Turning Managers Into Coaches In The Workplace
By Maureen Moriarty
MA, ABS Professional Certified Business and Executive Coach
In an increasingly complex world, the challenges that face executives, managers and their employees today are greater than ever before. Managers need more highly developed leadership skills to compete due to global competition, a tough economy, corporate mergers, layouts, reorganizations and a mistrust of corporate leaders (to name a few of the challenges facing management today).
Executives and managers today are under tremendous pressure to get results from their teams. While they often have the specific job and technical expertise for their positions, leaders too often lack the necessary communication, conflict management, relationship and team management skills required to lead effectively in a world of constant change. Simply put, executives and managers today need coaching skills in additional to the historical and traditional managerial skills taught in most universities.
Like most new skills requiring development, it can sound simpler to master than it is. Learning to coach is like learning a new language. It takes significant training time and practice with a professional coach to accomplish.
Managers that have effective coaching skills produce significantly better results. Leaders with good coaching skills create employees that are more satisfied, clearer about what is expected of them, more motivated and have higher productivity. Companies that have developed a coaching culture report significantly reduced staff turnover, increased productivity, greater happiness and satisfaction at work.
The benefits of developing a coaching culture in the workplace include a more positive approach by a focus on solutions versus mere problem identification. Through coaching, employees are inspired to achieve their best, communication is improved, interpersonal conflicts are reduced and greater collaboration and creativity occurs.
When managers adopt a coaching approach benefits often include:-
Trust increases
- Employees self direction increases
- New skills and competencies are learned and practiced
- Ongoing feedback is available to support new behaviors, skills and productivity
- Cooperation is increased
- Conflict is reduced
- Employees are more motivated and enthusiastic resulting in improved customer relations
Coaching is about getting the best possible return on investment from a company's most valuable asset - its people. Leaders who have developed coaching skills typically use a defined coaching process that would typically include some of the following elements:
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Beginning Assessment (360 degree feedback from peers, boss and subordinates)
- Setting clear goals and priorities
- Identifying strengths, challenges and opportunities
- Developing effective behaviorally specific strategies/roadmap
- Committing to an action plan
- Learning new skills
- Providing accountability, support and challenge
- Building on strengths and attacking obstacles
- Delivering "clean" constructive and difficult feedback
- Rewarding successes
To win in today's complex world, managers must empower employees and delegate to create a culture of responsibility and ownership. Employees who are coached work towards positive growth, what is possible and gain a feeling of empowerment. Coaching involves ongoing support, encouragement, learning and challenge around goals and performance.
Introducing coaching competencies into an organization is a very powerful strategy to create an adaptive workplace culture committed to learning. Coaching in the workplace is about inspiring the highest of human potential. Supervisors who coach employees partner with them, inspiring the employee to take new actions to produce results. A coaching organization has never been more important than today to win in the face of global competition and a fast changing culture.
Human resource professionals understand the frustration and challenges related to training producing sustainable long- term behavioral change. Most training results in a brief "honeymoon" period of short- term learning and then the improvements fade shortly following the training. People often leave trainings feeling energized and enthusiastic. But when they are confronted with the day-to-day reality and demands of their workplace, their old habits and knee jerk responses take over again.
This reality is problematic considering that US companies spend more than $60 billion in training. According to the Public Personnel Management Journal , "when training is combined with coaching, individuals increase productivity by an average of 88 percent, compared to 22 percent with training alone." The Training and Development Journal agrees, "However excellent your classroom training, without good coaching you are probably wasting 87 cents out of every dollar you spend."
Coaching is the answer to allow employees to integrate their new learning into the workplace. It provides them with someone to support their new learning goals and follow through with accountability.
Strong leadership development programs focus on emotional and intellectual learning. They incorporate experiential and action-learning using coaching to provide role modeling for new behaviors, a practice partner, support, encouragement. accountability and follow through. These programs often use team- based simulations where participants do real work on an actual project.
This allows them the opportunity to examine the impact of their behavior on others in a safe environment. A "learning community" develops- people committed to the personal and professional development of each other. They can then challenge and support each other in their ongoing leadership journey.
Managers with good workplace coaching skills have often been coached themselves by a professional certified executive coach. To bring coaching in your workplace, please call Pathways to Change, 425 837 9297.
Copyright © 2007 Pathways to Change. All rights reserved.
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