Path to Change

Developing Managers Into Coaches

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TO SURVIVE IN today’s competitive and ever-changing marketplace, businesses are challenged to identify practical methods to help them achieve continued improvement and increased productivity. One method with proven results is developing the coaching skills of managers in the business. Coaching is a fundamental competency and required skill set for today’s leader.

The core of coaching as a leadership style (versus autocratic directing) is a focus on activity that will generate results. Coaching is a powerful strategy to improve systemic business performance. Effective training and skill development in the art of coaching is often heralded as a key element in the transformation of today’s managers into tomorrow’s leaders.

Many companies are investing in their human capital by developing internal coach-development programs. It’s easier said than done. As with any new initiative, there will be obstacles to overcome. It is important to anticipate these challenges and to have a plan to deal with them effectively.

Commitment on the part of senior leaders is critical. The success of this kind of change hinges on sponsorship — senior leaders’ ability to provide continued support, focus and the resources required.

People aren’t born with innate coaching skills. Coaching techniques and competencies are very different than those required of more “old style” management and supervision. As a result, some will need to unlearn past lessons and techniques that are no longer effective in today’s workplace.

Being effective in the art of coaching requires significant training in new behaviors, practice, ongoing feedback and role modeling of best practices.

Developing high-level expertise (as with most skills) will almost always require ongoing feedback by someone with more advanced skills. One of the best ways to develop coaches is to have the up-and-coming coach be coached by someone with outstanding coaching skills. Again, as in professional sports, new great coaches often come from the camps of other coaches identified as best in class.

Surprisingly, it is estimated that less than 25 percent of companies today have training programs to teach fundamental coaching skills, yet more than 80 percent of companies identify coaching as a method they use to develop staff. Just asking people to coach employees won’t make it so. Managers will need training to learn new skills and behaviors, practice and feedback to be able to coach effectively.

Coaching is at its core a relationship, one centered on helping those being coached to realize their aspirations and potential. Trust and rapport are critical foundations to a solid coaching relationship. Some managers have great challenges in this arena. The good news is there are teachable behaviors that can generate trust. Sometimes it takes a little help (and trust) to get there. Be forewarned — overnight transformations aren’t realistic with these kinds of skills and behaviors.

As trusted coaches, leaders can help individuals uncover their blind spots (think emotional intelligence — see previous columns) and develop new actions, behaviors or skills. Most of this takes place through observation, assessment, dialogue, inquiry and conversations. The most effective coaching experiences are focused on learning through these observations, modifying behaviors and taking action to achieve performance improvement and attain defined goals.

Again, I do not suggest (even for a moment) that you equate developing managers as coaches as giving up authority, decision-making responsibility or holding others accountable. To the contrary, effective leaders who employ coaching — like head sports coaches (think Vince Lombardi) — are still the ones making the decisions, calling the strategic plays and putting people in or out of the game. Effective leaders who employ coaching skills still have the authority to trade away their prize second-round draft pick for a better option.

Coaches Increase Your Skills

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Coaching in the workplace has increased dramatically in popularity in recent years as more organizations and leaders understand the power behind the approach. Coaching isn’t a “flavor of the month” business fad — it’s here to stay, and for good reasons. The business case for coaching is backed by solid research, data and results.

This column begins a series on coaching in the workplace and will review coaching concepts, techniques and examples of how coaching can dramatically affect performance and bottom-line results.

Simply stated, coaching is a leadership method and style centered on the development of the person (or team) being coached. At its core, coaching is about helping the person or team being coached change behaviors that affect their business goals.

Comparing workplace coaching to the sports field provides some valuable insights and similarities. Who can argue the value of coaches in the business of professional sports? Just as every major football team has a head coach, it also leverages a field of specialized experts to help develop specific skills sets — in individuals and for the team to optimize team dynamics and performance. Similarly, the purpose of workplace coaching is to champion, challenge and support. Workplace coaches, just like sports coaches, leverage skill development (practice, practice, practice!) and feedback (roll the game video), and provide insight (have you considered or did you know this behavior is having this effect?). The common theme, in both business and sports, is that effective coaching is a proven method to help individuals, teams and entire organizations rise to their performance potential.

