Coaching
Training Exercises and Resources

This thought-provoking exercise helps delegates appreciate what they already have. Most people, in their quest to achieve more experience more and possess more forget what they have already achieved. The quest and the focus on future is indeed a good thing and must be safeguarded. However, appreciation helps to increase self-esteem and make a person feel that he is experiencing a fulfilling life. The boost in energy can in turn help people carry on better with their quests, achieve more and ultimately become happier.

This powerful exercise is ideal for motivating people and helping them identify their true goals in life. Most people are aware of only a few objectives and desires. For the rest of, they don’t think of them every day or even every month. Yet, if asked they still express their desire in possession of something or going through a particular experience.

This relates to what is known as the “law of attraction”. This captures the simple principle that “like attracts like”. If you are positive and think of positive goals most often, you are more likely to get them. If you don’t think of these goals and you are not constantly aware of them, you are less likely to reach them.

This exercise helps you demonstrate the power of this important law and also allows people to realise which areas of their lives needs more attention.

This exercise is ideal for courses on self-motivating, motivating others and goal setting.

The ability to persuade people is a useful skill both in personal and professional life. This exercise is ideal once you have covered persuasion skills in your training course and want to go through a more demanding exercise that requires people to persuade each other strongly. It is an entertaining exercise as it involves everyone in a simple yet powerful setting.

To truly get the best from this exercise, you can follow it with a review and discussion. You will need to take notes during the exercise as each can play differently. You will need to refer back to the strategies used by participants while persuading each other during discussions. You can then comment on the effectiveness of these techniques and get delegates to discuss them.

Fast forward to an imaginary future. You are receiving a standing ovation. The applause does not seem to stop. People admire you and your achievement. You are the centre of attention at this moment.

Full immersion in this simple visualisation can create a wonderful and positive feeling. This exercise helps to turn this energy into something that will benefit people by getting them closer to this dream.

This technique is particularly useful for those who might be wondering what they want to do in life or thinking that what they are currently doing is not what they want to do forever. By focusing on an emotional event such as receiving a standing ovation, you can focus their thoughts towards what they truly like as opposed to getting carried away by their current limitations or past direction.

Positive feedback can have a dramatic effect. In this exercise, delegates will learn to appreciate the power of positive feedback, however small, when it is provided repeatedly during the course of a conversation. The aim of the exercise is to be thought provoking so you can then continue with a session on giving appropriate positive feedback. As a result it is ideal to go through this exercise at the beginning of a session on giving feedback.

The core idea in this exercise is that one person has a particular goal in mind and uses that goal to direct the conversation to a particular topic. The conversation is directed to a new topic using positive feedback.  

All of us go through some experiences in life where we feel victimised or wronged. The negative emotions and feelings generated by these experiences can stay with us for a long time afterwards and make us feel overtly emotional, weak, stupid or even unworthy. One way to deal with this emotional baggage is to acknowledge it and take responsibility for it. The idea here is that sharing difficult experiences and the feelings generated by them will allow delegates to acknowledge them to another person and therefore more easily come into terms with them.

We have created the following motivational video containing many inspiring and famous quotes that we like very much and like to share with you.

You can also use the video as a training resource during your courses when you need to make people pause and think about the meaning of life, their goals and what they want to achieve.

Give us feedback and let us know what you think.

When was the last time you praised someone? If you have to think to answer this question, then you are not doing enough. People are extremely praise-deprived. They long for praise from anyone all the time. We never seem to get enough praise.

This article explores what stops us from praising others and provides a number of techniques that act as a reminder to praise others and therefore systematically improve their performances. These techniques are ideal for those in management roles who can significantly benefit from the positive effects of praise both for themselves and for their organisations.

This activity allows people to help each other anonymously. Sometimes we may feel stuck or wonder what we could do to improve our behaviour or skills. We may however not feel comfortable to directly ask others about them. This exercise sets the scene for people to open up and help each other without fear of being wrong or obvious.

This is a suitable exercise for getting people in a team to express their feelings about each other but in a very indirect and controlled way. It also gives delegates a chance to see how others think of them. It also helps them to discover how much they know about other people’s view of them. This exercise is suitable for a group of delegates who know each other.