The Coaching Manual, 4th Edition

Chapter 4

Fundamental skills of coaching

The quieter you become, the more you can hear.

Ram Dass

This chapter focuses on the fundamental skills of coaching you’ll see illustrated in Figure 4.1. These primary skills distinguish a good coach from a not so good coach and I recommend you work on each of these skills directly. While you already have a current level of ability with all of them, some come less naturally and so require practice. You’ll find exercises to help you do that in this chapter and also in the Toolkit. Please try them. I recognise that it’s tempting just to keep reading and promise yourself to get back to these at some point in the future. However if you do miss out on practice, you may find yourself in a coaching conversation ...