Welcome to my coaching website                          

PeterLawtonCoaching provides a safe pair of hands in helping individuals and businesses realise more of their potential.  From career transition through leadership to retirement, my service can be a powerful weapon in the quest for success.

I hope that after exploring these pages you will be inspired by the principles of coaching. Please email me if you have any queries at all.

Best wishes,

Peter

Coaching is as old as time itself; we have been transferring skills and knowledge to each other since man learned to walk upright. In those early days coaches used a system of showing (for example, how to catch some meat-on-the-hoof, preferably upwind of the sabre-toothed tiger) and grunting in a particular way to let the coachee know how he was doing.

In the 20th century, sports coaches came to the fore as their protégés started to win serious prize money and earn top dollar; the coach becoming a minor celebrity in his or her own right.

The technique employed by the coaches of the 1960s, '70s and '80s was directive, insofar as their client was being trained, instructed and generally cajoled into performing to their best ability.

In the background, during the '70s, Tim Gallwey had published his (now classic) Inner Game books – the most well-known of all being The Inner Game of Tennis.

The underlying philosophy was that the opponent inside the player's own head was greater than the physical opponent.

In 1992, motor racing champion Sir John Whitmore published Coaching for Performance which has had a major effect on coaching methods ever since.

Then, the heavy guns such as Antony Robbins, Brian Tracy and Stephen Covey (author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People) really ignited the desire for personal development, individuals taking greater responsibility for themselves.

So, through these powerful influences, coaching has evolved from directive into a non-directive discipline, where the coach acts as a catalyst between the client and the desired outcome.

Coaches' coach Myles Downey defines modern coaching as 'the art of facilitating the performance, learning and development of another'.

The Coaching Academy describes the coaching process as 'taking an individual from where they are now to where they want to be quicker than they would on their own'.

The applications for this facility embrace business, sport, personal development, relationships, careers and retirement to name but a small sample of an endless list.