Coaching Skills

Introduction

The question for leaders in organizations today is how do we go about unleashing motivation, facilitating idea creation, promoting information flow and go beyond being Number One? How do we distance ourselves from our competitors? We cannot relax and take our success for granted. Our competitors are fierce and anxious to take back market share, produce the next blockbuster product, or invent some new technology to better serve customers.

One of our greatest competitive advantages is our people and culture. If we can continue to teach, inspire, and select the best, we can continue to be a premier organization in the world. We will continue to be first in bringing value added and quality enhancing products to people around the world. We will also continue to be the employer of choice. In order to achieve this goal, managers can subscribe to many leadership theories and concepts. Some of these theories provide only a general awareness of successful leadership techniques. Some are too complex and academic to be useful in the real world. Today's manager needs tools that are specific, detailed, and practical that will enable managers to:

  • help team members achieve their highest potential

  • motivate team members to contribute their best effort

  • maintain core values and standards of conduct

  • manage performance and results

  • promote innovation and help others think "outside the box"

  • create a culture of continuous improvement

  • build productive and valued relationships with customers

  • tap into each employee's reservoir of experience, talent, and creativity

  • achieve maximum teamwork, inclusion, and communication across functions

    Leaders today want practical and uncomplicated solutions that they can apply immediately. The Coaching program was designed by Dr. Steven J. Stowell and his team at the Center For Management and Organization Effectiveness (CMOE) for this purpose. Research over the past two decades revealed a lack of effective coaching skills by many leaders. As a result of field research and hands on interaction with 325 organizations in 13 different countries, Dr. Stowell has defined a set of coaching skills used by effective leaders. This road map is not a checklist or a "quick fix." Although the steps are easy to learn, effective coaching skills are only developed when managers decide to apply them and tackle the real issues that drive business forward.

    A Road Map

    Coaching Skills training provides leaders with powerful, proven, and practical skills that help you define direction, shows you the sharp turns mileposts in a coaching discussion. But just like driving, the weather and road conditions change each time you set out on a coaching journey. Good judgment, common sense, along with an understanding of the person is needed to be successful. This will allow managers to gain maximum effectiveness from each interaction.

    What is Coaching?

    Coaching is a skill that leaders practice as they manage performance, mentor, problem solve, teach, and guide others. Coaching requires:

  • effective two-way communication and dialogue

  • observation of performance, followed by constructive feedback

  • an investment in helping others succeed

  • a focus on performance and achieving results

  • courage to address difficult issues, and engage others in growth opportunities

  • time to help people improve as jobs, technology, and markets change

    Coaching is a process, not an event. It is the ongoing and consistent way in which we present ourselves, and through which we build and maintain relationships with others. Coaching is not a top-down weapon you use on a subordinate. Coaching is a partnership designed to tap into the knowledge, information, synergy, and talents people bring to the problem solving process.

    Coaching Behaviors

    A good coach:

    • promotes open and constructive discussion

    • is comfortable with differences

    • uses authority and power sparingly

    • is not demeaning or disrespectful of others

    • creates a safe environment for interaction, disclosure, and information flow

    • shares views, facts, and information in a non-threatening manner

    • is open to new ideas, and to the possibility that he/she has an incomplete understanding of the situation

    • focuses on learning and change

    • strengthens and empowers others

    • maintains high expectations and performance standards

    • unleashes motivation and creativity

    Conclusion

    Coaching skills are not "found," they are actively "developed" by people who want to lead and be an influence in their organization. Coaching takes some time (but not a lot of time). Time is an important ingredient and you will need discipline to manage all the priorities and business demands leaders face today. Extra time isn't going to come looking for you. You have to think of coaching is an investment.

    Coaching also takes energy. You will need to pick your battles and decide what is important and what isn't. Your coaching effort is an asset that must be deployed wisely.

    Coaching takes courage. There is always a risk that someone could feel hurt or take offense when you put the microscope on some element of his or her performance. Don't take reactions personally. You should be more concerned if people don't react, if they seem indifferent. If you inadvertently touch a nerve, or if people are extremely sensitive, you will need to draw on your support account.

    Finally, be patient and persistent. Change frequently happens slowly for people. If you encounter someone who wants to make a quantum leap, it's a real bonus. Enjoy it, but remember that the real work of a leader is helping those who don't immediately recognize the need or opportunity to improve. Keep in mind that when you coach you won't be receiving accolades and embraced as a hero. Most people need time to process and grasp the magnitude of what you are conveying to them.

    Learning to be a good coach is a life long journey. The learning you are about to engage in represents a solid step along that journey. Enjoy the trip, participate and ask questions in the workshop, trust yourself in the practice sessions, and learn from your colleagues.

