Coaching for an Easier Life

7/29/2019 Coaching for an Easier Life

1/15

CCooaacchhiinngg FFoorraann EEaassiieerrLLiiffee


2/15

Copyright 2008 Matt Somers Coaching Skills Training. All Rights Reserved

COACHING FOR AN EASIER LIFEForeword

As a long standing professional coach I am very selective about my coaches. I havenever been coached by Matt but in his case I would not hesitate to accept. Sir John WhitmoreNumber One Business Coach. The Independent

Who am I to tell you how to increase the quality of your working life byadopting coaching principles?Im Matt Somers and the management and development of people has been a

component of my working life for the past 25 years. I cut my teeth in high streetbanking; starting at the very bottom but eventually finding myself responsible for theperformance of others. Without much formal training I decided that it made mostsense to treat people with respect, encourage them to learn especially from theirmistakes and to get them to a point where they could make decisions and get on withthe work without needing my constant attention.

In 1994 I attended a skills course run by John Whitmore and found that working withthese ideas and values was in fact called coaching! Turns out I was a pioneer. Ofcourse the truth is that weve had the coaching approach as long as weve hadpeople and organizations, its just that now it has a label.

These days I train, write and speak on coaching and its work related disciplines. I getto work with an incredible range of managers and leaders from all sorts of sectorsand organizations. They all arrive thinking their problems are unique, and then leaveknowing they are not alone. Furthermore they leave with a knowledge andunderstanding of coaching that they can use in all aspects of work because in theend:

All work problems are ultimately people problems.


3/15


Why would I package my expertise in a guide and give it away for free?

Therere a few reasons to be honest. If you feel that you or your organization canbenefit from what coaching offers then perhaps youll get in touch. Id rather do thisthen send expensive glossy brochures to people who have no need for what I do.

But I also want to get these ideas out there. Whilst I love working with the likes ofCitigroup and Toyota it doesnt leave enough time for me to work with smallorganizations and individuals. I ran eight open programmes in 2007. This year Iveonly time for two.

Of course I cant cover everything we do on our face to face programme here, but Ican get you started. I hope youll find these ideas useful and if I can help you takethings further do get in touch.

All the best


4/15


Introduction

First things first; I realize its ironic that Im offering you an easier working life bytaking on a new responsibility coaching. There are no silver bullets on offer here,but applying the principles of coaching that Ill explain will improve the quality of yourworking life by getting you and your team more focused. Doing more of the rightthings and wasting less time; dealing with problems when theyre small and findinginnovative ways to get better at what you do. Ill be as practical as I can and if I canoffer a shortcut at any point I will.

Ive divided the material into five parts - so you can work through it at your own pace.It covers the main principles of coaching and is an ideal way to prepare for attendingour face to face events or to refresh your knowledge of coaching fundamentals.

By putting these ideas into practice, you will be able to work with your staff to identifythe drivers and resistors of performance and to bring about real and lastingimprovements with an effect on the 'bottom line'.

During the next 5 sections well cover:

What coaching is

Who should coach

Where to coach

How to coach

When to coach

You wouldnt expect to be able to develop coaching skills without a little practice soeach section will conclude with some homework straightforward exercises to helpyou develop the techniques presented.


5/15


What is coaching?

Coaching is all the rage at the moment in the world of people development. But it is

alsoa relatively new field and as such it is often confused with other methods such astrainingand counselling. Some managers are using coaching as a new label for behaviourstheyve used for years such as telling people off and dictating the precise waysthings must be done. We must be careful that coaching is not seen as old wine innew bottles.

Ways to an easier life

Constantly look for development opportunities for your people. I dont mean courses

necessarily, but tasks that will stretch them or delegated responsibilities. What wouldchange if you viewed your people in terms of their potential and not their pastperformance?

On our training programmes we often ask participants to list and discuss exactlywhat coaching is and what it isnt. The following points would be typical:

Coaching is

About drawing out, not putting in

Helping others to learn as opposed to teaching them things Motivational and enjoyable

Performance focused but people centered

About releasing potential

Helping people move out of their comfort zones

Coaching is not

Telling people what to do and how to do it

The same as instructing, training or counseling

Offering uninvited feedback

Rescuing people and having all the answers

Only for poor performers

A disciplinary measure


6/15


Coaching then is about helping people fulfil their potential by allowing them torecognize the things that hold them back and by helping them discover ways around

them.

