DEVELOP YOUR HEROES THROUGH COACHING

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MANAGER as a COACH

Could managers be good coaches? Do the managers coach their staff successfully? What are the risks and what are the good things? Why coach? What are the skills needed in coaching?

I would say that managers spend little time on staff development according to the surveys. Usually it happens before and after the annual performance appraisal process.

In some companies the performance appraisal is ongoing process. In most of the companies the performance appraisal process is happening periodically, eg, at the end of the year, midyear appraisal etc.

A Coaching, a classical sport “term”, is a method helping people develop their problem-solving skills in business environment. It is linked with personal development and growth of self-awareness. Everybody has its own blind spots and hidden strengths. It is a coach’s job to help the coachee to raise its awareness about her/his strengths and weaknesses, but also about the future development and future problem solving.

We cannot expect from the managers to become professional Coaches. But we can expect from them to use it AS A DEVELOPMENT TOOL regarding the development needs of their team members.

Usually the “COACHEE” is not completely ready to overtake some complex tasks. And the role of the coach/ manager is to boost his/her development in order to bring her/him on the highest readiness level regarding different business tasks and goals.

SKILLS NEEDED IN COACHING

HOW TO COACH?

THE “GROW” MODEL

The GROW model starts with defining the Performance Goal and then focuses on the process, or what you do, to achieve the performance goal.

The Coach’s agenda is to help the performer achieve their potential.  This means effective questions are tough questions, not soft ones.

Step 1         The Goal

“IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE YOU ARE GOING, YOU WILL PROBABLY END UP SOMEWHERE ELSE.” (David Campbell)

To help people clarify their Goal it can often be helpful to ask staff to picture or visualise how things will be when they achieve their Goal – how they will behave; what they will be doing.  

Having a very clear, very detailed picture in your head of what you want to achieve can be an enormously powerful way of helping you to reach it.

It is important to raise awareness of the learner about their degree of control (or lack of it) in respect of their goal.  Sometimes people realise that they have much more control than they thought.  Conversely, sometimes they realise they have no control over the End Goal and they may need to re-define their aim as a Performance Goal.  This may help them decide whether it’s realistic and achievable too.

It is also important to ‘narrow the focus’ and make it easier for them to find the first step(s), which they believe realistic and achievable and to break the overall goal down into ‘bite sized’ achievable steps.

Step 2    Check Reality

• Using effective questions about reality helps coaches to raise the other person’s awareness of their situation.  They focus attention on what is actually happening and avoids preconceptions and analyses.  This is one of the reasons why it is recommended not to challenge and use ‘” Why?’  Another reason, of course, is that a “Why?” question can be confrontational, leading to excuses and rationalisations.

• Effective questions allow the learner’s view of reality to become clearer, and avoid imposing the coach’s own perspective.  Nevertheless, good coaches will challenge a learner’s view whenever appropriate without becoming confrontational.  This might best be achieved by asking open questions that invite them to look from different perspectives and in greater depth e.g. “What options do you have to resolve this issue?”

• Ultimately, the aim of the coach is to raise the learner’s awareness and to concentrate their focus sufficiently to make some action on this issue seem possible and appropriate; in other words, to prepare them for thinking about Options, the next stage. 

Step 3     Evaluate the Options

This step is designed to encourage creative, divergent thinking, challenge mindsets and limiting beliefs, which can limit options.

• ‘What if . . .’ questions enable people to step outside their current perceptions of the situation?  Examples such as “What if you had more time?”; “What if you were the Manager”; “; “What if the obstacle did not exist?”; redefine the situation for the learner, and may produce insights and ideas otherwise blocked off to them.

• Reserve judgement, simply because pre-judging ideas stops the flow and inhibits further contributions, and critically, lowers confidence and therefore willingness to come up with any further ideas.

• As a coach, you may want to write everything down so that all ideas are captured, and none get lost.  However, do be aware that writing whilst listening may put the speaker off; it is probably best to reach some balance between writing and listening.

• If you have some options of your own to offer, it is best to wait until after the learner has run out of their own ideas.  Otherwise, there is a danger of blocking their own potential for finding new solutions with your expertise.  And of course, if they own the idea, they are more likely to make it succeed.  If you give the solution, they have a ready-made excuse if it does not immediately succeed.

• Finally, it is important to explore the costs and benefits of each option so that a rational decision can be made about how to proceed.  To help in this, it can be useful to give competing options a score to help separate them.

Step 4            Does the Learner Have the Will and What Will be done by whom and When?

The Will is when the coach raises responsibility through questions.  The conversation changes from one where the supportive coach helps the learner explore the situation, to one where he or she generates commitment, what will happen next and when?

1. Generate responsibility to ensure the Goal is SMART, as in any performance situation, i.e.:

SPECIFIC – they spell out in concrete terms what is to be achieved

MEASURABLE – quantitatively or qualitatively.  You will know when it has been achieved

ACHIEVABLE -they are ambitious, yet attainable given the conditions, resources available and timescale

RESULTS ORIENTATED – they describe a specific end product, result

REALISTIC – or outcome that is of value to the organization and employee

TIME BOUND – a time limit in which to achieve the results is included

• Ask about perceived obstacles and how they may be overcome to enable the learner to think ahead about what to do if an obstacle does arise and enables the coach to deal with difficulties proactively

• The learner may need support of some kind whilst undertaking his or her plan of action.  Questions which help them identify and elicit this support can prove valuable and provide an opportunity to plan for any support required.

• A question to find out if the learner is fully committed may reveal this is not so.  It may be only at this late stage that a barrier is uncovered, and a secondary coaching session may be needed to find ways around this – or the goal itself may need to be re-assessed. The learner must want the outcome to occur. 

• Once all these stages are completed, regular coaching sessions should be organised to suit the circumstances or topic on which the individual is being coached.  The meetings should be neither be too often to be intrusive, nor so irregular that the individual feels neglected.  Try and make an appropriate balance.

…..If you want to have successful coaching sessions always PREPARE, PREPARE AND PREPARE!

DEVELOP YOUR HEROES THROUGH COACHING