Tag: coaching

To get started coaching with your team members may be a little uncomfortable at first. Managers often feel uneasy relinquishing so much control of the discussion and moving to a less directive approach. You may not be sure where and how to start. Building a successful coaching relationship requires you to establish rapport and trust with your coachee. You can do some simple things to establish early rapport with team members as you begin a coaching relationship – it starts with a little curiosity.  

“The only way to influence people is to talk in terms of what the other person wants.”

Dale Carnegie, Best Selling Author and Speaker

After the benefits of coaching are understood, and you’ve had some training in a coaching model, you’re ready to start coaching.  However, it rarely is that simple as managers may not know where to begin.  A shotgun approach to deploying a coaching approach can backfire.   I saw this first-hand in a recent organization that I worked in.  When the organization decided to move toward a coaching leadership approach, the implementation was inconsistent and not very effective.  The leadership team and new managers received training in GROW.  However, not all managers were comfortable having coaching sessions with team members.  It was too “touchy, feely” for some.   They often returned to their comfort zone during one-on-ones — talking about the daily business and not the team member’s development or performance.

Connect with Team Members And Be Curious

There are a few simple tactics I’ve used to build rapport with a new coachee, and it starts with curiosity.  You need to be curious in what interests them and you should show this curiosity by asking them questions.  If you find something in common with them, your rapport will grow exponentially.  I asked some simple questions as I did my morning walkarounds in the office and in the break room…like what they thought of the game last night or what they did over the weekend.   During the walkarounds, I would notice pictures, pennants, or trinkets that the team member had displayed in their cubicle.  This often turned out to be a good starting point to ask questions about their interests, college alma mater, etc.   Team members always responded positively, and we established some instant rapport. Showing some curiosity and interest goes a long way in building rapport with team members as you start coaching them.

Do Some Research

Another approach I used to build rapport with a coachee was doing a little research first to get a sense of their background and interests.  At a company I worked in previously, we had an internal social media platform similar to Facebook. Employees could share their profile which included their education, skills and previous work experience.   I would research a coachee’s profile to identify something in common that we could discuss in our early coaching sessions. As a professional coach nowadays, I use Linked-In to find common interests and experience with my external coaching clients to build rapport.  This has been useful in breaking the ice and building rapport when developing a new coaching relationship.

Get Started Coaching with Team Members Who Are Willing

I recommend against diving into coaching for the first time with a low performer.  Coaching for low performance can be challenging, and having some coaching experience is recommended before you embark on this.  I suggest starting to coach with team members for career development and with whom you have some rapport with already. Begin with a team member who will be receptive to coaching.  Maybe they’ve mentioned a desire to learn a new skill or transition to a new role. 

Ease The Anxiety With Your Team Members

Beginning coaching discussions with your employees can be uncomfortable for them too. In a recent survey by the American Psychological Association, 75% of the participants said the most stressful aspect of their job was interacting with their immediate boss. You can reduce their anxiety and yours by building rapport and trust with your team members.  Having some rapport with your coachee is needed before you jump into the GROW model.

Being curious and building rapport with your coachee will enable you to be a more effective coach.  Your team members will be more willing to engage in the GROW approach, which will lead to deeper discussions on performance and development.  Start with a team member who you have rapport with already and would be receptive to coaching for professional development.  For more info on building rapport with your team, check out this article:  Building Rapport: The First Step to Being a Great Manager

As your organization recognizes the benefits of a leadership coaching culture, you may struggle to overcome initial inertia to begin the transition.  Many managers may not know how and where to start.   Using a simple framework for coaching can boost managers’ confidence and dramatically increase the use of a coaching approach.  A model known as G-R-O-W can be the fertilizer to establish fresh green shoots of new coaches throughout your organization.

In one of my previous organizations, the Human Resource department began pushing the need for managers to start using leadership coaching.  They had become enlightened on the benefits of coaching, including improved employee retention and increased employee engagement.  While managers seemed to embrace the benefits of coaching, most of us were new to it and didn’t know where and how to begin.  We were stumbling around on the ground, hitting our head on the furniture as we were trying to learn how to walk and coach.  It wasn’t until we started training managers on a coaching model known as G-R-O-W, that we were able to make real progress.  Without training on a framework for coaching, your efforts to build a coaching culture will likely be inconsistent with spotty implementation.  

Elements of The Framework

There are several proven methods that can be used successfully for leadership coaching. These include GROW, ACHIEVE, OSKAR, and CLEAR .  All these models include the following elements:

1) Discovery – Understanding the current situation

2) Identify the desired situation and objective

3) Understand the gap – the difference between the current situation and the desired

4) Identify various solutions to close the gap

5) Develop an action plan for the preferred solution 

As with any coaching approach, these models use questions for each of the steps to get the coachee’s input and perspective.