Effective workplace coaching typically is:

  • An interpersonal relationship built on trust.
  • The leveraging of personal, interpersonal, leadership and business experience. In coaching, these skills are combined with techniques and activities designed to develop specific skills, new understandings and behaviors.
  • A method that recognizes that learning (including from failure) is an expected benefit of trying new behaviors.
  • A sounding board for the workplace “worried well.”

What coaching isn’t:

  • Being “touchy feely.”
  • Simply providing a pat on the back or being a “cheerleader.”
  • A substitute for personal therapy.

When and for what reasons are coaches typically used? Here are a few typical workplace scenarios:

  • To help new or inexperienced leaders with a potential for leadership who may lack specific leadership skills or experience.
  • Supporting “fast trackers” or high achievers.
  • To help valued employees with specific performance or emotional intelligence issues (such as an interpersonal, self-awareness or reactivity problem) or those individuals or groups that are simply “stuck.”

For senior level managers, executive coaches are frequently utilized for:

  • Individuals being groomed for senior leadership positions, including those who have demonstrated business success but may have identified emotional intelligence challenges.
  • The role of the impartial third-party “outsider,” one that can provide an unbiased or unemotional perspective on complex and difficult issues. Senior managers often find great benefit in having an objective sounding board (with no political or internal bias) to vocalize, rationalize and work through difficult situations.
  • Support during major organizational transitions, including helping the organization to develop top-to-bottom skills and programs for managing change effectively.
  • Helping leaders develop feedback mechanisms to help answer and address the question, “Why isn’t this working?”

The need for improved leadership, performance and results has never been greater. Our business reality today is one of constant change and global competition. Being successful in today’s workplace requires a never-ending development of new leaders with new skills — including the ability to build effective teams and a culture of organizational collaboration.

In a recent study conducted by the Center for Creative Leadership, 91 percent of leaders surveyed said the challenges they face as leaders are more complex than in the past. This same study identified the ability to effectively collaborate as a top skill that leaders must develop, while only 30 percent identified themselves as skilled collaborators! The good news — there is help!  Call me today- 360 682 5807.

Communication – Its All In the Delivery

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In workplaces, the ability to get things done hinges on successful interpersonal communication. It’s a critical workplace skill.

One of the greatest challenges with interpersonal communication is having your message understood as you intended (particularly when giving feedback — the subject of last week’s column).

Successful communication happens when the message the sender intended to communicate is what is understood by the receiver. Misunderstandings occur because we interpret or “decode” messages through our unique human filters: culture (“it’s disrespectful to interrupt”), education, race, gender (think Mars versus Venus), age, health, status (“he’s the boss”), sense of self and our total life experiences — to name a few.

Our entire human history colors how we interpret and make meaning of what we hear and see. We make instant judgments about motives based on these filters (“she’s trying to control me”). Throw in a stressful workplace, an organizational hierarchy, time constraints, competing resources and distractions, and it’s a wonder we ever communicate successfully.

As receivers of messages, we attempt to understand the other by reading faces/body language and decipher (or make sense of) the words we hear. Have you ever said something seemingly neutral to someone and been surprised at their strong emotional response? Or have you noticed how two people can be in the same room, witness the same message and come away with two completely different perceptions? It’s not so much what I say, it’s what you hear, observe and how you make meaning.

