Card Games and Coaching

Welcome back to mentoring Mullarkey! Apologies if you have been desperately waiting for your fix of me talking all things HR - I have been in Mexico for my brother's wedding for the past couple of weeks.

For those who have not been I can strongly recommend it - people awesome, food great, tequila... mixed when drunk to excess. Whilst there I spent a large amount of my time in the evenings working on my negotiation, tactical and analytical skills with the following exercise...


 

Rummy - beer optional

... yep you guessed it - Rummy! Above is my first ever winning hand - I know, a pair of 3s, who would have thunk'ed it?

I also got up to some reading whilst I was away reading Mick Cope's 'The Secrets of Success in Coaching' and Joseph O'Connor and Andrea Lages' 'How Coaching Works' - there is a theme in the subject areas somwhere here...)

I would recommend both, with perhaps Cope for a short whistle-stop guide to the area. However for the benefit of this post am talking about some useful resources that came out of the O'Connor book.


The book gives a great overview on the history of coaching, how it has developed and its relevance in the modern workplace. It also deals with many different strands and theories in the subject area (NLP, Coactive Coaching, Ontological Coaching etc), so I felt covered a level both applicable to experienced practitioners or those looking to get an overview of the subject area.

In the section of Positive Psychology - hold it! Don't minimise this post! Appreciate in some circles this has some negative connotations (don't player hate on Tony Robbins and Dr Phil - well if you must but keep it brief) but the way I look at things is that if you believe something will or will not work for you then you are correct.

(let that last comment marinate in your brain a little while if you did not immediately catch my drift)

In the section they mention the Via questionnaire, developed by Chris Patterson and Martin Seligman, which examines your character strengths and how these derive from your core values, where your interest lie etc. Its free and can be taken via the University of Pennsylvania's website (just to mention you will have to register but that is quick to do).

I wondered in light of the current economic climate whether this might be of interest to anyone considering a 360 in terms of their careers, to have an examination of what some of your strengths are? Have a look at and see what you think - its free and surely any thought provoking exercises are all good, no? 

Just like any good game of Rummy.