Coaching

Coaching helps to motivate and develop your employees to achieve their own personal and professional goals while ensuring everyone is working towards achieving the aims of the business.

At the start of the coaching process it is important for you to engage with your employees and clearly explain the reasons why employees need to engage in the coaching process for their own professional development and the overall objectives of the company.

It is important to set goals.

Goals can be set in response to:

• issues raised in a performance review.

• managerial observations.

• issues raised in previous coaching sessions.

• developmental requests made by the employee. Often employees know their own weaknesses and will be able to help in setting their own goals.

Goals should be set using Smart Targets and should be achievable. An employee should never have more than three goals to achieve at any time. It is good to find a balance between goals that develop the employee personally and those that complement the wider objectives of the company.

Goals should evolve over time as the needs of the business and individuals change.

Once goals are set, it is important that that progress is regularly monitored to ensure that individuals are meeting their goals and any obstacles are highlighted and removed. Reviewing on a regular basis also allows the opportunity to ensure that an employee’s objectives are still in line with that of the company.

Coaching is as much about rewarding an employee as it is about strategy and goal setting. To motivate your staff there has got to be something in it for them. Special treats, an extra day’s holiday or paid-for training can be equally as motivating as extra money.

Below are a few pointers on how to conduct a good coaching session.

• Build a relationship – the conversation should be an active, enjoyable experience for both parties and revolve around sharing perspectives and ideas.

• Emphasise people’s good points -in doing so they will be more receptive when you raise your concerns and challenge their behaviour.

• Be clear – explain any negatives in clear neutral terms so that the employee understands the problem.

• Be supportive – never be judgemental. When discussing areas of weakness, ask what support is required to overcome any obstacles to improvement rather than attributing blame. The aim is to change behaviour and not personality.

• Explain the consequences – Describe how changes in behaviour or personal development can have a positives effect along with the negative consequences of no change.

• Explore possible solutions – the employee is often better placed to see solutions to problems and will buy into the solution much better if the idea is theirs. Remember that there often numerous ways of overcoming problems.

• Get agreement – if there is no agreement regarding what needs to be done and by when, there will be no change.

• End positively – by ending on a positive note you are reinforcing an employee’s confidence in their abilities

• Follow up – Agree a date and time to review the goals agreed and see how they have been progressed.

The GROW acronym is a good way of remembering the various steps in the coaching process.

Below is a more formalised set of questions that could be used:

• Review – the current situation and previous goals
• Ask – What went well?
• State – This is what I saw went well
• Ask – What went less well?
• State – This is what I saw went less well
• Ask – What could you have done differently?
• State – This is what I think you could have done differently
• Ask – How could we support you to do things differently?
• Ask – What goals should we set?
• Ask – When should the goals be achieved by?

Contact me for more help on coaching:: 07887 853001 or email paul@jabberwockycreative.co.uk