Archive for the ‘coaching’ Category

The power of coaching has been recognised in many areas for many years. Astute managers and leaders are starting to see coaching skills as a vital addition to their personal effectiveness toolbox.

So what are the key skills that managers need to develop?

Listening

When growing up we received formal education on reading and writing but not how to listen. Yet when it comes to business, listening is probably one of the most important skills to have.

If as a manager you take on the role of coach, you need to learn to listen with real focus, suspending all of your judgements and opinions. You also need to be listening not just to the words but also to the non verbal signals such as body language.

Questioning

Most of us can ask questions. When coaching, you need to be using powerful questions. These are questions that:

Are short, typically 7 words or less

Are open rather than closed

Deepen the learning of the person being coached

Move the person forward towards a goal

Examples include:

What do you want?, What’s important?, What’s the first step?

Constructively Challenging

Challenging constructively is about not holding back but at the same time not destroying the relationship. Many people associate coaching with helping, which clearly it is. At the same time if the coaching never rocks the boat it just becomes another nice chat. Playing back contradictions is a great way of constructively challenging. For example:

I hear that you want to get your MBA but at the same time you seem to be resisting making the time for assignments.

Holding to account

Accountability is one of the most powerful aspects of coaching. It has been suggested that people have a 95% chance of achieving an objective when they have accountability in place. When someone gives a commitment to doing something and they know that they will be held to account, it drives them forward.

How effective are you at holding people to account as a manager?

Seeing different perspectives

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where it feels like you are pinned into a corner and there is nowhere to go? If so, the chances are you were stuck in a perspective. When coaching, you need to be able to help your client to explore different perspectives, so that they can choose those that are most powerful.

Encouraging and supporting

Encouraging and supporting when coaching can be the difference between someone keeping going or giving up. Acknowledging another person is an incredibly powerful way of keeping them motivated.

Trusting and using intuition

We all have a hunch about something from time to time. The chances are that you have probably started to analyse it and make it logical or not. When coaching, your intuition is a powerful tool. Throw it out if it might be of benefit. The worst that can happen is that it is off the mark.

Keeping the focus on your client

When you are in the role of coach your focus needs to be 100% on your client and their agenda. What this means is putting all of the attention on the client and keeping your agenda out of the way.

These 8 key skills can not only help you when coaching but also make you an even better manager or leader. Take time to assess where you strengths lie and where you need to develop.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to become highly effective leaders and managers. He invites you to take advantage of his free audio e-course Leadership Success at www.goalsandachievements.co.uk

We are all unique.  What motivates one person might be a complete turn-off for another.  If you know what motivates you, you can use these motivators to getting you going when you are stuck, lethargic or procrastinating.  Sources of motivation include:

• Deadlines
• Fear
• Rewards
• Appreciation
• Contributing
• Visioning
• Producing outputs
• Connection
• Feedback
• Change
• Progression
• Challenge
• Stability

During the next few days take time to identify:

• Your motivators
• How you use them
• How you could use them more

Are you achieving all that you want at the moment?  If you are keep up the good work, notice what you are doing right and do more of it.  In reality there will always be times when everything is going well and other times when it feels like everything you touch falls apart.

There are a whole host of reasons why you might not be achieving all you want right now.  Let’s explore some of these:

Fear: You might not be taking action right now because you are frightened of failing or frightened of the consequences if you succeed.  People do worry that they might be too successful, become overwhelmed and then not deliver.

Lack of focus: Often when working with clients they complain that they are not making progress.  When we dig below the surface we often discover that they are not completely focused.  They might not be getting signed up for courses essential to their continued development, getting their CV completed or asking to get on a particular project that will given that essential experience to their success.

Lack of desire:  To achieve anything you need to have the desire and hunger to get the benefits that success will bring.  You might not be motivated because you are playing safe and operating in your comfort zone and taking what might be regarded as a logical next step.

Lack of commitment: Do you find yourself starting lots of new things but never see things through to completion?  Sometimes it takes a lot of commitment to achieve things so ask yourself if you are willing to do the work to achieve.

Lack of skills, knowledge or other resources:  Maybe you are clear on what you want but tell yourself that you cannot do it because you don’t have the right skills, knowledge or other resources to do it.

Lack of clarity: We can often lack clarity on what you want.  If you don’t know where you are heading, it is difficult to plot out your route to success.

If any or all of these reasons apply to you, what can you do to start achieving?

1. Clearly define what you want, why you want it and what the benefits will be once you achieved it.

2. Start one big project at a time, plan it thoroughly and follow through step by step.

3. Drop things that you don’t really want to do but feel you need to do it because it is expected.

4. Start consciously choosing what you will and won’t do rather than leaving it to chance.

5. Accept that when you take action you will fail some time but by stretching your comfort zone you will achieve more than you would have done otherwise.

6. Recognise that it is better to have something that is 90% complete now than 92% complete in 3 month’s time.

Bottom line – If you want to achieve anything, the first obstacle you need to address is yourself.  So what’s your first step to achieving more success?

More and more organisations are looking to add coaching to their learning and development offering.  So what are some of the common challenges that can be tackled by coaching in organisations?

Winning the war for talent

In many businesses there is a constant challenge of recruiting and subsequently retaining the best people.  Coaching can help to build relationships in the organisation and also give a strong message to employees and potential hires that people development is taken seriously.

Leadership development

Many employers offer opportunities to employees to gain professional qualifications, masters levels degrees and participate in the in-house development programmes.  All of these will work for employees but for some the opportunity to work one to one with someone else is much more effective.  It allows open dialogue and attention to be focused on those areas of improvement that will deliver greatest impact.

Increasing productivity

The opportunities here are almost endless.  Someone could be work with a coach on work organisation, delegation, time mastery, project planning, process re-design, goal setting, decision making to name just a few.

Communication

Like productivity the opportunities in the area of communication are significant.  It might be presenting a new strategy, getting buy-in to a change programme, asking more effective questions when handling conflict,improving presentation skills, listening more effectively or even how to write in a more compelling way.

So what other areas would you add to the list of challenges that can be tackled by coaching?  Leave a comment with your thoughts.