G-R-O-W

Probably the most widely used coaching framework is the GROW model.  This method was developed in the 1980s by Sir John Whitmore in the United Kingdom.  He wrote the book Coaching for Performance (1988), which has been widely used for decades.  We trained our new managers in the GROW method several years ago, and I have been using it since as my primary method for coaching.  GROW is a model that leads to a clear result in four stages: 

Goal

The first step is focused on identifying the goal for the coaching.    The goal may be to improve performance in a certain area or focused on career development.  An example of a question to get clarity on the goal for performance improvement could be: “What is the performance level you think you can achieve if we addressed all your obstacles?”  An example goal question for coaching on professional development might be:  “What do you want to be doing in a year…or in five years?” Although you should use questions to probe the coachee on the goal, remember as the manager it’s your job to evaluate job performance and skills.   You may have to lean-in more on this step than on others to make sure the goal is clear.  But catch yourself if you find that you are prescribing the goal.  You can suggest but not dictate.  It’s important that you prompt the coachee in arriving on the goal themselves to ensure their buy-in.  

Reality

This second step is intended to understand the current issues, obstacles, and causes.  If there are performance metrics that can provide context to the issue, these should be highlighted in this step.  Getting the coachee’s perception of what is causing the issue is important. Additionally, understanding skills and talents can be useful in this step.  Often the source of the performance issue is insufficient skills that point to a need for additional training.  An example of a question that you can use in this step is: “What is the biggest obstacle you are currently facing that is impacting your performance?” or “What do you need in order to achieve the performance level we discussed for the goal.” In my coaching experience, this step is the most important and requires the most time.  Don’t short-cut the discussion.  You may find that more than one coaching session is needed to really understand the Reality – the issues and root causes.

Options

The third step in GROW is where the manager and team member come up with ideas for addressing the issues and causes.  Jointly identify as many alternative actions as possible.  Don’t limit thinking by bringing in constraints.  Be careful to avoid jumping in to provide the solutions in this step…a common pitfall for managers.  It’s important that the coachee lead with their ideas, and you can voice your thoughts on these and any other ideas you have.  Some simple questions you could ask to start the brainstorming for this step might be “If there were no constraints, what would you do to address this issue” or “what strengths can you use to move forward?”

Way-Forward

The last step is the creation of an action plan.  The plan should have definitive actions and dates. Once the action plan is developed, you can use future coaching sessions to discuss progress and any help needed.  This action plan is extremely important as it adds accountability.  Accountability differentiates coaching from mentoring.  Unfortunately, this a step that is often neglected in many coaching relationships.  I was guilty of avoiding the action plan in some of my coaching relationships…especially for professional development coaching.  It sometimes felt that I was imposing this on the coachee when they were really just looking for advice.  However, the coachee will appreciate your help in developing a meaningful action plan that will translate good ideas into results.  Some questions that you might use for this step could be:  “What is the first thing you should focus on right away” or “What three things can you complete in the next week.” 

Training in GROW

The GROW model can be used effectively in various coaching scenarios, including both coaching for personal development and coaching for performance. It is a simple, straight-forward method that can be self taught. I’ve included additional questions you may want to consider for each step under “Tools” at the Rallypoint Coaching website. You may want to consider formal training in GROW with all of your management team.  The training I received from a 3^rd party included some valuable practice with fellow managers to build confidence and consistency.

Using GROW is especially useful for managers that are new to coaching.  Keep in mind that this is a framework…don’t be too rigid in following it.  Give your coaching relationships time to GROW.  You don’t need to progress through all four phases in one coaching session.  Give ample time for discovery in each phase.  GROW provides an easy method to improve your coaching sessions, but be sure to facilitate and not lead.  By using a simple model like GROW, you will have new coaches sprouting up throughout your organization.  Managers will have more confidence and be more effective in their coaching approach.  With a solid playbook for coaching, you’re ready to hit the field and practice with a few willing team members.  For more information on GROW, check out the following article from InsideOut Coaching, the 3^rd party who provided GROW training for my organization: Intro to the GROW Model and Performance Wheel | InsideOut Development

A coaching leadership approach has a stigma of being a remedial process to address low performance that takes too much of managers’ time.  But coaching should instead be seen as an approach to create growth, results, and opportunity across your organization.  The business case for creating a coaching culture where coaching is practiced at all levels of the organization is multidimensional.  It has powerful benefits for individual team members, managers, and the organization.

Team Member Benefits

Leadership coaching can benefit individual team members in many ways.  One of the strongest benefits is in career and skill development. This is probably the most common scenario for coaching, as both employee and manager are usually motivated to engage on this and it avoids the threat of confrontation.  Additionally, a coaching approach helps team members become more autonomous and independent.  By asking them for their own ideas and guiding them to solve their own problems, they feel more respected, have higher motivation and increased job satisfaction. 

