How to Coach Yourself and Others Essential Knowledge For Coaching

4.3 EFFECTIVE GOAL SETTING A study revealed that amongst people with the same background, the top three percent outperform the next twentyseven percent by a factor of ten. One of very few differences between these two groups was their attitude to goal setting. The top three percent have clear, written goals. For the twentyseven percent group to join the top group would only take a shift in some attitudes and a realization that the art of goal setting would make them more successful to an amazing degree. In order to be effective, goal setting should be : - consistent with the coachee’s stage of change’ (e.g. a ‘precontemplator’ may resist a goal of total abstinence, but mayembrace reducing the risk of infection) - negotiated. Negotiation is not bestowed on a coachee . It is a strategy to influence behaviour. Negotiated goals are more likely to generate patient commitment and adherence. - realistic - specific and achievable. A broad goal may be broken down into several component parts - short-term; so that progress can be monitored and success quickly realised - solution-focused and defined in positive terms. Changing behaviour will be more successful if couched in positive terms of acquisition, rather than reduction; presence, not absence (e.g. increasing the number of days without smoking as opposed to decreasing the number of smoking days) 943

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