Kickstarter Essentials

Article

by UK Coaching

Eight easy-to-follow tips that will jumpstart your coaching effectiveness and drive impactful learning into action

We know you love coaching and want to make a difference to the people you coach. We also know that you’re busy balancing home, coaching and life. Our solution: the Kickstarters!

Each Kickstarter contains activities to prompt and encourage your thinking and approach to the themes of the Coach Learning Framework. Short and snappy, they contain insight ready to apply immediately, helping you to enhance and grow your coaching practice.

A key part of developing as a coach is thinking about and reflecting on what you’re already doing. Our Kickstarters can help you do just that, ensuring that you’re well-equipped to take the next steps on your coaching journey and provide great support to everyone you coach.

As you get started, keep these tips in mind:

It's good to take your time

Each activity is separate, and you don’t need to do them all. Taking your time allows you to think about the experience and in many ways helps you to consider richer and deeper answers.

It’s important to be comfortable with the uncomfortable

Not having an immediate answer and feeling uneasy and uncomfortable is normal! After all, it’s what the challenge in your sessions does to your participants. Embrace this and grow with the process.

Play to your strengths

Use any format to catch your thoughts whether it’s a text to yourself, voice notes, a list on paper, keywords, a doodle or written in a journal. Find an approach that works for you.

Make choices!

The activities are individual and allow you to choose the ones you want. Don’t worry: you can revisit the others later. Start with something that you will enjoy and feel confident with. Once you start, you won’t stop!

Keep coming back

Create a habit and set a reminder on your phone to revisit your Kickstarter. It will help you recall, remember, and apply the learning and reflections you have made. A little and often is always best, so a 10-minute chunk regularly to revisit is better than an hour at the end of the year. Why not create a learning habit and revisit every month?

Don’t play it safe

It’s your development and only you will know what progress you’re making. Challenge yourself, revisit activities and see if you can add more to your initial thoughts and answer. If an activity looks challenging, set 20 minutes aside and have a go. Make a commitment to yourself to develop.

Be a role model

Share your experiences. Discuss your journey with participants, family and other coaches. Ordering and making sense of your ideas and sharing with others is the best form of learning.

Find a coaching buddy

Find someone to discuss the tasks and share your thoughts and ideas with. They will also help you maintain the habit of learning through coaching conversations.