Coaching with NLP For Dummies®

Record Yourself and Play It Back

When you record a coaching session and play it back, you become the observer of your own performance as a coach.

With a client's permission, record a session. Draw up a list of the core competencies of coaching based on material in Chapter 3 and then go through your recording, checking how you fare on each one. Ask yourself:

• What were the questions that worked for this client?
• What is the evidence that you covered each competency?
• Where do you play safe? How can you stretch yourself as a coach to the edge of your comfort zone to improve your skill?

With an audio recording of a session, concentrate on the quality of your dialogue. Listen for speed, silences and tone of voice, as well as the actual words. With a video recording, try to spot the nuances of body language. What habits show up that are particularly useful or a hindrance? See Chapter 2 for much more on non-verbal communication.

You can also use the recoding for your client's benefit by inviting the client to re-visit the session and notice what she sees, hears and feels about it from an independent observer standpoint. What questions shifted the client's thinking? Where might the client be getting in her own way? How could the client have made better use of the time?

Erase the recording ...