Guidelines used for blogging with the good coach

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We see blogging as a form of practitioner research, and a meaningful approach to personal and professional development in coaching. (For more details read "Blogging as a form of practitioner research")

Encouraging coaches to blog about their practice takes on and expands on, how blogs are currently being shared. We hope that after reading the blogs, this has inspired you to share too.

Sharing your coaching experience is a courageous act in itself.  Writing expends more energy because it requires conscious thinking and sense making of what is actually happening during the process of coaching.

Importantly though blogs are individual expressions that start with one’s own word in order to bring out the ambition of being the best each coach can be.

tgc TIPS for writing a blog

Context:  Coaching is a big subject … still developing … and everyone does it from their own way – which is why we need to recognise this and appreciate it more.

Sharing our knowledge:  Blogging, here, is about sharing your own experiences, and practice, in doing coaching.

Share your knowledge:  We invite you to share your experience for how you live it, and make sense of it.

So ….

1.  What headline(s) do you want to talk about?

Be guided to something you feel positive and strongly about what you have been doing – in what coaching is about as you see it. (Remember a lot of people are finding they have been doing what is now called coaching for quite a time, or they just see it called something else!)  And where you would feel good to have had a go at explaining it in ways others could appreciate.

2. Why do you think that matters?

This isn’t a race or a comparison exercise. It’s about you and what is important to you. That is what matters – in whatever aspect it comes to you.

This is about talking about yourself – not others!

3. What part(s) of your experience and practice were this headline involved in?

Be detailed and expansive about how you saw what was going on, how you were involved, and how things all worked – as you saw them … as well as reports from others involved.

At the same time please be general / impersonal about the actual examples …we don’t need to know the content details – for reasons of confidentiality - about the practice you are talking about.  

4. Linking to the wider languages/disciplines

Making sense may involve expressing yourself, in your own words, and also offering some linkages to some of the current popular words you have come across to use in referring to what you are talking about.

We are still building common language / agreed terms and there is still important diversity in how people feel it is best to refer to this multifaceted area of coaching practice.

5. What are some possible further steps / questions that could be useful for others to consider for themselves in what you have been talking about

Blogs are short summaries – not long detailed research reports, so there is a license to say more and say it more freely.

We are celebrating your experiences in a blog, rather than fitting in with what someone else says was the right thing to do.

It’s about what you believe works for you in working with coaching with others.

Finally…

  • Have fun whilst you write - start anywhere and just write, and if there is an image/video clip/quote that helps make your point add it. There is always time to go back and edit. For now, just go with the flow of writing.

  • Be comfortable with your style - it's not about conformity, it's about diversity and the freedom to express your experiences of coaching in your own style and approach.

  • More than just writing - explore all the creative ways that you'd like to share your knowledge whether as a passage of writing, a paragraph of text with some bullet points, or as a poem. Enjoy the experience, and you're readers will too.

  • We've got you - if you don't feel like your blog reads well, whether it's around the flow of the blog or being grammatically correct, don't worry as we are here to provide that 'light' touch and support.

Our position around copyright

Following the UK Copyright Law (who are members of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works) any leading practitioner (author) who publishes their blog through the good coach (automatically) owns the copyright of their specific piece of work. The author, to their best of their abilities, has checked that any referenced materials are fair use, appropriately referenced, fact-checked, and where necessary seeked the necessary permission for use. 

Under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license  the author (licensors) gives the good coach permission to distribute, remix, tweak and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as the good coach credits you for the original creation.

If this license requires more consideration please let us know which Creative Commons License is more appropriate for your needs

 

Benefits of blogging

Shared by some of our blogger-practitioners:

“I feel passionate about bringing effectiveness of coaching practice going forwards and has enabled me to say things that have for some strange reason are avoided elsewhere but which are central to the practice of coaching.”
“The very act of writing down my thoughts and topics on coaching, which I am passionate about, being able to write is good fun. I enjoy it as an outcome and the writing down purposefully is the useful journey.”
“The thrill of getting something out there”
“Sharing and knowing that it might inspire someone else. It’s got to be actionable by the reader – not simply academic”.
“It's enabled me to give voice what was previously intuitive: the nature of the perspective, not just the external facing. It’s important to share views.”
“ Having some constructive feedback. It’s easy either to assume that one’s conception of an issue is black or white, you’re wrong or you’re right. The truth is often a shade of grey. So bouncing the ideas off somebody else can help clarify where the ideas of real value are and where the argument is weak. One finds out more about what particular shade of grey it is rather than thinking “I’m an unappreciated genius” or “I’m an idiot”.
“Taking time out to reflect on themes currently relevant to my practice and that I have a keen interest in. Also the process of tuning in to what I want to say and working through the creative process of crafting the expression of that.”
“Having an editor. It’s easy, as in two, to see everything as good or bad and thus to miss elements that are actually essential and need emphasis. Similarly, it’s easy to fall in love with a prose style or a felicitous expression (like that) and lose impact.”
“Stimulating a more focussed observing and noticing 'researcher and writer' mindset. This adds to my sense of being a more detached professional"
"Gives me a sense of satisfaction from feeling part of and contributing to something bigger than just my own personal practice”
“Enjoyment of expression and finding my Voice; obtaining feedback. “
“Sharing and contributing to the community”
“Personal brand building”
“Sitting down to write something spurs my creativity. I ask myself, “What do I think is interesting these days?”
“I like the idea that I can share my thoughts with other people in a relatively easy way and get some feedback on it.”
“For a long time I didn’t think I had a lot to say, and if you like, it’s an expression of my own coming into the world of self actualization (to give big term/name). It sounds grand but actually I’m finding my voice for ME probably more than for other people. They are my thoughts – I synthesis them – I own them. I’m doing it for me. Any reaction is their choice. My choice is to blog, and it’s really nice to have a choice.”
"It’s getting that distance - taking that time to externalise from the day to day – by writing something in a blog format – forced to organise your thoughts."
"The discipline of thinking with rigour."
"The search for some clarity in the communication."
"It's getting that distance - taking that time to externalise from the day to day - by writing something in a blog format: I'm forced to organise my thoughts!"
"Consolidate my learning and insights."