Providing timely guidance and feedback to help others strengthen specific knowledge/skill areas needed to accomplish a task or solve a problem.

Transcription

1 Coaching Providing timely guidance and feedback to help others strengthen specific knowledge/skill areas needed to accomplish a task or solve a problem. Key Actions Clarifies the current situation Clarifies expected behaviors, knowledge, and level of proficiency by seeking and giving information and checking for understanding. Explains and demonstrates Provides instruction, positive models, and opportunities for observation in order to help others develop skills; encourages questions to ensure understanding. Provides feedback and reinforcement Gives timely, appropriate feedback on performance; reinforces efforts and progress. Uses Key Principles Establishes good interpersonal relationships by helping people feel valued, appreciated, and included in discussions (enhances self-esteem, empathizes, involves, discloses, supports). Quick Tips Pay attention to others behavior and anticipate when they will need help. Set performance expectations that are clear, observable, and measurable. When people come to you for advice, ask open-ended questions that encourage them to think through situations themselves. Provide positive or corrective feedback as quickly as possible. Think before you correct someone. Ask yourself, Is it really important? Does it make any difference in terms of getting the job done? Model on a daily basis the values and behaviors you are trying to teach. Page 1

2 Developmental Activities Self-Directed Look for success, not failure. Let people know you re aware of their accomplishments. Pay attention to others moods and try to notice when they appear frustrated. Offer to help clarify the problem, discuss alternatives, or provide additional support. Practice different ways of teaching others new tasks. Are you comfortable with more than one method? Do you favor one style over the rest? Is that style most appropriate for the task at hand and the audience? If you need to correct a person you re training, try to empathize with the awkwardness or complexity of the task. Praise appropriate behaviors during the learning process. Record your observations of job performance (positive or negative) after discussing them with the person you observed. Look for patterns in your records. Do you provide feedback equitably to different individuals? Is the ratio of positive to constructive feedback appropriate? Observe behaviors; avoid speculating on the person s motives, attitudes, or thoughts. Pay attention to nonverbal communication during discussions or one-to-one interactions. Is the other person uncomfortable or nervous? Try to pinpoint what, if anything, you might be doing to cause this reaction. Coach people to demonstrate behaviors that will help them meet objectives. Give the people you coach the opportunity to observe others and practice new skills to ensure quality in their new behavior. Partnerships Ask an expert to observe your coaching behaviors and provide specific feedback, including alternate positive behaviors. Identify other people who provide coaching and ask about their techniques for coaching others. Listen for new approaches, as well as for consistent, reliable approaches. During individual coaching sessions, make sure to actively involve the person. Ask associates for specific feedback regarding your effectiveness in assisting others. Page 2

3 Targeted Assignments Look for opportunities to train others in a new process or on a new piece of equipment. Then seek ways to support and facilitate their progress. Volunteer as a coach or leader for a community group or sports team. Workshops Look for a workshop that addresses the following: Recognizing people s abilities and developing their skills. Providing accurate, timely feedback. Coaching for performance improvement. Preparing others to perform new tasks. Readings Books Bell, C.R. (2002). Managers as mentors: Building partnerships for learning (2 nd ed.). San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. This book reflects new management paradigms where leaders act as partners in learning and help to facilitate improvement. Bell advocates a collaborative approach to employee development with emphasis on the manager employee relationship. Crane, T.G., & Patrick, L. (2001). The heart of coaching: Using transformational coaching to create a high-performance culture (Rev. ed.). San Diego, CA: FTA Press. This book details a powerful communication process designed to ensure that connection and comprehension occur between the coach and the coachee. Doyle, J.S. (1999). The business coach: A game plan for the new work environment. New York: John Wiley & Sons. This is an excellent book for any executive who must become skilled at coaching. It is very readable and contains many real-life examples that illustrate the author s points. Each chapter has an application exercise and a Coach s Playbook that helps executives prepare to coach. Page 3