To lessen the potential for misunderstandings and conflict, here are a few guidelines that may help:

  • Get clear about your intent before you communicate. What do you want to have happen as a result of the exchange? Communicate your intention (particularly if the message is sensitive or likely to be misunderstood). As a receiver of a message, don’t attempt mind-reading and “assume” intention about the other.
  • Non-verbal communication speaks volumes. Research estimates that as little as 7 percent of a communication’s effectiveness can be attributed to words alone — 38 percent is vocal (volume, pitch, etc.) and 55 percent body movements (mostly facial expressions). People tend to believe body language over words. Eye rolling or crossed arms send cues that can make words almost meaningless. Think of a salesperson who makes verbal promises but won’t make eye contact. We discount the words and equate “no eye contact” to shifty or dishonest behavior. The key is to be congruent — the video should match the audio.
  • Use “I” language versus vague pronouns (“they,” “we” or “you”). When we hear the word “you,” we often interpret this as blame or having a finger pointed at us (“you are unfair”). Take responsibility for your judgments and interpretations. Describe what is going on for you (I think, feel, want …) from the “I” position. Speaking for others is a recipe for trouble (“we all agree …”). Also problematic is speaking about people as if they aren’t present while they’re in the same meeting. Good rules to follow: Address people directly and speak for yourself.
  • Avoid interrupting (two ears/one mouth — use them proportionally) and finishing others’ sentences (a pattern with people who have worked together a long time). Ask what the other person is thinking, feeling or wanting versus assuming you know. Seek to understand: Paraphrase to try to ensure that you get the meaning of what the person said.
  • Choose your words carefully. Words mean different things to different people. For example, “satisfactory” is a word that needs to be well defined in the workplace. Other words have explosive potential, such as “unprofessional.”
  • Don’t assume you have been understood. Managers need to be particularly careful when giving complex or important instructions. Check in for understanding (“You look puzzled. Are you?”). Or if they give you a confusing response, rephrase for clarity. When trying to understand something complex, important or sensitive, state in your own words what you interpreted (“Let me see if I get this …”).

Aim for clarity. Be straightforward, concise and avoid overexplaining things. Too many words can confuse people. Sometimes it’s better to aim for the Reader’s Digest version. If it’s an important meeting, craft your main talking points in advance.

Mastering feedback

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Closing the gap between goals and performance is a continual challenge for leaders. Mastering coaching skills can help close that gap. One of the most important skills to master is giving effective, and potentially difficult, feedback to others. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t born with natural talents in delivering challenging feedback, so some level of skill development is usually necessary.

Leaders with great coaching skills are adept at offering feedback that encourages learning, development and change — in good times and bad. They can deliver difficult information in a way that encourages behavior change. Feedback, as a core coaching skill, is delivering information and perspective to another person about an observable behavior.

How feedback is received, and whether it creates change, is all about how it is delivered. Many of us have a tendency to take challenging feedback personally. But most of us prefer feedback that is simple to understand, straightforward and presented in a non-accusatory style.

Here are some feedback delivery tips:

  • Consider timing. Feedback should be delivered as close to the observed behavior as possible. The year-end performance review is too late. Most people aren’t able to hear critical feedback (without getting defensive) when they are highly emotional or reactive. It’s much better to wait until people calm down and can hear it.
  • Prioritize critical behaviors. Too often, managers focus feedback on what bothers them in others versus identifying specific behaviors that drive performance. Or they give too much feedback at one time, which can overwhelm the person. The 80/20 rule applies — 80 percent of performance comes from about 20 percent of our behaviors. The best coaches identify critical behaviors, focus on key expectations and review specific behavioral changes that could significantly improve performance.
  • Be behaviorally specific. Encourage the employee to take responsibility by focusing on acts, not attitudes. State the information in a way that cannot be misunderstood. Effective feedback doesn’t leave the employee wondering what you meant. To be a great coach, you need to be a great observer. The best feedback is factual — what a video camera would have recorded. Just like playing the game tapes in preparation for the “big game,” managers use observable behaviors and patterns to help clarify the issues and identify behaviors that require change.
  • Identify change as a process versus an event. The most effective coaches provide ongoing feedback and encourage people to learn from their successes and failures. They set the expectation that feedback needs to be a two-way communication process; they are open to and encourage reciprocal feedback.
  • Identify impact. Great coaches illuminate “blind spots” so people see themselves as others see them. They provide feedback that identifies the consequence, feelings or impact of the behavior in question. It is not uncommon for individuals to be oblivious to the distress a simple comment or action can cause.
  • Define expectations. Feedback includes offering suggestions, direction or identifiable goals. What do you want the employee to do differently? An effective challenge can be to identify what you want more or less of: “I want more suggestions for solutions and fewer complaints during our meetings.”