Google conducted a research project with their employees to determine the desired qualities in their managers. Google’s Project Oxygen identified coaching as the top competency that employees wanted in management.  Technical expertise scored lower on the list of desired manager competencies.  This connects with my observations from many years of employee surveys, roundtables, and one-on-ones.  Team members value HOW you interact with them more than what you know. Unfortunately, individual contributors are often promoted into management for their subject matter expertise, not for how effectively they lead team members.  I’ve been guilty of promoting excellent engineers and problem solvers into the management ranks and found later that they didn’t have the skills or aptitude to lead people effectively.

Manager Benefits

There are several benefits for managers who adopt a coaching style. Coaching allows them to take a collaborative approach with their team members.  For most managers, this is more fulfilling than a directive, command-and-control approach.  It allows the manager to be more creative.  Coaching emphasizes building trust and relationships with team members.  I enjoyed walking to Starbucks during coaching sessions and getting to know my team members better. Because coaching develops more self-sufficient team members, you’ll be able to spend more time helping them drive improvements and less of your time on the day-to-day issues. 

Coaching also provides increased accountability that helps managers in the performance evaluation process.  I found that the feedback from regular coaching sessions dramatically improved performance management.  It provided more focus on feedback and less on compliance to our HR processes.   It avoids surprises with team members at the end of the year. One of the personal rewards I found in coaching is seeing team members grow professionally and achieve their career ambitions. Another benefit from coaching is that it can expand your sphere of influence through connections you make during the coaching process.

Organizational Benefits

The advantages for an organization in achieving a coaching culture is well established.  Empowering employees to solve their own problems rather than just telling them what to do will activate untapped productivity and innovation.  A coaching leadership culture is an important element of creating a learning organization, focusing on team members’ growth and development.   A coaching culture not only increases business performance and employee engagement, but it also improves retention.   It creates a favorable image and reputation of the organization, which in turn, attracts talent.

If your organization is to be successful in moving toward a coaching leadership approach, managers at all levels will need to buy-in to the benefits.  Coaching takes time and work, and it may stretch some managers out of their comfort zone.  The benefits to their team members, to themselves, and to the organization need to be shared and recognized.  Without the motivation to embark on a coaching approach, it’s easy to resort back to the familiar command and control approach. 

As you start to use coaching in your leadership style, connect with fellow managers who are doing the same and share some of the benefits and learnings that you encounter.   This will help build early momentum in transitioning to a coaching culture that can transform your team and your company.  For more information on the benefits of a coaching culture and how it benefitted Microsoft, check out this article from the Harvard Business Review:  The Leader as Coach (hbr.org)

Although the coaching leadership style has gained in popularity over the past several years, a recent study by Harvard Business Review shows that most managers don’t understand what coaching really is.  Many managers believe coaching is about providing advice and recommendations.  They think they are coaching when they are just telling their employees what to do.  By clearly understanding what coaching leadership is, and how it differs from other management styles, you can start to develop a coaching mindset that will help your team members thrive.

Some managers associate coaching with external consultants who are hired to help executives and managers develop their leadership skills.  Other managers may associate coaching leadership with methods similar to a sports coach. However, there are key differences between sports and leadership coaching.

Coaching Leadership Involves Asking Questions

A coaching leadership approach involves asking questions to provoke insights from your team members.  It’s a discovery process where you guide the coachee in arriving at their own insights and potential solutions.  

Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is about helping them to learn rather than teaching them.

– Sir John Whitmore

A coaching leadership style runs a bit counter to much of what we’ve learned as managers over the years…the traditional command-and-control approach. We feel that we’re promoted into management for our expertise, and we should use this expertise and experience to provide answers and instructions to our team members.   While there are frequent situations where your expertise is needed, coaching is more about having a conversation and asking probing, open-ended questions.  The goal of coaching is to guide the coachee in arriving at their own insights and solutions. 

Listen More and Talk Less

Slowing down to ask questions to help team members arrive at their own solutions has been a challenge for me.  I often found myself too impatient to engage the team member with questions, and I would jump in to provide answers and directions for them.  This was particularly challenging when I was trying to coach low performers.   I would often say “do this and then do that”.  I found myself confusing consulting with coaching.  I was anxious to share my expertise and knowledge by offering up advice to team members. It wasn’t until I received formal training on coaching that I began to understand the difference between coaching and other leadership methods that I had been trained in over the years.

“If we were meant to talk more than listen, we would have two mouths and one ear.”

Mark Twain

Companies often establish goals to transition to a coaching approach with their management team.  However, there usually is a significant gap between aspiration and the daily practice of coaching.  The gap is often due to a lack of understanding of what coaching is.  There are frameworks you can follow to help you in the coaching process, but focusing first on understanding what coaching leadership means is a good start to building a coaching mindset.   As you develop this mindset, you can engage your team members more effectively in coaching them for performance and career development.  

Fighting your well-developed management muscle that provides direction will probably be challenging for you…but you can start by asking simple questions to help your team members arrive at their own solutions.  Like …“What ideas do you have to address this issue?” To learn more about the coaching leadership style, check out the book “The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever” by Michael Bungay Stanier.