4 Fournies, F.F. (2000). Coaching for improved work performance (Rev. ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. This timely, updated edition of Fournies classic management coaching bible has been completely revised and details proven techniques for getting workers to perform at their highest level while eliminating the kinds of self-defeating behaviors that have become prevalent in recent years. This book presents specific face-to-face interventions that will enable leaders to enhance others performance in every kind of workplace situation. Fournies also details interventions uniquely suited to resolving problems ranging from low productivity to absenteeism to conflicts between individuals. The book spells out precisely what to say and do to motivate each person in the work group to give his or her best effort even if that person was previously thought to be a problem employee. Packed with new case studies from Fournies latest research into the dynamics of the modern workplace, this classic guide takes the guesswork out of becoming the kind of inspired, hands-on leader that every company today is looking for. Hargrove, R. (2001). Masterful coaching fieldbook: Grow your business, multiply your profits, win the talent war! San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer. This book focuses on coaching knowledge workers both individuals and teams made up of off-site collaborators for work that involves creativity and innovation. The author also gives guidelines for coaching individuals and groups through a variety of media, including face-toface, phone, , or groupware over the Web. Holliday, M. (2001). Coaching, mentoring, and managing: A coaching guidebook (Rev. ed.). Franklin Lakes, NJ: Career Press. This book offers hundreds of practical, easy-to-learn techniques that every manager can use to coach employees to become more productive, positive, inspired, and effective. Replete with real-world advice and exercises, this manual shows how to get the most from employees in today s era of downsizing, layoffs, buyouts, and mergers. The author explains how managers can learn to be more than a boss and develop the skills and strategies to become a coach to their employees. This invaluable resource shows managers how to tap into their employees hidden strengths and talents, inspire peak performers to even greater levels of productivity, confront inappropriate behavior, and transform problem employees into productive workers. Kinlaw, D.C. (1999). Coaching for commitment: Interpersonal strategies for obtaining superior performance from individuals and teams. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Coaching is essential to teaching new skills, bridging gaps in performance, and inspiring enhanced performance. In today s workplace, everyone can be a coach the opportunities for leadership no longer rest solely with managers and supervisors. This step-by-step resource shows professionals how to counsel, mentor, and tutor their coworkers or direct reports. Page 4

5 Logan, D.C., & King, J.P. (2001). The coaching revolution: How visionary managers are using coaching to empower people and unlock their full potential. Holbrook, MA: Adams Media Corporation. The Coaching Revolution presents the best practices of some of today s top managers. These best practices are changing good companies into great places to work and transforming teams of champions into championship teams. Managers who adopt these behaviors build better companies by becoming manager coaches and leading a coaching revolution. Zeus, P., & Skiffington, S. (2002). The coaching at work toolkit: A complete guide to techniques and practices. New York: McGraw-Hill. The Coaching at Work Toolkit is a comprehensive, practical resource for aspiring, novice, and experienced coaches that details the theories, tools, techniques, and practices that affect learning and change. It contains proven coaching tools and psychology-based techniques that help readers understand the concept of coaching and the application of coaching theories and language. Articles Bielous, G.A. (1998). Effective coaching: Improving marginal performers. Supervision, 59(7), This article sheds light on techniques for coaching employees whose performance is borderline acceptable. It discusses the management strength of supervisors and how marginal performance can be improved through coaching. Mentoring & coaching help employees grow. (2001, September). HR Focus, 78(9), 1, 11, This article discusses the value of mentoring and coaching programs for enhancing employee performance, highlights the difference between coaching and mentoring, and lists the characteristics of a good coaching program. It also contains an inset titled How to coach the uncoachable. Mobley, S.A. (1999, July). Judge not: How coaches create healthy organizations. Journal for Quality & Participation, 22(4), This article describes a coaching atmosphere that enables managers to provide guidance without putting employees on the defensive. Waldroop, J., & Baker, T. (2000, September/October). Managing away bad habits. Harvard Business Review, 78(5), Business psychologists and coaches have studied and found tested, effective ways to help people recognize and correct their bad habits. Page 5