Table of Contents/Preface   

Introduction

Time Checklist   

The Activities   

1. Rock, Paper, Scissors   

    This activity illustrates the issues that arise when people are assigned to team situations and are encouraged to compete with and beat the competition.

2. Strike Three, You're Out   

    This activity illustrates the necessity of complete communication between the coach and the team or individual. It also demonstrates how an ineffective coach can cause people to become frustrated, fearful, resentful and generally non-productive

3. Card Exchange   

    This activity encourages involvement an the interaction of all group members. The activity is flexible and can be used at the beginning during or at the end of a course.

4. Who Am I?   

    This activity encourages physical interaction and encourages participants to get involved in the learning process.

5. Attitudes or Attributes?   

    This activity encourages participants to explore the importance of attitudes and attributes of successful coaches. Participants also have the opportunity to evaluate their own attitudes and attributes.

6. Picture That   

    This activity works well as either an icebreaker exercise of a discussion starter. This exercise can also be used to determine the skill level of the participants.

7. How Do You Rate?   

    This activity can be used at any time during a session or as a course closure to identify coaching/mentoring strengths and weaknesses.

8. Focus on Coaching Skills   

    This activity allows participants to interact with each other and to discuss their strengths, weaknesses and goals in a non-threatening manner.

9. String Toss   

    This activity can be used to brainstorm coaching skills or as a technique for review.

10. Let's Have a BEER   

    This activity provides a four-step model for criticizing and correcting behavior and performance problems as well as an exercise to practice using the model.

11. Wanna BET?   

    This activity provides a three-step process for praising employees, as well as an opportunity to practice the model.

12. Making a Sandwich   

    This activity provides participants with a simple training model and employs a humorous approach to avoiding assumptions.

13. Chair Walking   

    This activity demonstrates the necessity of trust in the coach/employee relationship. The trainer can also use this exercise to illustrate the advantage of networking.

14. Positive Feedback   

    This activity is useful as a summary for all or a portion of a session dealing with interpersonal skills such as counseling or listening. It also serves as a trust builder for participants.

15. Goal Ladder   

    This activity gives each participant an opportunity to set goals. It can be used to demonstrate the need for goals and expectations in the workplace..

16. Construction   

    This activity illustrates the contribution of communication to productivity. This exercise can also be used to demonstrate the benefit of collaboration for team building.

17. Origami   

    This activity is a variation of the previous "Construction" exercise but is better suited to larger groups. Use this activity to demonstrate the importance of communication to production and collaboration.

18. Card Houses   

    This activity illustrates the morale and general effectiveness of a team when managed with a directive style in comparison to a team-building attitude displayed by a coach

19. Idea Exchange   

    This activity provides participants a way to initially explore a topic by listing their own successful experiences with it.

20. Reel Movies   

    This activity uses clips of real movies on video to illustrate effective and ineffective coaching techniques.

21. Coaches Bowl   

    This activity provides a fun and interesting way to review course material. This activity can also be used to review individual sessions within a longer course.

22. How Am I Doing?   

    This activity provides participants with the opportunity to evaluate the quantity and quality of feedback they provide as coaches.

23. Trivia Quiz   

    This activity is a tool for summarizing the important points covered in a coaching program

24. Dueling Families   

    This activity works well to evaluate learning and/or to illustrate the effectiveness of appropriate coaching skills.

25 Concentrate On...   

    This activity can e used as an introduction to training or as a review technique. It can be used in triads or with the larger group divided into teams working in competition.

26. Coaching Challenge   

    This activity can be used to review key concepts presented during the training. It can, at you option, also be used to create fun competition among participants.

27. Opposite Poles   

    This activity enables a class to identify key benefits and problems associated with delegating. It is also useful for an initial small group activity.

28. Non-Verbal Behaviors   

    This is a "fish bowl" exercise to provide participants with practice in identifying positive and negative communication behaviors.

29. Fishbowl   

    This activity can either be used as a discussion starter at the beginning of a session or to close the session. Its purpose is to identify and discuss key coaching concepts.

30. Recognition Brainstorm   

    This activity encourages participants to think beyond monetary rewards and brainstorm other ways of recognizing positive performance.

31. Word Search   

    This is an end-of-course activity designed to allow participants to review key points of a coaching seminar in a fan and relaxing way.

32. Finish The Sentence   

    This is a very short, very flexible activity to begin an exploration of coaching by having participants discuss their own feelings or experiences with coaching. It is especially appropriate as an introductory exercise.

33. Theory "X" / Theory "Y" Assumptions   

    This is a paper-pencil activity with follow-up discussion. It illustrates the effect of having assumptions about human behavior will have on coaching styles.

34. Letter To A Friend   

    This activity uses both written and verbal communication to enhance participants' abilities to discuss performance and expectations in concreter, tangible terms.

35. The Lovers   

    This activity illustrates the part values and ethical decisions can play in the coaching or mentoring process.

36. Say What You Mean!   

    This activity gives the participants an opportunity to hear simple coaching phrases spoken with a change in inflection.

37. Three-Element Messages   

    This activity provides the participant an opportunity to practice and observe congruency (consistency) and incongruency (inconsistency) in coaching messages

38. Proxemics   

    this activity uses physical space to illustrate how non-verbal behaviors can affect communication

39.  What Are You Gonna Do?   

    This activity presents a coaching method to use with an employee to resolve a performance problem and get commitment for improvement.

40. Translation, Please   

    This activity reminds participants of the need to express themselves in ways that their listeners can understand.

41. "Yeah, But..."   

This role-play activity demonstrates three frequent errors in listening and provides practice for developing empathic listening skills

42.  Making Assignments   

    This role-play activity allows participants to identify common errors in delegating.

43. Coaching Miscues   

    This activity allows participants to evaluate their coaching skills and learn ways to overcome common coaching errors.

44. Tic-Tac-Toe   

    This activity uses a familiar childhood game to review course material. The activity can be conducted at anytime during the course or as a course closure.

45. Information Overload   

    This activity is designed to help participants be more aware of their listening habits. It also provides an opportunity to explore what can happen when work assignments are delegated to employees.

46. Listen Up!   

    This activity asks the participants to examine bad listening habits by asking them to list things that people do when they are supposed to be listening.

47. "Just Thought I'd Ask"   

    This activity allows the participants to practice assertive communication skills by learning to recognize and eliminate aggressive, emotion-laden messages and passive styles of relating.

48. "Say, What?"   

    This activity is designed to illustrate the importance of and need for attentive listening skills in the coach. By asking the participant to hear and remember information, the difficult job of determining what is important will become apparent.

49. Tearing Up Communication   

    This activity illustrates the problems associated with incomplete communication and how the communication process can be improved for more productive coaching.

50. You Want Me to Do What?   

    This activity gives participants the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to resolve conflicts that prevent coaches and organizations from achieving their goals..