‘Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.’ – Sir John Whitmore
Coaching is a key way to motivating and helping individuals and teams to solve issues, improve performance and develop skills and confidence in the workplace. Coaching means asking questions, not simply to gather facts but to elicit solutions, feelings, ideas and new thoughts from the person being coached. Some people argue that it is impossible for a Manager to act as a coach, given her/his position of authority over the team. While authority is an important issue, it need not be an insurmountable obstacle – as long as there is genuine trust and respect in the working relationship.
Coaching differs from the traditional ‘command and control’ or ‘barkin a command’ approach in the following ways:
Effective coaching skills are developed to help others achieve personal or professional goals. In a managerial or leadership role, effective coaching skills may support sustainable change to behaviors or ways of thinking while also facilitating learning and development. In coaching, the responsibility for learning lies with the individual, and not with the coach.
Coaching does not simply correct today’s problem; it helps keep the problem from resurfacing. The employee not only understands the goal, but can teach it to others. Coaching may take longer than correcting, which is a “quick fix,” but it is longer-lasting. It builds an understanding, and, if done well, helps build a workplace culture. Managing in a coaching style is ultimately about benefits: more committed team, better team performance, better working relationships, better ideas or informations, and investing time to gain time.
Developing your coaching skills will take effort. There are many variants of coaching, which entail different types of skills. Those variants relevant to a consideration of managers and leaders include hierarchical coaching ( managers simply coach their subordinates) and team coaching. There are several variant on team coaching:
Vision coaching - this approach feels like a partnership and draws on elements of feedback, reflection, and conversation to really motivate and influence employees. Encourages and empowers employees by giving them clear direction and strategies for achieving objectives and encouraging focus.
Autocratic coaching – this approach tells individuals what to do rather than asking. The autocratic coach is in control at all times and strives for perfectionism and excellence.
Holistic coaching – with the belief that everything is connected, this approach theorises that individuals are a sum of all their parts: in order to encourage growth in the workplace, balance needs to be achieved in all aspects of their life.
Authoritarian coaching – coach decides what to do and how to do it. All that is required from the team is their understanding.
All of these coaching styles can be effective, depending on the company, project, or the team itself. The key is to know when to use different coaching styles.
Increasing empathy and compassion in every job reduces stress and replaces it with human growth potential. Tough situations (crisis) and difficult conversations become easier to maneuver when coaching skills are well learned and regularly practiced. Coaching Leadership skill (CLS) is highly effective in environments where people lack the skills or knowledge to reach a shared vision or have become jaded and tired over time, which is probable during the crisis.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
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