Coaching for Performance - Growing People

[pic 1]Coaching for Performance

GROWing people (by John Whitmore)

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[pic 3] What you need to know about Coaching.

Understanding the GROW model .

Coaching is a management behavior that lies at the opposite end of the spectrum to command and control.

Good coaching is a skill - an art perhaps - that requires a depth of understanding and lots of practice. One training or reading one book on coaching will not turn you into an expert coach but it will help you to recognize the enormous value & potential of coaching.

A skillful coach rarely provides or prescribes solutions but asks questions (what, how, when etc.) to the coachee to release his/her potential and help him/her to find the answers to his/her questions, obstacles and problems him/herself and as such GROW to obtain better results.

Coaching delivers results because of the supportive relationship between the coachee and the coach and the means and style of communication used. The coachee acquires the facts, not from the coach but from within himself, stimulated by (the questions from) the coach.

The relationship between the coach and the coachee must be one of trust, endeavor, safety and minimal pressure.

Coaching demands the highest qualities of the manager : empathy, integrity and detachment as well as willingness to adopt a fundamentally different approach to his staff members.

Coaching can be loose and informal, so much so that the coachee does not know that he/she is being coached. On the other hand, coaching can be scheduled and structured in such a way that the purpose and the roles are unambiguous.

One-to-one coaching can take place between peers, between a manager and his staff member, but also in the upward direction, between an employee and his boss.

Managers often ask when they should coach or at least how they should decide whether to coach or tell. The answer is quite simple :

if TIME is the predominant criterium in a situation (f.i. in an immediate crisis or when something needs to be done urgently) doing the job yourself or telling someone else exactly what to do will probably be the fastest way.

If the QUALITY of the result matters most, coaching for high awareness and responsibility is likely to deliver the best results.

If maximizing LEARNING is predominant, clearly coaching will optimize learning and its retention.

If managers manage by the principles of coaching, they both get the job done to a higher standard and develop their people simultaneously.

Telling (or asking closed questions) saves people from having to think.

Asking open questions causes people to think for themselves.

Asking open questions is a key element in the process of coaching.

Effective coaching starts with :

Which …

How much …

How …

What steps …

When …

What …

Who …

F.i. what are the reasons …?

What are the steps … ?

The purpose of asking open questions is that the coach only needs to know that the coachee has the necessary information to resolve an issue and find the solution to a problem himself.

The coach needs to probe deeper or for more detail to keep the coachee involved and to bring into his consciousness those often partially obscured factors that may be important.

Perhaps the hardest thing a coach has to learn to do is to shut up. And listen .

The coach must watch the coachee's body language : if words say one thing and the body seems to be saying something else, the body is more likely to indicate the true feelings.

In most coaching sessions someone needs to take notes but this can be agreed between the coach and the coachee.

A few questions that are helpful in coaching are :

• If you knew the answer, what would it be ?

• I don't know where to go next with this. Where would you go ?

• What would you gain by doing that ?

• What would you lose by doing that ?

• What advice would you give to a friend in your situation ?

• What criteria are you using ?

• What is the hardest/most challenging part of this (assignment/project) for you ?

• Imagine having a dialogue with the wisest person you know or can think of. What would he/she tell you to do ?

• If someone said/did that to you, what would you feel/think/do ?

• What else ? (used at the end of most answers, will pull out more information, thoughts, options from the coachee)

• What would the consequences of that be for you/others ?

[pic 4][pic 5] Understanding the GROW model

Concerning the sequence of the questions, it is advisable to follow the GROW model :

G = GOAL setting for the coaching session (short & long-term) R = REALITY checking to explore the current situation

O = OPTIONS and alternative strategies or courses of actions to deal with the problem W = WHAT is to be done, by WHOM and WHEN and the WILL to do it.

The above sequence assumes that it is desirable to visit all four stages, which is true when tackling a new issue for the first time. Often, however, coaching will be used to progress a task or process that has been discussed before or is already under way. In such cases, coaching may begin and end with any stage.

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GOAL

We invariably begin a coaching session by determining the goal for the session itself. If the coachee has asked for a session, clearly it is he/she who needs to define what he/she wants to get from it.

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