a great
job may get you a pay rise but won’t necessarily get that promotion. To be
Preface xix
highly promoted you need to pay attention to your performance, your image
and also your visibility, gaining exposure to a broad range of stakeholders.
Combine this with the research from neuroscience that helps us to under-
stand the true differences between the way men and women’s brains oper-
ate, in particular the fact that women are far more risk-averse than men and
we are beginning to bring some of the important issues into focus.
So this is where we need to focus our attention when coaching women –
helping them to understand what they bring to the table, to feel comfortable
about discussing their strengths, promoting themselves and talking about
their achievements.
This, coupled with the very prevalent condition we call ‘imposter syn-
drome’, forms a big part of coaching conversations with women. It still
never ceases to amaze me when I start to coach senior women holding down
very important positions in huge corporations and as we gain rapport they
say to me ‘I keep waiting for someone to catch me out!’ Even though they
have worked tremendously hard to gain qualifications, knowledge and
experience, and have beaten many others to achieve great promotions they
often still don’t feel that they are worthy and believe that others in similar
positions are more talented, better qualified, or more connected. Therefore,
when coaching women, we are helping them deal with both internal and
external challenges.
Our tools for developing women will help you to coach females through
many issues – yes, of course, they would be relevant to men as well but they
were particularly designed for a female audience so we will leave it to you
to try them out and to decide who they work best!
And finally, for any of you in the coaching profession, you will recognize
the importance of supervision in coaching. So we are delighted that in this
edition we can include two chapters from an incredibly talented supervisor,
Mark Bisson. Mark has been my supervisor for many years and his chal-
lenge and support has helped me through many situations. Mark is an inter-
national credentialed coach (PCC) and coach supervisor and author of
Coach Yourself First – A coach’s guide to self-reflection and I sure that you
will find those techniques useful in improving your coaching practice.
I hope you enjoy this new edition, continue to develop your practice and
find the extended tools helpful to you in this new world.
Ro
Gillian and I first collaborated on 50 Top Tools for Coaching in 2008. That
was over 10 years ago and the world has changed – a lot. Back in 2012
xx Preface
I emigrated from the UK to Western Australia to one of the most isolated cit-
ies in the world, Perth. Coming to Australia meant I experienced change at a
personal level. I had to relearn what I knew and discover how to navigate a
different culture. I have realized that organizations are not just a collection of
individuals they also take on a life of their own outside the sphere of the
individual. So even when people leave the organization, the culture c ontinues.
When we began this edition in 2020, it was a challenging start to the year
for us in Australia. We’ve had bush fires that ravaged landscape, caused loss
of life and destroyed livelihoods. Covid-19 is affecting everyone across the
globe. Never has there been a more important time to collaborate and coach
both ourselves and others.
The advent of Agile
Coaching people one on one makes a huge difference to the individual; the
benefits for the organization will be less, particularly where they are seeking
systemic change in the organization. Group coaching is fast becoming popu-
lar here in Australia through the advent of Agile practices – even though
Agile has been around since 2001, borrowing much from Lean and organi-
zational development.
Team and group coaching has always been something I’ve enjoyed and
coaching self-organizing or self-managed teams is a great by-product of the
Agile movement. It’s top of mind for many, along with virtual coaching and
learning. Going virtual is proving a key turning point for coaches as the ef-
fects of the pandemic are likely to change our working practices for years to
come. Many of the tools in this book can be adapted to a virtual environ-
ment and provide inspiration and ideas for how to work with groups and
teams. Being able to flex and adapt are at the heart of Agile.
So what is Agile? Agile is an iterative approach for developing software
which is being adopted more widely for other types of organizational
change. There are four core values and twelve principles within Agile and
these have spawned over 40 methods, practices and processes and others
that are no doubt being used but not yet popularised. Many of these tools
and methods are borrowed from other disciplines like continuous improve-
ment and organizational development.
This move to work more Agile provides both challenges and opportuni-
ties. The challenges – keeping the essence of coaching without overly direct-
ing individuals on a set course. The opportunities arise from the natural
development of coaching practices that create a coaching climate. The
organization has the potential to change their culture through coaching
Preface xxi
without stating that as their intent. At the heart of Agile is the notion of
servant-leadership which fits well with the notion of ego-free coaching that
is dear to my heart.
My inspiration for coaching
My coaching journey started in 2002 when I learnt first-hand what it meant
to be coached. I owe much to my first coach, who inspired me to train as a
coach. From those early days of my coaching training in 2004 I realized I had
already been ‘doing’ coaching. It was just the start of a discovery process that
fed my love of learning and personal growth. Back then I reignited my read-
ing bug and read so many books, articles and magazines about coaching that
my head was full to bursting. From the feedback about this book over the
past 11 years I realize that it has helped many other coaches at the start of
their coaching journey. We are grateful to all the people who have purchased
this book and hope it has helped in some small way their coaching practice.
