Pdf coaching

Recurring opportunities relate to developing careers, solving problems, overcoming conflicts, and remotivating staff. Evaluation In all instances, feedback should be specific, factual, Review experience and specify next steps and objective. Ideally, the final stage of a coaching and mentoring cycle should form a platform from which to initiate another, with a view to long-term learning and Source: Adapted from John Eaton and Roy Johnson.

Coaching Successfully. Dorling Kindersley Limited. And therein we find the secret to Peter Drucker: He had a remarkable ability not just to give the right answers, but more important, to ask the right questions—questions that would shift our entire frame of reference. Source: Excerpted from Jim Collins. Business Week. Available: www. Coaching and mentoring help develop leadership and communications skills, and learn new perspectives and ways of thinking.

Significantly, good mentor coaches are never motivated entirely by money: personal development is a very important aspect of what is a two-way process. Process For any single coaching and mentoring goal there is a cycle of Figure 2: The Skill—Will Matrix six basic stages, each of which hinges on effective questioning, active listening, clear feedback, and well-organized sessions.

High Will First, the mentor coach and the client get to know one another Delegate, Guide, Coach to establish clarity and rapport, engage, and agree what the goal Empower is;5 second, they discuss the current reality, to which the mentor coach will adapt the coaching and mentoring style;6 third, they explore available options; fourth, they identify and commit to a course of action at a pace the client is comfortable with in line Direct, Supervise Engage, Excite with shared expectations that might involve training ; fifth, the client implements the agreed actions with the support of and clear Low Will meaning constructive and positive feedback from the coach; Low Skill High Skill sixth, the mentor coach and the client consider what has been Source: Adapted from Max Landsberg.

The learned and how they might build on that knowledge, possibly Tao of Coaching: Boost Your Effectiveness at Work by initiating a new coaching and mentoring cycle. Goal setting forms the crux of coaching and mentoring, springing from a sound diagnosis of the capabilities and attitudes of the client. The 5 smart goals agreed from there are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timed.

Coaching and mentoring styles typically lie within a skill—will matrix. Skill depends on experience, training, understanding, and role 6 perception. Will depends on desire to achieve, incentives, security, and confidence. Mentor coaches must have a high degree of emotional intelligence, viz.

Last but not least, everything that is said must remain confidential. Appraising The purpose of appraisal is to identify accomplishments and make sure new performance goals are realistic. Appraisal will call for a joint review and a development plan. The development plan should specify i the long-term objectives, ii immediate I don't know any other way to lead but by objectives, iii the competencies required, iv training example.

Evaluating Evaluation determines merit or worth, assesses impact, identifies improvements, and provides accountability. Afterword All development is self-development.

One cannot force employees to develop: they must want that themselves. Yet when asked to spend time with an unknown and unproven young man seeking his way in the world, Drucker freely gave the better part of a day to mentor and give guidance. Before committing, would-be practitioners should ask themselves: Do I enjoy encouraging and motivating others? Do I want to contribute to the growth and success of others? Do I want to share my experience and knowledge with others? What specific expertise can I claim and offer?

In what areas am I willing to help? Am I comfortable with posing challenging questions? Am I prepared to regularly invest time and energy in coaching and mentoring? What is my preferred duration for a partnership?

What is my preferred frequency and method of contact? What type of client would I prefer to coach and mentor? Can I describe the professional and personal qualities of that client? Do I want to coach and mentor someone from the same profession or the same career path? How would coaching and mentoring add to my sense of contribution and community? How would coaching and mentoring contribute to my own goals? Are there any areas that I do not want to visit?

Yet, some will resist progression even to stage 2 because they refuse to acknowledge or accept the relevance and benefit of a particular skill or ability. Working in Teams. Building a Learning Organization. In some instances you may decide that the best way to help an individual is to call on an expert, for example a qualiied counselor. It is work related Yes No It requires It can be It is long- It is ongoing one-to-one group based term issue It is for a set It needs The content The cause period expertise is known in needs to be advance identified It questions Mentor Role current It is psycho- Trainer Role thinking social in nature Coach Role Counselor Role Now that you appreciate the different circumstances and behaviors of the four learning roles you will be able to develop your coaching skills so that you can become a compe- tent coach for your team.

