Introducing a coaching culture

Transcription

1 Introducing a coaching culture Janine Waldman explains how to introduce coaching as an everyday management tool and outlines a framework for a solutions-focused approach Imagine a manager who takes every opportunity to praise what s going well and always recognises and appreciates the contribution that each individual makes. Any time a member of his team is in difficulty or feels ready for a new challenge, he is promptly available for a supportive and inspiring coaching conversation that enables the team member to take useful action. What impact would this have on the performance of individual team members, the team and the organisation? It s easy to see why adding coaching skills to managers repertoires is an attractive proposition, particularly in these challenging times. By equipping managers with the knowledge, skills, attitude and confidence to coach others effectively and encouraging the use of coaching as a key management tool organisations can help individuals enhance their effectiveness and learn faster by sharing knowledge and experience. This, in turn, enables the organisation to achieve high performance and to engage and retain its valuable people. The demand for coaching Most people are familiar with the concept of coaching. Once used for remedial reasons (and bracketed with other services such as counselling or therapy), coaching has come of age, by focusing on improving performance and results. Today, coaching is often regarded as a badge of honour. Just as no self-respecting athlete would be without their high performance coach, the business community has grown to accept and sanction the idea of coaching because it recognises that managers need a flexibility of style and approach to bring out the best in their people. Coaching is a very effective developmental intervention, as it can improve a person s performance exponentially. However, using the ongoing services of an external coach can be expensive; that s why cascading the approach internally offers good value for money. By adopting a coaching style and incorporating coaching January 2009 TJ 65

2 conversations a manager can get the best out of individuals in his team. This may mean helping people with issues such as performance management, time management, delegation or project planning. It may also mean helping someone to overcome a problem at work, settle into a new role or reach the standards demanded by a particular task or project. Positioning the coaching culture Some managers may feel they have enough to do without being asked to coach their teams. It is therefore important that the organisation sends out the right message. By offering coaching, the organisation is really saying that it believes its managers have ability and it wants to develop them further and give them extra skills. It should be explained to managers that using coaching techniques is in their best interests. Managers will always want their teams to perform well and they ll use a range of methods to encourage, help or force people to get results because if the team does well, the manager gains a degree of kudos. Also, if the team takes on more responsibility, this frees up the manager to move from the operational to the strategic, which is beneficial for them and for the organisation. So, the manager has a stake in the coaching process and in the outcome. This is different to an external coach, who may have a desire for their client to do well, particularly in terms of selfdevelopment, but whose future does not hang on the results. Coaching involves an important change for many managers, some of whom believe that strong leadership is about developing their people as followers. In fact, a good manager is someone who can develop his people as leaders individuals with knowledge, skills, drive and confidence. Using coaching conversations is a good way for them to create leadership attributes in their people. It is important to be clear that you are not expecting managers to become professional coaches. Essentially, you are just providing them with another weapon in their armoury. If they see the value in drawing out the abilities and skills of others, they should be motivated to learn. Selecting an approach A wide range of coaching approaches and models are available. It s worthwhile spending some time trying to identify exactly what you want from coaching and then reviewing the market to see what s out there. Some organisations start with an issue or an identified business need that they would like to resolve using coaching. This may have been prompted by an employee survey; it may stem from a change in pace or size, prompted by rapid growth or downsizing; there may be a demand for better performance management conversations. If there is a desire for something to be different and a desire to do something about it that could be a good place to begin. Whatever the starting point, the organisation will benefit from having an internal champion who supports the cause. Solutions-focused coaching Coaching is essentially about having better conversations. One approach that may be worth considering is solutions-focused coaching an empowering approach that stimulates positive energy, enthusiasm and cooperation. While some conventional styles of coaching involve an analysis of the problem, the solutionsfocused approach sidesteps the causes of trouble and heads straight for the solution. The guiding principles involve helping a client envisage his desired future and move swiftly towards it, by identifying what is working and using this to engender more of what s wanted. The solutions-focused philosophy has its roots in 1970s family therapy in the United States, when leading-edge therapists realised that you don t have to analyse a person s problems in order to help him improve his life. Using this fundamental insight, the therapists asked individuals to describe their preferred future and helped them take steps towards it. The solutions-focused methodology is now an internationally-recognised approach that has been firmly embedded in organisations worldwide. As well as being used in coaching, it has been applied to complex people-related problems such as managing change, making quality/service improvements, 66 TJ January

