DEVELOPING THE

COACHINGSKILLS

OF YOUR MANAGERSAND LEADERS

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What are the obligations of managers? The answer to this question varies from organization to organization based upon a number of factors such as industry, culture, department, skill level of the team, etc. Regardless of the organization, at the very heart of this question lies a dilemma. If you need compliance, or supervision of employees, the things your organization needs managers to do well has a clear, well-delineated set of guidelines and boundaries. On the other hand, if the answer leans towards the successful achievement of goals, the things you need managers to do well are probably less defined.

Managers may have to perform well, depending upon a variety of situations at various places along this continuum, ranging from ensuring employees comply with established processes and procedures at one end, to career development and skill improvement along towards the other end. Who’s to say which of the outcomes is more or less important? In fact, we’d probably agree that the outcomes suggested by such a continuum are all important depending upon the situation. With so many possible outcomes and objectives legitimately competing for our managers’ attention, are there a set of uniform skills or competencies we can use to guide our managers ongoing training and development?

What Are the Obligations of Managers?

Supervision and Compliance

Achievement of Goals

MANAGER OBLIGATIONSAt any given time, a manager will function someplace on this continuum . . . .

Every organization has specific needs for its managers. So no two organizations will have exactly the same set of managerial skills we can duplicate to ensure success. However, there are some foundational managerial skills that nearly every employee managing or leading other employees should master to some degree. Among core manager skills you should consider the following:

• Communication• Performance Management• Business Acumen• Emotional Intelligence

There are and will be others, but these are four foundational sets of competencies that will help your managers be successful as coaches and leaders.

The objective of this eBook is to offer some insight into what we see as emerging principles in employee coaching for managers. The marketplace is changing, and so are our workplaces. While many traditional coaching models provide excellent guidance, they may not fully prepare our managers for success, without some modifications, for successful coaching experiences with today’s workforce.

“Today’s coaches must be multi-functional, and be equally competent as a manager, tactician, trainer,

psychologist, physiologist, and sometimes even a counselor. You simply cannot coach the same way as

you did ten, fifteen, or twenty years ago for a number of reasons.”

Gary Curnee, Professional Coach and Blogger

What Are the Obligations of Our Managers?

A study conducted by Bersin by Deloitte showed that organizations with senior leaders who coach effectively and frequently improve their business results by 21 percent as compared to those who never coach.

More broadly, organizations that invest in leadership development are more profitable, more innovative, and more likely to be market share leaders than their peers. It’s just no longer optional to take the time and allocate the resources to effectively develop leaders at every level of your organization.

One of the most significant issues confronting businesses today is a glaring lack of next generation leaders, coupled with a stunning lack of success for both newly promoted leaders and leaders recruited from outside the organization. There is a genuine leadership talent crisis brewing, which makes coaching current leaders and current talent a critical mission for organizations.

Why Coaching Skills Are Important

• Coaching• Performance Appraisal• Developing Others • Managing Change• Communications• Business Acumen

Top Missing Skills In Mid-Level Leaders

SOURCE: Bersin by Deloitte

Organizations with senior leaders who coach effectively and frequently improve business results by 21%.

SOURCE: Bersin by Deloitte

Developing sound coaching skills in leaders makes business sense. Coaching skills can help with key employee retention, performance improvement, skill improvement, and knowledge transfer. While there are other important leadership skills and competencies, coaching is central to improving the performance of entire teams. That’s why there is such a clear and direct connection between business results and organizations that place an emphasis on leadership development generally and improved coaching skills more specifically.

COACHING IS BUILDING ONE-ON-ONE RELATIONSHIPS AND MANAGING A PROCESS THAT RESULT IN SPECIFIC IMPROVED PERFORMANCE IN TARGETED AREAS.

The two elements – relationship and process – are the two constants that you can rely upon as points of reference. So let’s work from there. The third element of our definition is the idea of improved performance. This should always be the objective of every coaching engagement, without exception.

“Coaching is a process that enables learning and development to occur and thus performance to improve. To be successful a Coach requires a knowledge and understanding of process as well as the variety of styles, skills and techniques that are appropriate to the context in which the coaching takes place.”

Eric Parsloe,  The Manager as Coach and Mentor

Why Coaching Skills Are Important

The single objective of every great coach, regardless of the context, is to improve the performance of the team or individual. One traditional way to learn coaching has been to learn a model. The various models that exist all offer something of great value to this important conversation. Taken collectively, the models prove that coaching can be learned, and that coaching is a process.

Traditional coaching models essentially do the following:• Help the coach assess current performance• Identify gaps or areas for performance improvement• Help to develop a plan to close gaps or improve performance• Provide a framework to act on the plan

For many coaches, one or more of the models will be helpful. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions when dealing with human beings, and performance improvement certainly fits into that category. Each coach, employee and situation will be different, so the models may be useful as is or with modification to provide a framework for the coaching process.

Models do not help comprehend the skills needed to effectively execute the process, or deliver, on the desired results of improved performance. That is the big gap that many coaches find frustrating when studying or learning a specific model. For instance, the GROW model is a good model in many situations. But how does the coach effectively communicate the “R” (reality) aspect of the model to a subject or employee who lacks self-awareness or who reacts emotionally? The skills and competencies needed to navigate this situation and series of conversations don’t lend themselves to the simplicity of a linear model that GROW implies. The skills are nuanced, complex and take time to master. All of the models beg a fundamental question. What does it take to be an effective coach?