In his book The Inner Game of Work, Tim Gallwey (for many the Godfather ofcoaching) offers the following equation as a way of understanding the true nature ofcoaching:

PERFORMANCE = Potential less Interference

This equation has important implications for managers and coaches as it recognizesthat high performance occurs as a result of taking things away not adding things in.

Homework

Think about the sources of interference in your workplace. There may be externalsources such as structures or processes. Can these be changed? Are any of themnow out of date?What would be the benefits of removing them? Can you make a business case fordoing so?

Think also about sources of internal interference. Think about your own performance.Do you ever hear that voice telling you You always mess up, Youre not properlyqualified or Who do you think you are?

Quieten that voice by immersing yourself in your performance. Become highly awareof the things that vary in your performance. What differs when you perform well?Finally, see if you can help others explore their own sources of internal interference.

Good Luck!


7/15


Who should coach?

In the previous section we considered the question of exactly what coaching is. We

now need to think about who would be best placed to offer coaching in ourorganizations, but before we do that lets just think about the type of person werelooking for.

Please grab a pen and a piece of paper and write down the knowledge, skills, andattitudes you think are required in an effective coach.

From the discussions we have on our programmes, it would appear that the followingpoints are most crucial:

Knowledge Coaches need knowledge of coaching. They do not need to be

an expert on everything people might like some coaching on!Background knowledge can be useful, but can lead to a greattemptation to want to tell, advise or instruct rather than coach.

Skills The main skill is effective listening. An ability to really activelylisten to people probably accounts for as much as 75% of thesuccess of the effective coach.

Attitude Fundamentally coaches need a positive attitude and a beliefthat people are resourceful and already come equipped witheverything they need for success.


By all means employ the carrot and stick. Treat people like donkeys and theyllperform like donkeys. Instead just take a genuine interest in people and get to knowwhat makes them tick. Motivation becomes far easier when you look at individualsneeds.


8/15


So, we can begin to see that these qualities have nothing to do with age,background, status, seniority or experience. This means that potentially anyone can

be an effective coach if they take the time and trouble to learn the principles andtechniques.

The question now becomes who could most appropriately provide coaching in ourorganizations?

The answer to this seems polarized in that some organizations encourage theirexisting team leaders and managers to develop good coaching techniques alongsidetheir other skills, whereas other organizations create a separate role for the coach.

Each approach has its pros and cons:

The Manager as Coach

Pros

Can use coaching as part of aflexible approach

Close to the performance of theteam

Good understanding of teamstrengths

Cons

May have to play different roles

Can be difficult to find time

May have to succumb to shortterm pressures and resort tocommand and control

The Specialist Coach

Pros

Can remain objective

Usually will have time to coachon complex issues

Can develop coaching expertise

Cons

May have to search for coachingopportunities to justify role

Might need to work harder toestablish credibility

Might take time to establishrapport and trust with teammembers

Homework

Based on the knowledge, skills and attitudes you listed earlier draw up a list ofpotential coaches in your organization. Remember to include yourself!

Why not sound them out about how theyd feel about coaching others and discusswhat youre learning in this training with them?

Good luck!


9/15


Where to coach

Last time we considered who should coach. Now lets think about where to coach.

There are two aspects to this, where in the person being coached we should operateand where in the building we should coach!

Where in the person

Quite obviously we need to work on and in the mind of the person being coached.Increasingly it is being recognized both in business and in sport that state of mind(attitude) can be a much greater influence on performance than knowledge or skills.


The mind is key, but who holds the key to your mind? Notice what you focus on.

When you need to perform under pressure do you expect things to go well orbadly? If twelve people praise you but one criticizes, whose comments do youdwell on for the rest of the day? Use coaching to help you and your team focus onthe things that actually deliver your results.

