John Whitmore

NOTES

Focus on what you put down as ideas for yourself and compare them with the qualities listed here.

A coach needs to have an abundance of patience if they are to allow their coachee to find their own way forward. They need to be supportive and never irritated.

A coach must be a good listener, something we look at in more detail a bit later on in this section.

They need to be aware of the issues that might impede progress and be attentive to the needs of the coachee. It is always important that the coach stays detached and does not get too involved in the detail, although they should still remain interested in what is being said.

A coach must know his or strengths and remain positive at all times.

They should be able to summarise and paraphrase to show that they have retained an understanding of what the coachee is saying.

John Whitmore is a coaching expert. His book Coaching for Performance and People is well worth reading. He quite rightly says that a coach does not necessarily need to be the expert, the coach is drawing expertise from the person they are coaching.