3 integrating acquisitions/mergers and transforming corporate culture. OSKAR framework For solutions-focused coaching, a specific framework has been developed by Jackson and McKergow 1, which provides a series of steps for structuring a coaching conversation and for finding a way forward. The OSKAR framework can be used in face-to-face and telephone coaching. OSKAR is an acronym for Outcome, Scaling, Knowhow, Affirm and Review (see The OSKAR framework on p68). Establishing the outcome sets the direction. If the coachee is clear about where he wants to go, he is in a position to appreciate how far he might already have come and recognise what a step forward might look like. At this stage, the manager should ask questions to create a sense of possibility and capability. Once the coachee has a clear sense of what he wants to do, the main purpose of the coaching session has been achieved. Subsequent interest will be in what is better and what progress has been made. Scaling involves the coachee considering where he would currently sit on a scale of nought to ten, with ten representing the perfect scenario and nought the worst it has ever been. The point chosen on the scale will admittedly be subjective but the idea here is simply to implant the possibility of progress in the coachee s mind. The manager should be aiming to draw out the know-how of the person being coached. The coaching conversation will involve asking the coachee how he thinks he is doing and what he has done so far that has got him to where he is. The manager should not be excluded from expressing an opinion here: managers are likely to have relevant expertise and they will want to share their own know-how. However, one of the key skills they must learn is to appreciate when and how to use their expert knowledge. They should aim to share their expertise in a coaching style, A good manager is someone who can develop his people as leaders individuals with knowledge, skills, drive and confidence not by telling, giving advice or providing answers. They ll also need patience as they won t be able to solve everything with a single conversation each time. Managers and staff usually enjoy following the OSKAR framework because, rather than delving into unpleasant problems, they concentrate on the search for solutions. Ideally, the manager wants to find out when the solution happens already. He should keep the conversation focused on what works, looking for opportunities to give and share credit and to find out what the coachee wants now. While any progress is welcome, the challenge for the manager is to make actions personal and context-specific for the coachee. The OSKAR framework is straightforward and actionorientated. It can be applied in a five-minute conversation to help someone, who is stuck, make progress. Because it builds on strengths, people become more aware of what they re good at and they do more of those things. Managers can use it to signpost to people what they are doing well, so they start to do more of that. When people are encouraged to play to their strengths, it can make a big difference. They grow in confidence and ability, and they become more optimistic and more comfortable about change because they feel equipped to deal with it. Because it s a positive approach, OSKAR is particularly relevant in challenging times, when employees can be ensnared by negativity. By focusing on solutions, not problems, the approach encourages people to pay attention to what can be achieved and gives them something to work towards, enabling them to put their skills and resources to good use. They take small steps, make progress, review their actions and start the process again. Once managers experience OSKAR, they often find that they can use solutions-focused tools outside of coaching, for example in project management, appraisals, running meetings and having difficult conversations. Training in this approach To implement this framework or any other coaching approach trainers should start by outlining January 2009 TJ 67

4 The OSKAR framework Managers can use the following questions in the various stages of the OSKAR framework: OUTCOME What is the objective of this coaching? What do you want to achieve today? What do you want to achieve in the long term? How will you know this coaching has been of use to you? How would you know tomorrow that you have achieved your objective? SCALING On a scale of nought to ten, with ten representing the perfect scenario and nought the worst it has ever been, where are you on that scale today? What did you do to get this far? How would you know if you moved higher up the scale? KNOW-HOW AND RESOURCES What helps you perform at your current level on the scale, rather than nought? When does the outcome already happen for you, even a little bit? What did you do to make that happen? How did you do it? What did you do differently? What would other people say you are doing well? How have others achieved this? AFFIRM AND ACTION What s already going well? What is the next small step? What would you like to do personally, straight away? What actions do you need to take to move higher up your scale? REVIEW What is better? What did you do that made the change happen? How did you do that? What effects have the changes had? What do you think will change next? What are the next steps? 68 TJ January

5 the organisation s commitment to coaching, the compelling reasons why the training is needed and the benefits that managers stand to gain from learning coaching skills. A combination of workshops and follow-up sessions, coaching practice and coaching support can then be put in place. As part of the workshop, explain the value of coaching and highlight when to coach and when not to. Emphasise that these are simply additional skills that will help your managers and their teams be more effective. Highlight that the organisation is committed to supporting this initiative and stress that there will be sufficient coaching expertise available for every cohort group. Keep it practical. Allow the managers to practise coaching on one or two of their direct reports and give them their own external coach, so they can experience expert coaching in action. By trying it out, getting feedback, sharing experiences and receiving coaching, the managers will learn in three different ways: by coaching others, by being coached themselves and through group discussions. Consider starting with the top team, with future leaders or with an area of the business that is keen to try this approach. Cascade out from your starting point and allow stories of the positive impact to spread throughout the organisation. If it is feasible depending upon the size of the organisation consider training all managers at once, as this will have a significant impact. A coaching culture has to be embedded and owned by the organisation. So, while you may or may not bring in an expert to help design the workshops and provide coaching support, you have to establish the process so that it can survive and thrive on its own merits and become a living approach. It is important that coaching is not seen as a fad try to get people excited and maintain momentum by publicising your success stories. Evaluation At the outset, it is worth considering what you want to achieve and how you ll know if you have achieved a coaching culture. Success should be evident in enhanced employee engagement, greater staff retention, more internal promotions, improved communications and increased evidence of managers working more strategically. It should also show up in the performance management process, if those who have been coached have achieved their objectives. So, it should be obvious whether coaching is working. Are people doing it? Is it alive? Are managers having coaching conversations? Is it part of what you do? Are people growing in their roles? Are you seeing internal promotions? Are you hearing the language? If you plan to introduce a coaching culture, be aware that you re inviting people to grow, you re calling for their ideas, and you re asking people to step up. You have to then be committed to giving them the space in which to try things out. By mastering the skills of coaching, your managers will be making a significant contribution because large numbers of people who understand their strengths and who take positive action can drive any organisation to achieve its goals. References 1 Jackson P Z, McKergow M The Solutions Focus: Making Coaching & Change Simple Nicholas Brealey International 2002 Janine Waldman is a director of training and coaching provider The Solutions Focus. She can be contacted on +44 (0) or via January 2009 TJ 69