Coaching Objectives and Models

Coaching Models

GROWGoalsReality

OptionsWill

CIGARCurrent Reality

IdealGaps

ActionReview

OSCAROutcomeSituation

Choices/ConsequencesActionsReview

CLEARContracting

ListeningExploring

ActionReview

STEERSpot the OpportunityTailor the Intervention

Explain the TaskEncourage

Review

COACHClarify the Issue

Open Up ResourcesAgree on the FutureCreate the JourneyHead for Success

Coaching is a process. It’s not an event. It’s not just a relationship. It’s not about friendship. It’s not about power or a hierarchy. It’s a process-driven relationship with a clear objective, and that goal is to help the subject of the coaching to improve performance.

Common traits, skills and behaviors.Effective coaches are forward looking, optimistic in nature and outwardly focused. Great coaches are not motivated by their own success. They are motivated to help others succeed. • What do people need?• What do people offer?• What does the organization need?• What does the organization offer?

“Managers need to stretch, challenge, and coach their high-potential employees… Without multi-dimensional dialogue about these issues, managers tend to hold on to their high-potential people instead of helping them along an intentional developmental pathway. High-potentials then may interpret this as a lack of company support and will be inclined to look elsewhere.”

Ron Ashkenas, The Paradox of High Potentials Harvard Business Review

Developing Great Coaches

Communication SkillsComplex communications skills are necessary for effective coaching. These skills include active listening, understanding how to frame and ask questions, courageous conversations, etc. Coaching is not the time for your more senior leaders to learn these skills.

Performance ManagementSince the core objective of the coaching relationship is to improve performance, your coaches need to understand what elements of the work environment improve employee performance. This may seem like a ridiculously self-evident part of coaching, but it’s surprising and almost shocking how many “coaches” do not really understand performance management and improvement. They may be great communicators and skilled business professionals. But they may have no foundational comprehension of things like motivation (intrinsic compared to extrinsic), engagement, productivity, conflict resolution skills, etc. The blend of performance improvement elements in each organization will vary some, but generally you want to make sure coaches understand the principles and causes of motivation and engagement, and how to apply these principles to improve day-to-day performance.

Developing Great Coaches: Key Competencies

Dig DeeperTo learn more about improving communication skills, click the image to the right to download a competency guide on Active Listening.

In this complimentary guide we’ll define the competency, outline

supporting behaviors and suggested development activities.

Business AcumenCoaches need to have a high degree of business acumen. This forms a foundational set of knowledge and experience from which the coach can pull lessons and advice for the employee, subject or student. Business acumen is a highly evolved competency. Well-developed sense of business acumen usually takes time to establish in employees. Having coaches with a deep understanding of the way businesses operate and the ability to translate the understanding into effective decision making is vital to successful coaching of junior managers and leaders.

Emotional IntelligenceThe global workplace is getting more complicated. Workplaces are more diverse in any demographic metric – age, gender, nationality, cultural, linguistic, etc. Emotional intelligence has always been at the heart of successful leaders, and likewise emotional intelligence is required for successful and effective coaches. No two employees are the same. Effective coaches know how to reach, guide and develop every employee they touch. To accomplish these results, coaches require a developed sense of emotional intelligence to read and understand people and to respond to the wide variety of coaching situations that will arise.

Developing Great Coaches: Key Competencies

Dig DeeperTo learn more about improving business acumen, click the image to the right to download a competency guide on Business Acumen.

In this complimentary guide we’ll define the competency, outline

supporting behaviors and suggested development activities.

1. Teach managers to ask good questions to enable the process. Great questions lead to great answers, and that leads to great conversations.

2. Meet the employee on the employee’s terms.

3. Remember, coaches are motivated by the success of others, and that requires a relentless focus outward.

4. Help managers understand how to guide conversations. This is where communication skills and emotional intelligence really come into play. You guide a conversation by asking questions not by giving direction or directives. Employees learn and grow the most when they uncover the answers themselves.

5. Reinforce effective listening skills to make sure that the feedback is understood by the employee. Show managers and coaches how to ask follow-up and clarifying questions to do this and make sure every communication is clear and understood by all parties.

6. Emphasize to managers their central role in the success of the development programs of their employees. No other stakeholder has as much influence over the productivity, engagement and learning as the manager over her direct reports. Support both the employee and manager in this effort.

7. Teach the importance of coaching in the moment. Learning happens best when things are occurring. Employees learn best by doing, so coach as you go!

7 Coaching Tips for Managers

The Courage to Coach

Managers are critically important to the health of our organizations. Great managers usually have great relationships with their employees. It comes down to people and the processes needed to support our people and organization.

Coaching is a key managerial skill that can be taught and learned. There are some traits that are important such as having a positive attitude and approach to work and life in general, being future-oriented and curiosity. These traits help coaches and the employees they help look beyond the day-to-day tasks we all have to complete, and look at the world for the possibilities the future holds.

Coaching skills include being highly collaborative, facilitating learning and being a teacher. These skills also reflect an “outward” world view and an approach to work that focuses first on the success of others or the team.

Coaches don’t think in terms of “I”, but they are accountable. The success of the team is crucial so active listening, continuous learning and looking outward for success are crucial.

Some coaches are born, but coaching skills can be learned and improved.

ABOUT BIZLIBRARY

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