Target Training Associates

A fantastic question for everyone to think about. When was the last time you reflected on your working day? If you are brutally honest with yourself, I suspect not very often. I do hear the word  ‘rarely’ a lot when I am coaching, the most common word I hear from coachees when I ask this question. Why is this? Are...

In previous blogs, I’ve written about how critically important it is to be adequately prepared before delivering any training session.  The fact is though, no matter how well prepared you are, there’s always likely something that will go wrong and how you handle it will affect you. If things do go wrong (and they frequently do), I like to think...

I am very, very lucky. One of my hobbies is travel and also music so last weekend I had the great experience of taking my son to see one of his favourite bands, ‘Muse’ in Cologne, Germany.   It was a boiling hot weekend with temperatures above 40 degrees sometimes. My son made it to the front of the stage, but my wife...

I still like Timothy Gallwey's statement on performance coaching. He said the worst opponent is in your head, this is so true. The most critical person about your performance will be you, and most of it will be self-created by your inner voice, the voice that only you hear and only you listen to. Coaching provides techniques to take away...

I’m a very professional person when it comes to doing things whether it's part of my career or as part of a hobby, I relish the chance to improve.  I can’t help wanting to learn and importantly, improve in everything I do continually, but there’s one major obstacle I always face personally when I try to improve that holds me back...

I was delivering a training course recently, where we were talking about the importance of training evaluation.  A delegate on the course then said: “My boss won't let me do any evaluation”. I said “Why”, and she answered, “Well he said if you don’t ask them and we won't get anything negative”. Yes, I know its incredible, the fact that this...

When a coachee presents the area they would like to work on with you, it is essential you feedback on what you think you have heard. You may think you have heard the area the coachee wants to work on, but unless you share this, you usually won’t know for sure. This becomes the contract between you and your coachee...

Most businesses these days are quite smart in investing time and effort into ensuring production or operation processes are efficient within a continuous improvement cycle because the business will fail without it.  What about training then, surely, I’d be right in thinking it would be treated in the same way, yes?  Well, the truth is normally it’s not, no! Why then is...

Recently I have had the experience of working with a great group of people involved in an interesting project.  The group are keen and are interested in making the project work; they are highly motivated.  One manager of the group is also very enthusiastic but suffers from a potentially dangerous condition called overcomplication! Paralysis by analysis is a severe condition.  You can take...

When coaching the key is to notice what is happening in yourself and the coachee. Everything you feel in the room is data, instinct. Always think what is missing, what am I not saying, what is the coachee not saying? then think about sharing this. Sometimes it is about taking a risk, but it is how you get it across...