The ultimate aim of coaching is to improve the quality of thinking in the people wecoach. This is based on the simple logic that because everything we do ispreceded by thought, then an improvement in thinking will result in animprovement in outcome.This becomes crucial when we realize that instruction or demonstration does notreally promote high quality thinking in the people we coach. Actually it encouragesthem to stop thinking for themselves and to become reliant on us instead.

We need to ask, not tell. We need to pose questions that get people to payattention to whats happening and cause them to have to think before they respond


To tell denies or negates anothers intelligence. To ask honours it, so stop tellingand start asking! Sorry, Ill rephrase that. What would happen if you did moreasking than telling?

Well consider this idea some more in the next module when we look at how tocoach.


10/15


Where in the building

On a more practical level, we need also to think about the physical location for acoaching session.

On our coaching skills programmes we encourage our participants to do theircoaching practice outside wherever possible and weather permitting.

This is not just to give people a good time (although coaching is undoubtedly moresuccessful when its enjoyable) but to recognize that successful coaching requirespeople to feel at ease and free from distractions.

When you become skilled at coaching youll be able to coach pretty much anywhereand anytime, but to begin with its probably best to hold coaching sessions in aseparate room or office.

Heres a checklist of things to think about:

Have you allowed plenty of time?

Is it easy to listen well in the place youvechosen?

Is it completely private?

Is the seating comfortable

Is the temperature comfortable?

Do you have some thinking tools (e.g. pen and paper, flipchart, etc)?

Will the room be a positive anchor?

The last point is vital, the places in which coaching takes place should be associatedwithhigh performance. Over time it is quite possible for people to feel more motivatedandresourceful just by being in these places

Homework

Make a list of coaching questions. Remember you are not asking questions to findout information, you are asking questions designed to get people thinking. Heres afew examples to start you off:

What do you want?

Whats happening now?

How big is the gap?

What could you do?

What will you do?

Secondly, make a point of finding somewhere at work that you would consider idealforundertaking coaching.

Good luck!


11/15


How to coach

Weve so far considered what coaching is, who is best able to deliver coaching andwhere

it should take place. Lets now start to understand how we go about coaching byexamining the 3 key principles:

Awareness

Responsibility

Trust

Awareness

Awareness lies at the heart of all performance improvement. To improve my currentlevel of performance I must make changes and before I can make changes I need tounderstand how things are now and how Id like them to be.

Effective coaches recognize that raised awareness does not come from tellingpeoplewhat to do or even from offering feedback. This just serves to make the people wecoachtry to please us and follow the recipe. Instead coaches ask questions to encouragepeople to pay attention and to notice the variables in their own performance.


You are able to control only those things that you are aware of. That which you

areunaware of controls you. Practice becoming more aware of what goes onaround you. Try to notice what you notice and think about your thinking.

Responsibility

The top performers in any field are invariably highly responsible. Responsibilitymeans,quite literally, an ability to respond. In other words we have choice. When somethinghappens we can choose our response. If we want performance improvement in theworkplace we must recognize that people will chose the level of discretionary effort

theyput in to their work. As someone once said You can make me run, butonly I candecide to run fast. Once again telling people what to do will not generateresponsibility. People will only develop a sense of responsibility whenthey know they can exercise choice.


12/15


Trust

There are 2 aspects to trust in relation to effective coaching. The first is that good

coaches encourage the people they coach to trust in themselves. Coaching canoftenexpose a raft of limiting beliefs in people such as I dont have the right qualificationsor Im too old and so on. Well formed coaching questions can encourage people tochallenge these beliefs by asking about when they have displayed certain qualities orexploring whether these sorts of beliefs are useful or not.

The second aspect of trust in coaching concerns the coaching relationship. Muchworkplace coaching fails when there is suspicion that it is only for poor performers or

aform of discipline in disguise. The coach must work hard to establish coaching as asincere means of raising performance but we must recognize that this can take time.

Homework

Before you look at the next section, I want you to explore the improvement thatfollows naturally from increased awareness. Next time you are at the gym, askyourself what you notice most in your own performance. For example you may noticea tightness in your arms or leg whilst running. Rate the level of tightness on a scaleof 1-10 and then simply concentrate on this tightness for a few minutes without

consciously doing anything differently. You will notice that the tightness lessens justby becoming so highly aware.

