Leadership: The Five Dimensions of Coaching
This Program Explores Five Dimensions Of Coaching And Leadership And Incorporates Proven Best Practices Which Enable Managers To Enhance Employee Performance Through Multi-Dimensional Coaching And Get Results!
Coaching is a one-on-one activity that aims to build on individuals’ strengths in order to improve their job performance and develop their potential. Successful coaching is a dialogue between two people who work together to resolve problems and make a commitment to improve performance over the long term. Performance is the bottom line, and coaching is the platform leaders use to make it happen. Coaching is a managerial discipline with well defined processes and techniques. It is based on the setting and monitoring of mutually agreed upon expectations. When these expectations are clearly established, coaching becomes the foundation for effective leadership. Coaching is based on the belief that we become what we expect. We use expectations to build upon strengths rather than focus on weaknesses. By challenging our people to meet performance goals, we enable them to grow. This is predominantly a positive process in which we recognize and encourage behaviour which will move individuals closer to both personal and organizational goals.
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Coaching
Developing individuals to their full potential requires training; however, the training is just the beginning. Individuals require constant feedback on performance in order for the new skills to become part of their daily regime. Coaching is an extremely positive and effective way to improve performance. It is a powerful tool managers use to build upon what is learned in the classroom or through meetings. It is a management style characterized by an ongoing process by which the manager works with an employee to assist in achieving:
increased job knowledge
improved skills in performing job responsibilities
a high level of job satisfaction
a positive working relationship and opportunities for personal and professional growth
Like professional athletes, employees have individual strengths and weaknesses. The coach’s job is to provide:
guidance
advice
strategy
feedback
support
opportunities for development
Coaching helps employees analyze their performance so that they gradually assume more responsibility for evaluating their own abilities.
The Five Dimensions of Coaching are:
The Coach as a Leader
As a leader, the coach must ensure that the individual’s development is aligned with the organization and the unit’s vision and goals. In this role the coach as leader must:
demonstrate commitment to coaching to enhance
performance
set realistic performance goals
remove obstacles to achieving these goals
define boundaries for individual performance
establish accountability to new performance outcomes
provide training when required
assess performance improvement
give timely and appropriate feedback
The Coach as a Mentor
By definition, a mentor represents a role model who is focused on the long-term growth of the individual. In this capacity, the coach must consider the career aspirations of the individual and ensure that the individual’s developmental plan not only addresses immediate developmental needs but also encourages the employee to develop and work toward long-term goals as well. There may also be occasions when high performing individuals will get greater benefit from a coach who assumes a mentoring role. The aspects identified in the Coach as a leader apply here, but with a longer-term view.
The Coach as a Communicator
As a communicator the coach acts as a bridge between Senior Management and the employee. Performance expectations, goals, performance outcomes, position requirements must be clearly articulated and conveyed to each employee within the context of the department’s overall objectives and in the context of the organization. This is the “big picture” view.
The communication style the coach uses must be one which encourages employee understanding, alignment, buy-in and commitment to individual, departmental and organizational goals and expectations. Simply telling someone does not make it so.
The communicator:
is an effective listener
identifies the individual’s needs and concerns
describes in behavioural terms the performance expected and the performance observed
articulates clearly defined and measurable performance outcomes
The Coach as a Motivator
In this role the coach must create an environment where coaching becomes part of the culture and is welcomed as a growth opportunity by the employees.
As a motivator the coach must:
provide autonomy
provide achievable challenges
create developmental opportunities
leverage intrinsic motivation
The Coach as a Driver of Change
In a world where change is constant and essential, the coach must be prepared to deal with paradox and respond to change in a manner which encourages the involvement of others.
In this role the coach:
establishes the departmental vision
interprets the organizational vision in relation to the department’s goals and objectives
encourages creativity and innovation
participates in and encourages creative problem solving
creates an environment where individuals are empowered to take risk for the benefit of the department, the organization and the customer.
Tough Coaching
Managers and Team Leaders need to maximize productivity of their resources. This frequently entails responding to performance problems. The process we discussed in the Coach as a Leader –The Focused Coaching Process - approaches coaching from a developmental perspective.
In this module we focus on dealing with these non-performance situations which we refer to as “Tough Coaching.” In this module participants learn how to use specific tools and approaches for:
determining the factors contributing to the undesirable level of performance an employee may be exhibiting
defining the problem with clear, concise and specific terms
determining the cause of performance problems and the best course of action to improve performance
developing and implementing the most appropriate strategy
determining what to do when training is the solution. follow-up and re-assessing, ensuring the plan has been implemented
documenting discussions
As part of this program, participants complete a Personal Action Plan for how they will take what they learn and apply it on-the-job. This highly interactive 2 day program can be customized with role plays and other application exercises which reflect the specific work environment of the participants. It is highly participative and a must for anyone who is required to coach others.
Also Available
The Multi-Dimensional Coaching Assessment
This excellent assessment tool can be used in a self-assess or multi-rater format. It enables you and your managers to determine their current level of coaching effectiveness so they can focus their attention strategically on areas of their coaching performance where they need to improve. For more information on this exceptional tool please contact us.
© The Training Bank 2007