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The toolbox

The coaching tools I work with

These are the coaching tools and models I use in my conversations with founders and leaders. I stand on the shoulders of extensive research and practice. Some of the tools I built myself because I was lacking them in my work. We never use all of them — we use the two or three that fit you right now.

own modeldeveloped in my own work

Energy & resources

Keeping you resourced over years, not weeks.

  • —The personal resource canvas
  • —Energy flow map of the week — find your best hours and respect them
  • —The Eisenhower matrix
  • —Schwartz’s energy matrix
  • —Drain vs. recharge
  • —The resilience model
  • —Learning how to rest
  • —Living in daytight compartments

Stress & overload

Knowing your own alarms before others do.

  • —My stress tells
  • —My trigger points
  • —You under attack — fight, flight or freeze?
  • —After overload — stress, anxiety or depression
  • —Tools for times of hardship and resistance
  • —The hourglass model — a way through hardship own model
  • —Getting stuck — how do you move on?
  • —When the leader is the one who hits the wall

Self-insight & personality

Understanding who you — really — are.

  • —Manual to me own model
  • —My personal garden
  • —Family systems theory — as a thinking tool for the many sides of your personality
  • —Little boss — the roles that served you well but now get in the way
  • —Attachment styles
  • —Introvert vs. extrovert
  • —The stories I tell myself — separated from reality
  • —Journaling — how and why?
  • —The human check-in
  • —Unattached to outcomes

Relationships & communication

Handling the difficult social situations.

  • —Ladder of inference
  • —Nonviolent communication — giving and receiving feedback
  • —IT — WE — I: untangling conflict
  • —Sensing the music in the room
  • —Intent vs. impact vs. blind angles
  • —Trust: consistency — competence — sincerity
  • —Impact canvas own model
  • —The impact matrix own model
  • —The CIA model
  • —Curiosity: content vs. context
  • —Psychological safety — do people actually say what they think?

Leadership in practice

Human leadership tools for the role you are in now.

  • —3 roles of the CEO
  • —Situational leadership (Hersey & Blanchard)
  • —The delegation matrix — when do you let go?
  • —Changing altitude as leaders
  • —The VUCA model
  • —William Bridges’ transition model
  • —What really matters (Ray Foote)
  • —Mentor, therapist, coach, adviser or thought partner — what do you need?

Business sparring

When the human side and the business have to add up.

  • —Playing to win
  • —Lean canvas
  • —Situational leadership applied to the team

And then there’s a stack of favourite questions I keep coming back to. I’ll share some of them here over time. The rest I save for the conversation.

What is a coaching tool?

It’s really just something that makes it easier to talk about the things that are hard to put into words. It can be a model, an exercise or a single question. Sometimes it’s a map of where your energy actually goes during a week. Other times it’s about separating the story you tell yourself from what actually happened.

How we use the coaching tools

We never start with the tool. We start with you and whatever is taking up space right now, and then we find what fits. Often you take a small exercise home for next time. The ones marked own model I built because I was missing them in my own work.

Over time each model gets its own page, where I tell how I actually use it. With the examples and pitfalls that aren’t in the books.

Read more about how I work →