Alternatively, next time youre driving, turn off the radio or other distractions andconcentrate on your driving. You might like to commentate on what youre doing anddescribe to yourself the process of moving up through the gears or lane positioning,etc.Again you will notice a smoother (and much more interesting) experience merely byheightened awareness.

Good luck!


13/15


When to coach

Over the last 4 sections weve considered:

What coaching is

Who should coach

Where to coach

How to coach

To round things off well look now at when to coach.

Take a look at this slide that we use on our training programme:

Typical situations for which coaching is used:

To accelerate development

To improve performance

To develop new attitudes or behaviour

To develop skills

To support people through change

To help people address workplace challenges

To help in developing a learning culture as part of a change programme

To help develop team working

To help improve motivation

In fact, it is a way of moving things forward or taking the next step and it is useful invirtually all aspects of working life.

Furthermore, coaching requires and generates a positive belief in the huge untappedpotential of all people.

We can see from this that there are few if any situations in which coaching isntuseful.However that is an over-simplified view and there are a number of importantconsiderations in deciding when to coach:

Whose issue?

Coaching is going to work best when an individual has approached you withsomethingthey want to move forward. This might be a problem they have or it might equally besomething thats already going quite well but which theyd really like to develop.

If youre going to try coaching as a means of subliminally persuading people to seethings the same way you do, you may struggle. Sometimes we need to tell it like it isand then when people have agreed on the underlying issue we can use coaching asa means of dealing with it.


14/15


Whats the desired outcome?

Are you looking to get the job done, or are you looking to get the job done well?

What does the person need?

When people are new to a role or team there is a need for some telling because theywillhave a need for knowledge. Theyll need to know the rules and regulations,processes andprocedures and be given the information they need to complete their tasks. Coachingcanthen kick in as a way of developing their ability to do those tasks well.

How much time is available?

Sometimes the needs of the situation may dictate that coaching is inappropriate. Inanemergency or against a looming deadline, learning takes a back seat to gettingthingsdone. We can always review the experience later. Coaching might also becounterproductive in the middle of a crisis. Sometimes people need a rubber ringbefore the swimming lesson!

Homework

Think about the last few weeks at work and recall some times when youve issued

instructions and other times when youve tried more ofa coaching approach.Review what youve considered in this report and decide whether you would have changed anything that you did in light of what youve learnt.


If either the quality of performance or learning from the experience is importantthencoaching is a must. If neither is, then tell if you must.


15/15


Lastly..

We hope youve found this report interesting and a useful introduction to the art of

Coaching

You can build on this knowledge and skillby attending our training programmeCoaching at Work. Details on our websiteatwww.mattsomers.comor call us on+44 191 516 6237.

Alternatively, if you would like to do somefurther reading, my books Instant

Manager: Coaching and Coaching atWork are available by visitingwww.mattsomers.com

Thank you

Matt

P.S. If you have a friend or colleague who would benefit from this training, they canget their own copy by visiting our resources section atwww.mattsomers.com.

Matt Somers has been training managers as coaches for many years. He is aFellow of the CIPD and the author of Coaching at Work (John Wiley and Sons,2006) and Instant Manager: Coaching (Hodder and Stoughton/CharteredManagement Institute, 2008)

Matt understands that people are working with their true potential locked away.He illustrates how coaching provides a simple yet elegant key to this lock andhow releasing potential in this way transforms the performance of allorganizations.

Contact him at:

[email protected] +44 (0) 191 516 6237 www.mattsomers.com www.coachingbloke.blogspot.com
http://www.mattsomers.com/http://www.mattsomers.com/http://www.mattsomers.com/http://www.mattsomers.com/http://www.mattsomers.com/http://www.mattsomers.com/http://www.mattsomers.com/http://www.mattsomers.com/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]://www.mattsomers.com/peak/http://www.mattsomers.com/peak/http://www.coachingbloke.blogspot.com/http://www.coachingbloke.blogspot.com/http://www.coachingbloke.blogspot.com/http://www.mattsomers.com/peak/mailto:[email protected]://www.mattsomers.com/http://www.mattsomers.com/http://www.mattsomers.com/

Documents

Coaching for an Easier Life