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by Melinda
Sinclair
Coaching has evolved into a powerful process to create
meaningful results, while developing people and providing them with fulfilling
work experiences. Organisations committed to high performance are increasingly
using external coaches to work with high leverage individuals. At the same
time, coaching is becoming an integral part of the manager/leader
role.
Despite recognising the importance and value of coaching, many
managers and leaders are confused about the transition to coaching. Here are
ten key 'markers' to help define the shift from being a manager to a coach. As
you review them, ask yourself where you need to focus to expand your ability to
coach others effectively for results.
1. Have a strong compelling
reason to coach
The first step on the journey to becoming a coach is to
become clear on why: What do you want that will make it worth your while to
invest in the coaching journey? Within the context of an organisation, a desire
to create meaningful results that can only be created by drawing on the skills,
creativity, and expertise of others is a powerful reason for a leader to get
involved in a collaborative coaching relationship.
2. Help others
discover their compelling reasons for being coached
Effective coaching
is not about coercion. It is not about getting others to do what you want them
to do. Rather, it is about discovering what they want and then offering
coaching as means to that end. A key skill for a coach within an organisational
context is to help others discover their compelling reasons for being coached,
and then aligning these reasons with your own reason for being a coach.
Alignment of goals - your goals with the goals of the coachee and with the
goals of the organisation - provides powerful fuel for the
process.
3. Build open, trustful relationships
A coaching
relationship is a collaborative partnership. The relationship is built on
trust, and it is conducive to honest self-assessment, learning, constructive
action and personal accountability for results. The ability to build and
maintain open and trustful relationships is key to effective coaching.
4. Co-create a coaching agreement
Coaching can be done
formally as well as informally when opportunities for coaching show up. In
either case, the effective coach will ask permission to coach. Making the
informal contract somewhat more formal to clarify expectations and avoid future
misunderstandings is valuable in the case of longer-term coaching
relationships. An agreement is especially useful in helping to separate out
your coaching relationship from other working relationships you may have with
the person you are coaching. Typically, the coaching agreement will clarify the
roles and responsibilities of coach and coachee, specify the expectations of
each party with respect to outcomes and process, and deal with issues of
confidentiality.
5. Develop the specialised communication skills
required for effective coaching conversations
Effective coaching
requires competence in a number of keys coaching skills. These skills build on
good general communication skills, but expand and refine them specifically for
coaching. Key skills include Questioning, Listening, Providing Feedback,
Acknowledging, Facilitating Action and Accountability.
6. Learn to
conduct different kinds of coaching conversations
Coaching to a large
extent happens in conversations. Being a skilful coach means being able to have
coaching conversations that lead to progress towards the mutually agreed upon
goals. Mastery of this competence means being able to manage different kinds of
coaching conversations, based on the needs of the process.
7.
Co-design a coaching plan
In the case of a coaching process that
stretches over time, coach and coachee have to co-design a plan or a strategy
for pursuing the long-term goals. Developing action plans, setting interim
goals, planning how to deal with internal and external obstacles - these all
are part and parcel of the coaching process.
While this part of the
process is to a large extent determined by the results to be created, it is
important not to loose track of the fact there are real people involved in the
process. Part of the challenge is to design a fulfilling path towards the
results, so that the journey itself will be worthwhile.
8. Manage the
process, keeping it on track over time
On-going collaboration between
coach and coachee in pursuit of their mutual goals lies at the heart of the
coaching process. Hence there needs to be ongoing coaching conversations. It is
part of the coach's responsibility to manage the process over time and keep it
on track. Coaching is an action-learning process, and the information obtained
from any action taken in pursuit of the goals need to be brought back into the
coaching for debriefing, learning, and more effective next steps. Keeping the
process on track also means that the coach has to be able and prepared to
support the coachee in dealing constructively with setbacks and failure.
9. Design structures for support
To increase the chances of
success when pursuing stretch goals, good support structures need to be put in
place. The coach is one of the coachee's support structures. But part of the
role of an effective coach is to collaborate with the coachee in putting in
place additional support structures.
10. Be
accountable
Coaching is about results and the commitment people make to
produce results. Effective coaches are able to hold coachees accountable for
their commitments - and for dealing effectively with failures to do so. But
accountability goes both ways. The coach is also accountable for what they have
committed to contribute to the partnership. And to maintain trust, coaches must
hold themselves accountable for their commitments.
Copyright
©2000 Melinda Sinclair. All rights reserved.
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