Coaching is a two-step process and we defined this very simple two-step process over 20 years ago. First it’s about getting someone to look in the mirror (build awareness of strengths and opportunities to improve). Two, it’s about acting on number one. In summary, very few people do step one on their own; therefore, it’s incumbent upon us as leaders to truly drive each person’s awareness of their strengths (the Gallup organization reports people engage eight times more when we lead with strengths versus constructive feedback) and opportunities to improve (notice the language of opportunity versus what they do wrong).
It is important for each organization to go through a process of something we call “Define & Coach”. This process helps you define what you want from coaching and the expectations of those who coach along with actions that specifically need to be executed to support the definition. Below is a sample definition that one could take and certainly make their own:
1. Coach 50% of your staff using one-on-one coaching targeting one specific area.
2. Meet with your one-on-one candidates at least once a week for 8 to 12 minutes using a conversation model that builds facilitation of positive change and accountability.
3. Call 2 to 3 people into your office weekly to praise them specifically for a job well done-this seems simple, but these are 2 to 3 people were going to go back to the work area and share the good news with the rest of the team. In essence, when you coach one you coach many.
4. Leverage supplemental coaching which are coaching methods the manager does not have to physically be present. An example, maybe there’s a person who’s a high potential who may not require your direct attention for one-on-one coaching; therefore, you can utilize peer to peer coaching by pairing that person up with someone who holds a position your employee is seeking. You could have them meet bi-weekly with your employee journaling what they learned from each session and what they’re applying as a result of the sessions to their day-to-day work. This breeds accountability and scales a leader's time.
5. Utilize group coaching for the whole team where there is a common area of opportunity to improve. Let’s say your whole team needs to become better at proactive communication and one of the easiest ways to apply this to a group is to have what we call a standing learning project. Standing learning project is something that they are required to come in and share specific to the topic in this case proactive communication and something from the real world. Sample learning project could be as follows: come in every two weeks with an example of where you successfully demonstrated proactive communication and maybe one looking back where you may have missed an opportunity.
This is just a sample if you would like help of defining coaching at your organization reach out to me and I be happy to help. The key to anything is to actually know what you coaching to and to make sure that those expectations have been clearly communicated and defined. In addition, it’s imperative that the actions are also known to set even more specific expectations.
Want to Build a Coaching Organization That Drives and Retains Top Talent: click here
You cannot inspect with don’t expect