Potential
What is your view of human potential, especially at work?
If we think about McGregor's X and Y theory you might
consider yourself to be a Theory X person. That is, that
people dislike work and will avoid it wherever possible,
and are motivated only by money or fear. Alternatively, you
might subscribe to Theory Y which suggests that people work
for a range of psychological as well as economic reasons,
and are motivated by achievement, responsibility and so on.
It is important to recognise that neither of these views
can be proven as right or wrong, they are simply beliefs
about human nature based on experience. Our starting point
as coaches therefore needs to be which of these views is
more useful? Probably Theory Y. It seems to me that a coach
is likely to be more helpful if his or her starting point
is to believe that the coachee starts with the potential to
achieve his or her aims. It is then the job of the coach is
to play a part in realising that potential.
Interference
Traditional training and development has proven to be
reasonably successful at taking potential and adding to it.
Usually this is a question of imbuing the performer with
new knowledge or skills. But coaching is more often
required when the performance issue is not a lack of
knowledge or skill but rather an unwillingness or inability
to effectively deploy them. In these circumstances we need
to turn our sights to removing the things that get in the
way of our performers accessing their potential.
There might be a range of what we might call external
sources of interference, e.g.
Lack of opportunity Ideas not accepted Blame culture
Restrictive policies and procedures
Equally, there might be a number of internal sources of
interference, e.g.
Fear of failure Low confidence Low self belief Previous
negative experience Negative expectations Negative self talk
Where organisational coaches have the ability to remove
external barriers they must do so without hesitation.
However, most coaches have far more scope to work on
internal barriers which, in any event, are likely to be far
more important to address.
P.L.E
With the things that interfere with my potential reduced, I
am likely to access far more of my potential and
consequently produce high performance, but how can coaches
ensure this is sustained?
Motivation theory suggests that high performance is a
strong internal driver for most people so shouldn't it be
enough to ask them to simply continue performing well?
Unfortunately not. They will get bored and produce new
sources of internal interference such as fatigue and lack
of concentration.
Motivation theory also suggests that there are a further
two strong internal drivers, namely learning and enjoyment.
It is clear that if I'm performing well at a task, learning
more about it or myself as I undertake it and enjoying the
whole experience then I am more likely to sustain my high
levels of performance.
Coaches need to help the people they coach find the
Performance, Learning and Enjoyment (PLE) factors in their
work, e.g.
Performance
Achieving success Doing the job well Pride Sense of self
worth
Learning
Satisfying curiosity Improving Gaining insights Developing
new skills
Enjoyment
Sense of challenge Team work Fun Social belonging
A.R.T
How then do coaches remove interference and add in learning
and enjoyment? They promote Awareness, Responsibility and
Trust (ART)
In raising awareness we are seeking to create high quality
focus and attention on the matter at hand. As I become more
aware of a situation and my feelings for it, I produce more
ideas about changes and improvements that I might make.
This helps me identify sources of interference as well as
being an enjoyable and insightful process.
Coaches also help the people they coach to recognise that
they are not victims of circumstance but in fact have a
large degree of choice in how they handle situations. In
other words, they are responsible. However before people
move forward they must:
Believe they can Value the outcome Be willing to try
All of which requires interference to be absent and the
internal motivators of performance, learning and enjoyment
to be present.
Coaches also build trust. They encourage their coachees to
Trust themselves and strengthen self-belief Trust the coach
in order to be more honest and thus further raise awareness
Trust the coaching process
Coaching
Coaching is the process of raising awareness, generating
responsibility and building trust. The skills are asking
incisive questions and listening to the response.
Questions need to be asked around a structured framework,
such as the Coaching ARROW described in my book, Coaching
at Work.
----------------------------------------------------
Matt Somers is a coaching practitioner of many years'
experience. He works with a host of clients in North East
England where his firm is based and throughout the UK and
Europe. Matt understands that people are working with their
true potential locked away. He shows how coaching provides
a simple yet elegant key to this lock. For a bumper load of
coaching tips and tricks - including FREE resources - visit
http://www.mattsomers.com
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