the coaching m a n u a l In addition, other forms of listening are sometimes more useful, for example when you need to gather the facts of a situation first, or help someone `get something off their chest'. In such cases active listening works a lot better and more quickly. Developing deep listening I would recommend that anyone seriously committed to the field of coaching actively develop their own ability to listen in this way. Deep listening chal- lenges us in a different way from a lot of other activities, possibly because working harder can actually work against us. The deep listening exercise in the Toolkit will help you develop your skill further. Skill three ­ using intuition Intuition ­ within coaching Study any great coach and you will notice that they often seem to know in what direction to take a conversation, in order to gain information or insight