The Coaching Toolkit from What Makes a Great Coach?

What is the Coaching Toolkit?

The Coaching Toolkit is a practical collection of coaching tools designed to help you have better conversations, build stronger relationships, and unlock the potential in others.

Grounded in the research behind What Makes a Great Coach? by Emma Doyle and Natalia Ashdown, the toolkit brings the book to life with more than 20 practical coaching tools that align with the top 10 practices of the world's best coaches that you can apply immediately.

Whether you're leading a team, managing people, coaching athletes, or mentoring others, these tools will help you communicate with greater curiosity, confidence, and impact.

The toolkit can be used in any environment – from the boardroom to the classroom, the sporting field to the tennis court, or in everyday conversations. Each tool is simple, practical, and designed to create meaningful behavioural change and drive continuous improvement.

Enjoy exploring the tools, experimenting with them in your own environment, and discovering what works best for you.

Background Information

What's the purpose?

The Coach EM Coaching Toolkit is designed to help you coach with greater confidence, curiosity, and impact.

Each tool is practical, easy to apply, and adaptable to your own leadership, coaching, or parenting style. Whether you're leading a team, coaching athletes, developing emerging leaders, or supporting your own children, these tools will help you ask better questions, build stronger relationships, and empower others to think for themselves.

The goal isn't simply to solve problems – it's to develop people.

Where do the tools come from?

These tools are the result of more than two decades of coaching across sport and business, combined with years of professional development in coaching, leadership, emotional intelligence, and human performance.

My journey began in high-performance tennis, where I learned how to develop athletes under pressure. Since then, I've expanded that learning into the workplace, helping leaders create coaching cultures that drive retention, productivity, and growth.

Each tool has been tested, refined, and used with leaders, teams, coaches, and organisations around the world.

The Research

Every tool connects directly to the research behind What Makes a Great Coach?, co-authored with Natalia Ashdown. Together, we gathered insights from more than 500 of the world's leading coaches by asking one simple question:

"In one to three words, what makes a great coach?"

Their responses revealed the 10 core coaching practices that consistently unlock performance, build trust, and develop people. Those practices form the foundation of this toolkit and provide a practical framework for becoming a more effective coaching leader.

The breakdown below illustrates the responses from more than 500 coaches worldwide and the frequency with which each coaching practice emerged. Together, these insights formed the foundation of the 10 core practices explored in What Makes a Great Coach? and underpin every tool in the Coach EM Coaching Toolkit.

Purchase the Book in Australia - Click here

Purchase the Book in the US - Click here

Practice 1: Decision-Making – Coaching Tool Example

Great coaching develops great decision-makers.

One of the most valuable skills we can help others build is the ability to make thoughtful decisions with confidence—especially under pressure. Every day, leaders, coaches, parents, and athletes face countless micro decisions that shape bigger outcomes over time.

The coaching tool below is designed to simplify decision-making, reduce overthinking, and help people move forward with greater clarity and confidence. As you build your coaching toolkit, you'll develop a range of strategies that empower others to think for themselves rather than rely on you for the answers.

Tool 2: Scenario Questions

Scenario Questions is a simple yet powerful coaching exercise that helps people explore different possibilities before taking action.

By walking through three scenario-based questions, clients often gain immediate clarity, reduce uncertainty, and identify their next best step. With practice, this process becomes faster and more intuitive.

The breakthrough often comes when someone realizes they can handle the worst-case scenario. Once that fear loses its grip, new possibilities emerge—and taking the first step becomes much easier.

Questions to Ask

What's the best thing that could happen?
What's the worst thing that could happen?
What's the most likely outcome?

Coach EM Challenge

Set a timer for two minutes and work through these three questions.

Don't aim for the perfect decision—aim for your next best decision.

Once you've explored the possibilities, choose your next step and take action. The more you practise making small, thoughtful decisions, the more confidence you'll build in your judgment, your ability to perform with pressure, and your willingness to back yourself.

Buy The Coaching Toolkit

Are there coaching tools for every practice?

Absolutely. In fact, most of the 10 coaching practices include multiple tools that you can explore, practise, and adapt to suit your own coaching style and environment.

Whether you're a leader, manager, coach, parent, educator, or athlete, these tools are designed to help you build confidence, have better conversations, and unlock the potential in others.

If you're ready to take your coaching skills to the next level, explore the Coach EM Coaching Leadership Academy. Our workshops, virtual courses, and leadership programs are built around these same evidence-based coaching practices and provide practical strategies you can apply immediately.

Click the button below to learn more or book a complimentary discovery call.

Coach first. Mentor second. Lead with curiosity.

Book a Zoom Discovery Call