    To learn more about CMOE's Coaching Skills model please contact a Regional Manager at (801)569-3444 and discover what 100,000 managers have learned around the world.

    • More Resources

    Unable to open RSS Feed $XMLfilename with error HTTP ERROR: 404, exiting

    More Coaching Information:

    Related Articles

    How Does Sports Coaching Differ from Corporate Coaching?
    Athletes Versus EmployeesMost athletes are young, open to improvement, eager to learn and anxious to receive what a coach can provide. For the athlete, there is a defined season and something tangible to compete for.
    Its Only Adult ADD-What A Relief!
    For most of her fifty years, Barbara was at war with herself. Keeping organized, being on time, and finishing what she started were always a struggle.
    What Is Executive Presence?
    Often our clients refer someone to us for Executive Coaching with a glowing description such as "This is one of our most valued and brilliant employees ?. But ?.
    What Do You Really Want ?
    Being a coach is such a rewarding profession. The enormous impact you have on other people's lives always astounds me.
    Grow Through It
    It's past bedtime for most working men. It's not unbearably late and I have no appointments tomorrow morning so I sit here and contemplate.
    Control, Helplessness, and Love
    During my 35 years of counseling individuals, couples, families and business partners, I have discovered that an important purpose of our controlling behavior in our relationships is to avoid the feeling of helplessness. One of the hardest feelings to feel is helplessness.
    Recreating Yourself
    So it's time for a change. You've taken that hard look in the mirror and you've decided that who you are is not who you want to be.
    The Top 10 BEST Things About Having a Coach
    Obviously, there are many wonderful things about having a personal coach to support and encourage you. Everyone develops their own working relationship with their coach, and each situation is unique.
    Coaching Employees - The Chronic Excuser
    Most of us find coaching employees to be an effective, even enjoyable, approach to leadership and management. Coaching provides a way to help team members grow and develop, while achieving business objectives.
    Voice Care for Coaches
    Coaches rely heavily on their voice to service clients.If you also give teleclasses or workshops, voicemaintenance needs to be one of their top self-carepriorities.
    The Power of Effective Coaching Skills
    The most valuable assets of a 20th century company were its production equipment. The most valuable assets of a 21st century organization ? will be its knowledge, workers and their productivity.
    Success at Work : People Skills : Complaining
    Do you know an individual at work who is a chronic complainer? Are YOU a chronic complainer? People don't like complainers. Listening to a chronic complainer gets people depressed.
    What Does It Take To Have It All In Life?
    Many people have asked me why I wrote my book, 'The Street Kid's Guide to Having it All', and I realized that some people simply do not believe that it is possible to 'have it all'. Well, I am here as an ambassador to dispel that rumor once and for all.
    Are You Controlling or Loving Yourself?
    How often do you hear a parental voice in your head that says things like, "You've got to lose weight," or "You should get up earlier every morning and exercise," or "Today I should get caught up on the bills," or "I've got to get rid of this clutter." Let's explore what happens in response to this voice.
    How to Forgive Another for Past Hurts
    No one gets through life without being hurt by another person. We all have experienced the pain of a thoughtless remark, gossip, or lie.
    How to Quickly and Easily Deal With Rude People
    Where I live there seems to be a a growing population of rude and vulgar people. And no matter how hard I wish for things to change it is not going to happen.
    Personal Development Profiles
    Personal development profiles, also known as personality profiles, are a tool I frequently use before starting a course of coaching with a client. The client answers a series of questions about preferred behaviour styles and their responses generate a report which outlines their strengths, areas for improvement, blind spots, their contribution to the team, ways they could improve their communication and how to deal with challenging people.
    Mailey's Introspections [Monday, December 6th 2005]
    As I work with clients as their introspective Inner Peace/Relationship coach, an issue that has come to my awareness is the tendency we have as human beings to stray away from the present moment. Some people tend to live mostly in the past, some live in the future, while still others ricochet from future to past and back to the future again.
    Bringing Forgiveness Down To Earth
    What does it mean to forgive?One of the first things we typically think when we hear the word "forgive" is that it is a spiritual concept that is mostly out of reach for us mortal human beings. The bible talks about it, pastors implore us to forgive, we might believe that it is something that we "should" do but for the most part, most of us find it very difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish.
    Leadership Coaching - Easier Said Than done
    Recently at a Pharmaceutical meeting in Europe, one of the presenters shared the results of a recent study that demonstrated that Managers who were trained in Eight Step Coaching Skills were out selling DM's who were not trained in the program. This quantitative data seems to support that the cornerstone of success lies in effective leadership coaching and diagnosing the needs of the Representatives.