Highs and lows

Purpose

Use this to explore what has happened for the coachee prior to starting the coaching programme, in terms of his or her training and experience as well as peaks and troughs of performance.

Resources

This will take approximately 30 “45 minutes. You will need pens and paper.

Notes to the coach

The coachee could complete this exercise either before a coaching session or during it.

Instructions

Ask the coachee to draw a line from one side of a piece of paper to the other. This represents the passage of time from when the coachee first started the task (or skills) until now.

With a different coloured pen, ask the coachee to plot how he or she has felt about carrying out the task or using the skill during this time phase “ positive thoughts and feelings should go above the line, negative ones below.

Once the coachee has done this, ask him or her to try to identify what happened at the times of peaks and troughs that may have caused his or her feelings.

Once the coachee has completed the activity, discuss the general pattern of the time line as well as why the coachee s confidence increased or decreased at certain times. Follow this up by identifying how the coachee can use the elements of the positive times when undertaking the task in the future. Part of this discussion will involve considering what needs to happen in order to keep the coachee above the line in the future. These actions can then be included on the action plan.

Example