• Coaching In The Workplace

    Executive Summary
    Overview

    Introduction The following Executive Summary outlines
    • key background
    • concepts, and
    • benefits of coaching in the workplace.

    Specifically, this summary presents The Coaching Clinic®, a leading-edge model of coaching which has been proven effective within organizations seeking to

    • retain valued employees
    • develop leaders
    • promote creativity
    • deepen employee commitment
    • gain a competitive edge, and
    • improve performance and profitability.
    Contents This summary contains the following topics:

    The Coaching Clinic® Model
    What is Coaching
    Why Coaching: In the Workplace and Now?
    Developing Effective Coaching Skills and Competencies

     

    The Coaching Clinic® Model


    The Coaching Clinic The Coaching Clinic training program was developed by Drs. Jeannine Sandstrom and Lee Smith and is the most comprehensive coaching training for managers available today.


    The Coaching Clinic is owned and registered by Corporate Coach U International and grants license to individuals to lead.

     

    The model The workshop model has been corporate-tested and refined for several years, and incorporates the best concepts of coach training and other experts, to provide outstanding, leading-edge education and coaching skill/competency development.

    The Coaching Clinic installs and maintains a "coaching culture" which

    • develops leadership
    • facilitates breakthrough performance, and
    • gives a competitive edge.

    This model of coaching incorporates literally hundreds of specialized skills,
    principles, concepts, practices and nuggets of wisdom.

     

    Why we’re different Unlike other coaching models, our definition of coaching is not simply rehabilitative counseling or supervision. We define coaching as the skills, processes and knowledge through which people maximize their impact and constantly renew themselves and their organizations as they experience continuous change

     

    What is Coaching?

    Definition Coaching is
    • the process of equipping people with the tools, knowledge, and opportunities they need to fully develop and be effective in their commitment to themselves, the company, and their work
    • a “designed alliance” focused on developing an individual to become their "best self" and to contribute their "best fit" and talents
    • an ego-less process in which “coach-able moments” are created to draw out distinctions and promote shifts in thinking and behavior, and
    • a professional discipline and skill set, which enhances performance, action, creativity, momentum and transformation

    What it does Coaching
    • improves employee and organizational resiliency and effectiveness in change
    • deals with employee growth, development, and achievement by removing roadblocks to performance and enhancing creativity
    • promotes creativity, performance and action
    • uses all of one’s knowledge and experience to enable the person being coached to create and develop their own best practices, connections and resources, and
    • provides information to support those they coach in developing their own skills and knowledge.

    What it is not Coaching is not
    • management skills re-packaged, (supervision, evaluation and meeting objectives) although coaching draws on certain management skills and competencies
    • therapy or counseling (therapy deals with resolution and healing of the past), although coaching uses some of the same communication processes
    • mentoring or consulting, although coaches will use their experience, diagnose situations and give opinions or advice at times, or
    • training.

    Why Coaching: In the Workplace and Now?

    Traditional styles Organizations are discovering that the traditional "command and control" style of management is no longer effective in today’s environment, which requires
    • rapid response
    • leveraged creativity
    • resilience, and
    • individual effort and performance in order to remain competitive.

    Retention is critical, and coaching supports employee career/professional development and satisfaction, which keeps valued employees.

     

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    Why coaching
    is important
    Coaching has never been more necessary than now and into the future, where change will be the norm and individual resilience and performance will be crucial to team and organizational success.

    Coaching

    • leverages individual strengths and abilities for maximum performance
    • provides for direct on-the-job learning as well as “just-in-time” learning tailored to the particular situation
    • enables behavioral shifts, and
    • allows projects and people to move forward immediately and with less effort.

    Change in business today is often not linear, and requires quick shifts into entirely new models. True coaching supports people in quick shifts needed to meet changing business demands.

     

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    What
    coaching
    promotes
    Coaching promotes creativity, breakthrough performance and resilience, giving organizations a competitive edge and an effective way to flow and operate within an environment of continuous change.

     

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    Coaching
    adds
    value
    In today’s marketplace, adding value is key to business success. Successful coaching adds value to employees, who then add value to their organizations by giving their best. Employees want to be
    • happy
    • productive, and
    • innovative.

    Coaching creates the environment for this to happen. Coaching skills also

    • build and enhance team and work group performance
    • motivate sales production
    • improve management and leadership
    • deepen commitment to personal, professional and organizational goals , and
    • promote diversity awareness and leveraging.
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    Coaching is
    a process
    Successful organizations have discovered that on-going training of the workforce is necessary to remain competitive. However, without coaching, training loses its effectiveness rapidly, and often fails to achieve the lasting behavioral changes needed.

    While training is an "event", coaching is a process, which is a valuable next step to training to insure that the new knowledge imparted, actually becomes learned behavior.

     

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    Benefits to the
    employee
    Employees who are coached to performance rather than managed to performance are more committed to and invested in the outcomes of their work and achievement of organizational goals.

    Career self-reliance is a critical employee competency in which employees trade skills and contribution for development and opportunity. Managers and leaders must coach their employees, as they become career self-reliant and engage in continuous career development.

     

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    Research and
    experience
    Research and experience show that
    • employees perform better when positively coached, rather than being constantly evaluated, and
    • people with more positive attitudes are more likely to succeed in their jobs and careers.

    Coaching fosters more positive employee attitude as a key component of development, and enhances positive attitude through positive support.

     

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    Organization
    embracing
    coaching
    Coaching has been identified by these organizations as a critical leadership and management competency:
    • IBM
    • Microcell Canada
    • Abbott Labs
    • Department of Commerce, Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and
    • others.

    These organizations have recognized that leaders and managers must be able to coach their employees and each other, and have included coaching in leadership and management development programs.

    Developing Effective Coaching Skills and Competencies

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    Why develop
    coaching
    skills?
    Successful leaders today are developing their coaching skills, in order to
    • support and enhance employee performance and development
    • "peer coach" as a key way to provide support and guidance to each other in challenging environments, and
    • possibly "coach up" by coaching their superiors to enhance their own ability to lead and manage in a 360º feedback situation.

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    Best
    workplace
    coaches
    Coaching provides not only a context for feedback, but also a process to support changed behavior. The best workplace coaches are those who
    • understand and develop their own coaching style, rather than following a cookie cutter approach
    • know how to “flex” their style to coach others, and
    • can use the coaching process and concepts effectively through understanding and skill development.

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    Developing
    competency
    Leaders develop their competency in coaching by
    • increasing their awareness of coaching and its benefits, and "buying in" to the concept and process
    • educating themselves on coaching concepts and tools
    • identifying their own coaching style and skill level, and learning to identify others’ preferences for being coached, and
    • practicing using the best coaching tools and their own strengths, and
    • encouraging, accepting and acting upon feedback.

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    The Coaching
    Clinic delivers
    The Coaching Clinic’s model for workplace coaching delivers coaching competencies. We
    • educate leaders on our 5-step coaching process, which has proven most effective in the workplace
    • facilitate their development of 4 primary coaching skills, and
    • provide complete coaching and support for leaders developing and using their skills, so that the coaching culture becomes completely installed and creates the benefits the organization seeks.

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    Our findings While some leaders may "take to" coaching more naturally than others at first, we find that the leaders and clients we work with all enjoy and become effective coaches once they are supported by our model in finding and using their own unique coaching strengths.

    Coaching truly provides a win-win for both coach and employee.

       

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