About ten years ago, whilst working at a well known high street newsagents, I attended a residential ‘Supervisor’ training course in Gloucester, it is perhaps the only formal training I have received for the job I currently do.
During the three of four days of this training we learnt a lot, much of it I have forgotten, which is bound to happen over time if you are not using the information or techniques that you have been taught. One thing that did however stick with me was the idea of coaching.
The term ‘Coaching’ can sometimes get a bad wrap; during the nineties and early 2000’s it was all the rage on the business seminar circuit, with endless streams of charismatic characters in business suits proclaiming that ‘coaching is the way to go’, ‘coaching is the answer to all your training problems’, ‘learn to coach from me for a small fee’. However, this not how I see ‘coaching’; perhaps it is just the way I was taught the technique or because I was not subjected to it in this way, but for me Coaching is a very useful tool.