You need to ask yourself, Is this something you as their manager have the time and skill to do? Or is this a situation where the use of a profes- sional coach will be the most effective way to get results? Coaching Decisions External? Once you know who is performing the role of coach you then need to decide whether or not the coaching should be conducted in a formal or informal manner. Coaching can be done using professional coaching services supplied by an independent irm or con- sultancy, or it can be done by the manager themselves or by someone else within the organization.

As part of your decision-making process you will have to consider the advantages and disadvantages of each of these approaches. External Coaches External coaches have typically received a more extensive coaching training than man- agers, and have spent more time coaching people.

For example, a coach specializing in sales skills could be brought in to sup- port a sales team. Team members may feel able to discuss issues with an external coach that they would not discuss with their line manager, and these hidden issues may be critical to improv- ing performance.

An external coach is not burdened with preconceptions about either the coachee or the organization. This can lead to an intensive, high-energy form of coaching that can produce signiicant results in a short time. The disadvantages of external coaching include its cost, since it is always going to be more expensive than using existing resources. The interaction between the coach and coachee needs to create improved skills and knowledge that can be incorporated into the culture and processes of the organization.

Internal Coaches For many reasons, such as pressures of time or budget, you may not have the luxury of using a professional coach. This means that you have to resource the coaching needs of your team member internally. Or if not you then it could involve you having to select a colleague, another manager, or human resource specialist to perform the coaching role.

The main advantage to the organization of using internal coaches is that they do not have the direct costs that hiring an external coach would. This may not be so applicable if the internal coach is someone outside of the team or department, unless the coach is already in frequent contact because of the nature of the activity itself.

There is good evidence though that using a predominantly coaching style brings medi- um- to long-term beneits to the team, and to the organization as a whole. This approach works best in an environment where there is a learning culture that is fully supported by senior management.

It is probably fairly obvious that coaching beneits the people being coached—but what about the manager? If you are a busy manager, can you afford the time and effort re- quired, when you already have plenty of other demands to cope with?

It can also bring you and the organization signiicant ben- eits. One of the most signiicant is the effect coaching can have on the morale of your team.

Showing that you value your team enough to spend time coaching them to develop their own skills and potential will gain their respect and conidence. Individuals are often just waiting for someone to show that they have conidence in them, before they open up with their own ideas and feel that their contribution is valued.

The collaborative nature of these relationships makes people feel empowered and creates an atmosphere of trust and honesty. Such attributes will have a direct impact on the performance of the individual as well as the team. The long-term beneits of investing your own time in developing and coaching your team members can be considerable. Your team will become more self-suficient, enabling you to delegate tasks with conidence and focus your skills and time on the higher-level tasks that only you can perform.

The environment of empowerment allows individuals to be creative and intuitive when solving problems and issues. It also allows the circulation of more accurate and informa- tive data, because no one feels they will be penalized for making suggestions. In the short term your coaching activity can have a detrimental impact on your time and possibly your productivity. With careful plan- ning these impositions are short lived and are far out-weighed by the long-term beneits.

Any internal coach must have the ability to adapt their communications style to that most suited to this activity. The coach must be able to relinquish control for collabora- tion and, through careful and well thought-out questioning, to draw out a solution from the coachee. Another issue that can cause problems for internal coaches is the interference of their own task pressures, which may prevent them from having the time they want and know they need in order to conduct coaching properly.

The attitude of the coachee and the culture of the organization also play a signiicant role in how effective coaching will be. If the culture of the organization is such that employees see that to express ideas and question things is harmful to their prospects they will be guarded in their approach to coaching.

This occurs in organizations where individuals can see that questioning established processes or ideas is poorly received by senior management. It could be argued that it is impossible for a manager to act as a coach, given their posi- tion of authority over his or her team.

This is not necessarily an obstacle, provided that there is genuine trust and respect in the working relationship. Finally, the decision regarding whether to use an internal or external coach will depend on the money available, the needs of the people involved, and the ethos of your organization. Formal or Informal? Once you have decided on whether your coaching will be internal or external you then need to deine how it will be delivered. This means deciding whether or not the coach- ing will be formal or informal.

This decision will be largely based on the importance and urgency of the task an individual requires coaching for. Each coaching session will be timetabled and both parties will spend their time in coach- ing mode—that is, with the manager engaged in listening, asking questions, and giving feedback while the coachee does most of the talking.