Best-practice coaching and feedback requires different approaches for different situations.

Coaching the most talented people can be tricky. Providing feedback to high-performers often requires a different skill set and approach. By their very nature, high-performers are different — they get bored easily, and when in trouble may be difficult to challenge without negatively affecting motivation. High-performers tend to run at light speed while generating the kind of results that senior management loves — they require a specialized set of coaching skills to keep them challenged and on track.

Workers Are Stressed!

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The past few weeks have been an economic and emotional roller coaster. The impact has been felt in workplaces everywhere. Watercooler conversations reflect the concerns and anxieties of most Americans — about job and financial security. Stress, bad moods and negative emotions are permeating the workplace, along with uncertainty about coping with it.

As an organizational development consultant and coach, I work with a wide variety of businesses, managers and frontline workers, helping individuals and organizations identify methods to more effectively deal with performance challenges. Emotions affect performance, and in these tough times fear, pain and apprehension are permeating from C-level suites on down.

Now more than ever, there is a need for organizations to proactively address workplace stress and emotions. The American Psychological Association claims that nearly two-thirds of people cite the economy as a source of significant stress. Another recent survey reports that 48 percent of all workers identify that stress makes it hard for them to perform well on the job. Workers losing sleep over financial or job worries come to work exhausted and with raw nerves, which puts them at risk for potentially dysfunctional behavior.

Most companies’ current “emotional fields” are loaded with anger, anxiety and stress. Like catching a cold virus, we are susceptible to “catching” others’ emotions. We naturally absorb the emotional states of those around us. As smiles and positive feelings are contagious, unfortunately so are the negative emotions.

When people are overloaded and hurting, they lose confidence and aren’t as effective dealing with the day-to-day frustrations and normal tasks. You may have noticed co-workers are on edge, distracted and have less patience these days (snapping at what a few months back might have been deemed minor frustrations). A domino effect can follow.

Extraordinary times like these call for extraordinary action. While most companies will focus and organize themselves around meeting targets and cutting back resources, far too few will do the critical work of paying attention to the emotional states of their employees.

Many companies in economic downturns self-implode not so much due to the market but more often because of their inability to deal effectively with the resulting internal challenges, stress, conflict, etc. Strong, wise and compassionate leadership will be critical to survival.

Workplace health and morale will depend on how companies cope with trying times, bad news and the resulting emotions. Workers will need sensitivity, understanding, empathy, support and transparent communication about what’s “really going on.” Management will need to rely on skillful delivery of clear direction while creating opportunities for employees to safely vent frustrations and fears.

Unfortunately, in much of corporate America, there is a strong bias against talking about feelings in the workplace. I couldn’t disagree more. We don’t check part of ourselves at the door entering work. Allowing people to express their feelings can be healthy for workplaces to work out core challenges, conflicts and issues. We often connect to each other, strengthen relationships and understand each other better through expression of feelings. With all the stress out there, a little understanding and empathy goes a long way.

I keep hearing politicians talk about putting emotions aside — as if that is really possible! We are emotional beings. Emotions aren’t simply good or bad, right or wrong — they just are. To suggest that we ignore them is simply bad advice.

Feelings are important for sound decision making; the problem is, many people either ignore them or are not conscious of them. Feelings have served humankind since the caveman days as a survival warning or radar system. For example, fear can alert you to an impending threat (like the robot in the 1960s classic “Lost in Space” did when he signaled, “Danger, Will Robinson,” for Will to take immediate action to protect himself).

Emotions inform us as to the importance and meaning of situations and interactions. Once you allow your feelings to inform you, the challenge is what you do next. It’s behavior that causes a problem for most people in workplaces. People who keep emotions bottled up or unexpressed are at risk for expressing them in dysfunctional ways.

By the way, if managing your behavior appropriately is a problem, you will need to get help learning new ways of coping or risk being out of a job.  I can help- call me: 360 682 5807.