We have now been translated into Korean and Czech with other translations
in the pipeline as well as an audio version. Spreading the word about coach-
ing is something we both feel strongly about and are humbled and in awe of
the level of engagement from the coaching community. We thank you.
Remembering our roots helps us understand how we arrived at our c urrent
position. In the first edition, I talked about the concept of coaching and how
it has been around since ancient times. Perhaps most famously in ancient
Athens. Having studied Classics, I am of course biased. Ancient Greek
philosophers still inspire my coaching today and Socratic dialogue shows us
that Socrates, as described by Plato, was the first true coach. His questioning
style was designed to examine self-awareness and in doing so allow the
person being questioned to discover the truth about themselves. Coaching is
about developing a self-awareness and from there taking action to improve.
We are also seeing a move towards coaching people in groups as organi-
zations realize individuals operate within the organizational system. Those
organizations leveraging the power of groups, taking a more systemic and
strategic approach to coaching, are showing the greatest results.
Organizations are even more complex
Organizational complexity requires a different set of skills to those that had
utility in the dawn of the industrial age. Many organizational models now
focus on working in complex systems. Since first writing about coaching I
have also added Lean Change to my toolkit. In essence this captures
xxii Preface
c ontinuous improvement, start-up approaches and behavioural economics
around an iterative learning process. This has added to and informed my
coaching philosophy and led to the development of one of the tools included
in this fourth edition – Coaching Manifesto.
Needless to say, there are still three core skills I use to train managers in
coaching skills and keep front and centre when I am coaching – either indi-
viduals or groups. Those three skills are: listening, questioning and feed-
back. On the surface, they seem simple. As you read through these tools you
will realize that there are different levels of mastery. I call these levels trans-
actional, transitional, and transformational. The more you move towards
transformational the less you will be practicing the skill and the more the
skill will become part of how you naturally coach.
In my experience of working with clients they usually present you with
task-based or transactional-type outcomes first. When the client starts to
trust the process more they gradually open up and self-awareness leads to
more transformational type conversations. At this deeper level of conversa-
tion, the dynamic of the coaching relationship changes. One aspect of using
tools is that the tool itself is merely a vehicle to enable the client to achieve
what it is they are seeking from the coaching. If you find that you are be-
coming too attached to the tool itself or tend to use the same tool over and
again, perhaps it’s time to change, so mix it up with something different.
Coaching people during change is something we’ve added to this edition
along with coaching women in leadership. Gillian and I were spotting some
key trends in the work that we do and felt we wanted to develop the breadth
of the tools offered. We have therefore removed some tools from this edition
of the printed book and put them online. In reality, you have access to some
70 tools both in the print and online edition of the tools.
Gillian mentioned my other books on group coaching and talent. We’ve
included some of the tools in this fourth edition with changes to formatting
to fit the style of this book. Group Coaching: A Practical guide to optimizing
talent in any organization explores the role of the group coach and how to
create your own group coaching processes and tools. Many of the tools in
this book can be adapted to suit your specific requirements and we’ve in-
cluded a tool to help you with just that.
In Are they on the Right Bus: The 55-minute guide to talent management
I explore the nature of talent and how organizations miss out on some of the
core strengths of their people by focusing on too few ‘talented’ individuals.
The underpinning concept of coaching is that we all have potential. Our role
as coaches is to help those who want to improve and optimize their career,
life and relationships.
Preface xxiii
In our book on How to Create a Coaching Culture Gillian and I build on
many of the underlying principles of coaching and apply them to an organi-
zational setting. We both believe engaged employees will not only perform
better at work but they’ll also have a healthier view on life in general. This
foundation creates a working environment where everyone can be at their
best, feel valued, and acknowledge their contribution to the organization
regardless of their role.
We hope you enjoy discovering new tools, reacquainting yourself with
some old favourites and experimenting with creating some tools yourself.
Let us know your stories of using the tools and what you’ve created yourself.
Have fun!
AC K N OW L E D G E M E N T S
With thanks to all the coaches who have contributed to this edition. We
would like to acknowledge Lisa Gray, Diane Herbert, Debbie Mitchell, Rob
Bartlett, Bruce Hoverd, Julie Standfield, Kate Burton and Gayl Long for
contributions towards the book. Also thanks to Jason Little for sharing his
Lean Change tools and for Ro’s colleague and partner in change, Charlotte
Mawle, for co-creating perspective mapping and being willing to experi-
ment with group coaching and to Lisa Wood, who inspired Ro to create a
Coaching Manifesto.
Most importantly, a huge thank you to Dawn Newson for her tireless
formatting of the book – we couldn’t have done it without you.
Gillian and Ro