In addi- tion, because both parties are focusing their efforts on the process it tends to work well. The task in question is usually a signiicant one and there is an urgent need for the team, division, or organization to have additional people capable of performing this task or in possession of a scare skill.

This style of coaching is usually focused on goal-orientated tasks rather than everyday ones. Informal coaching can happen as part of the everyday conversation between the man- ager and a team member if the manager is using a collaborative leadership style.

This style of coaching is often used to develop a particular aspect of a task. Managers also use more informal coaching to help demonstrate that they want to promote a team atmosphere of trust, collaboration, and willingness to discuss and promote new ideas. If you want to excel as a coach then you need to understand and adopt the principles and beliefs that are central to collaborative coaching. Before beginning the coaching process you must ensure that you understand what your role as coach is, that your coachee is aware of their responsibilities, and that the environment in which the coaching takes place is conducive to this activity.

The principles in each of these three areas are explored in the following sections. It is not your role to pass judgment on past events or to give explicit direction for the future. It is not your role to direct or control. Your key role is to facilitate the thinking of the coachee so that they use their own knowledge to question how they conduct an activity. As coach you are not required to give your opinion; you want to encourage your coachee to express their own considered opinion.

If there are issues that either of you is not prepared to discuss then it should be obvious that the whole exercise is pretty much doomed to failure. Time and experience have proven that when a coachee has issues going on else- where in their life these will impact their attitude or ability to perform at work.

So make sure that you ask questions as you prepare for the coaching process so that you aware of any such issues involving the coachee. In such cases you need to ind a way to address such private issues before commencing the coaching because they are adversely affecting their performance at work.

This would require you to perform the role of counselor not coach and this role is likely to be better performed by someone outside of the organization who has this expertise and experience of addressing personal issues. For the Coach As the coach in this process you need to ensure that your behavior and actions relect the following principles. Your role is not to judge them.

This is a two-fold process: irstly, you help the individual understand how their behavior is impacting their goal attainment. Then, you ask the coachee to come up with a resolution to any problems or issues in their performance using their own knowledge and skills.

This approach prevents the indi- vidual feeling they are being unfairly criticized, thus avoiding confrontation and rejection of your communication. You can contribute information to help the coachee address their opportunities, issues, and problems. Focus on how you are contributing towards helping the individual develop their approach to goal attainment, instead of directing or guid- ing them as a trainer or mentor would do.

One way to ensure this is to prepare for each coaching session by reviewing cur- rent progress and reafirming the objective of the coaching. If you really feel as though the process is not producing any results you need to ensure that all coaching principles are being adhered to and rectify any deicien- cies. This should include whether or not to continue as their coach rather than continuing with something that you are not fully committed to. For the Coachee Now you need to address the inal area of coaching principles, that of the coachee.

You must make sure that your coachee is properly prepared for this process and understands their role and responsibilities. This also applies to the setting of each coaching meeting agenda. Your job is to help the individual identify their true talents and strengths and how they can use these to achieve their goals. This includes the commitment to conduct each action within the set timescale. The coachee demonstrates their accountability for these actions by reporting in the next session on the progress they have made.

If you ind that your attempts at coaching are not as successful as you expected then you should re-visit each area. You can then assess how well your behavior as coach and that of the coachee match the required principles.

There are several coaching tools that help you to assess and develop the necessary skills and behaviors you require to make your coaching effective. The coaching relationship must be based on truth, openness and trust. Coaching must address the whole person. It is concerned with helping them to realize their po- tential and ensuring that they have the skills, understanding, knowledge, and motivation to succeed.

It is directly linked to change in that it is about helping someone shift their perspective, level of conidence, skill, motivation, or attitude. There are seven key skills you need for successful coaching: active listening, building rap- port, asking questions, demonstrating empathy, using intuition, goal setting, and giving feedback.

Another key part of being a successful coach is the use of a coaching model that aids this learning process. Finally, your team beneits from your coaching activities in two ways. Firstly, it encourag- es communication and feedback between team members. Secondly, it helps to develop openness and an atmosphere of trust and honesty within your team, which encourages new ways of working. Our eBooks, Checklists, and Templates are designed to help you with the management issues you face every day.