If people are not performing to their potential something will be missing in terms of their own knowledge, skills or attitude. In other words, there will be a performance gap.

Where the performance gap is to do with knowledge:

Coaching is of little use where a person needs to develop their performance by acquiring knowledge; coaching can not tease out what is not actually there.

For example, it would clearly be absurd for a driving instructor to take a pupil on a first lesson and ask "How might you press those pedals in sequence to bring about some forward movement?" The pupil would have no idea because in the first instance they need some input, some knowledge that they can begin to use and develop.

In such cases we are obliged to adopt a Tell style although we must recognize its drawbacks and look to move towards a coaching style as soon as the people we coach have enough knowledge to become responsible for developing their own learning from that point.

Many coaches make the mistake of trying to coach where the development need is one of knowledge and invariably the coaching session breaks down and leaves both parties feeling frustrated and confused by the coaching process.

Where coaching can be useful is in helping people think through for themselves the ways in which they might go about filling their knowledge gaps.

Where the performance gap is to do with skills:

In any sphere of work there will be a body of knowledge needed to perform well in a job and a set of skills necessary to put that knowledge to good use. The key to developing good skills is practise. If I wanted to develop my skills as a public speaker I could read every book ever written on the subject but I would not begin to become a good public speaker until I had got on my feet and began to practise the skills of positioning, hand gestures, speech variance and so on.

Coaching can be very useful here as although it cannot replace the time needed for practise it can help people to decide exactly what their practise priorities should be and how they are going to get the most from any practise session.

In trying to develop my presentation skills, I might practise positioning my visual aides and asking audience questions because the books I read suggested these were key aspects of successful presenting. However, my coach may help me realism that in fact my last presentation didn't go as well as I hoped because I ran out of time and was rushed at the end. Much better then, for me to practise pacing my delivery and designing flexible material.

Where the performance gap is to do with attitude:

Coaching comes in to its own as a development tool where individuals have a decent level of knowledge and skills but for some reason are not putting them to good use.

Of course this may be because they have become disillusioned with the work or the organization and are looking for an opportunity to leave. If this is the case it might be best for both parties to part company and perhaps we could offer coaching as a way for people in this position to decide on their next steps.

Quite often though people are not harnessing their knowledge and skills because they have lost sight of what they are trying to achieve or have some limiting beliefs that say 'I'm just not good enough' or 'it's a young person's world these days' or 'they'd never take me seriously' etc.

Coaching is a wonderful remedy to such problems because it quickly enables people to regain focus.

Focus means being free form distractions and we focus most easily on what we find interesting. If you've ever watched a cat toy with a mouse or an insect or watched a child play with a toy they find fascinating you'll know that this is true.

Some people confuse focus with effort but this is not the case. In fact if we try too hard we tend to get uptight and tired. We begin to develop a fear of failure and our endeavours become totally unenjoyable.

We can develop a quality of focus quite easily by noticing what we notice. If for example I discover in a coaching session that I tend to lose eye contact with an audience when giving a presentation, then I should try to note how often it happens next time. The likelihood is it will be far less because I will be far more focused.

Hopefully you can see that this is very different to someone suggesting that I 'don't lose eye contact'. Such well-meaning advice will simply increase pressure and probably produce mistakes in other aspects of my presentation.

Focus is a very tenuous thing and we can be distracted quite easily. Especially from things we do not really enjoy (compare reading a novel with a textbook).

Coaching is effective because it works with what the person being coached finds most interesting and promotes ever-deeper levels of focus, and consequently awareness.