Truth or myth? What do you think?
"Everything's fine we don't really have any problems and so
we don't need any coaching."
Many people believe that coaching is about putting wrong
things right. They would argue that things must be pretty
poor in the organization if it needs armies of people going
round solving other peoples' problems. If coaching is
required then it should be a short-term solution and the
coaches should move on when things have been sorted out.
"I'm not a manager or team leader so I don't have anyone to
coach."
We know that coaching is a people development tool so, by
definition that means we must have people to coach. What
then is the point of developing good coaching skills if we
do not currently operate as a manager, supervisor or team
leader and do not have any people reporting to us?
"I haven't time to coach."
If we think for a moment that a typical team will have at
least 6 to 8 people working in it, then we can begin to see
that the team leader's task is almost hopeless. 6 to 8
people, all wanting coaching every six weeks or so, in
sessions lasting up to an hour. How would we do any work?
"I can't coach - I've no expertise in the underlying
subject."
How can we coach somebody to do something we can't do
ourselves? How can we keep up with all the changes in the
way people do their jobs? How can we expect people to take
us seriously as managers if we're not prepared or able to
do what we ask them to do?
"I went on a course about this, but then it was called
feedback. That's all coaching really is."
For many people, coaching is something that happens as part
of the organization's Performance Management or Appraisal
system. In some organizations coaches have been known to
sit behind a colleague whilst they're dealing with a
customer and make notes on the things they did well or
badly. Usually, the individual and the coach would then
retire to a quiet area where the coach could run through
the list and make suggestions for improvement.
"This is just a fancy new name for what I've been doing for
years - training people!"
Can we really see any daylight between coaching and other
methods of developing people? Coaching is ultimately about
making people better at what they do, but then so is
teaching, training, mentoring, counselling etc.
In fact, each of these statements is a myth.
"Everything fine we don't really have any problems and so
we don't need any coaching."
Coaching is a marvellous tool for problem solving and
whilst in most cases people will seek coaching because they
have a problem to solve, it would be a mistake to limit it
to this purpose alone.
Some managers suffer a sort of 'prodigal son' mentality and
spend all of their time and energy addressing the poorest
performers. But let's not assume that people who are
currently performing really well do not have vast reserves
of potential that might be released through coaching.
Even the best performers benefit from coaching. We need
only look at the world of sport to know that this is true.
"I'm not a manager or team leader so I don't have anyone to
coach."
Typically coaching is delivered by managers to staff or by
team leaders to team members and this is usually because
companies and other businesses are organized in a
hierarchy. But it doesn't have to be this way.
Anyone can be a coach. The skills of coaching are not in
anyway connected to age, status, experience or job role.
Similarly, coaching can be delivered in any direction and
should not be limited to a top down approach from team
leader to team member. Why not have nurses coaching
consultants, printers coaching designers or classroom
assistants coaching teachers?
"I haven't time to coach."
We might respond to this by suggesting that there isn't
time not to coach! We must however recognize that coaching
is in many ways an investment that pays back in the medium
to long term. It can be very difficult for managers to
decide whether to take the time and coach an individual
through a problem or to deal with the situation themselves.
This is a matter of choice and taking responsibility.
Effective managers base their decision on an evaluation of
the needs of the situation and the people involved and make
an informed choice. Less effective managers will tend to
see it as part of their role to solve all of the team's
problems themselves, perhaps in the mistaken belief that
this is the essence of strong leadership.
Managers who coach however are constantly generating
responsibility and building trust with the teams and
individuals they manage and as such are able to take on a
more authoritative style when the need arises without
alienating the team or damaging trust.
"I can't coach - I've no expertise in the underlying
subject."
We need expertise to teach but not to coach. In coaching,
expertise can be quite dangerous as it provides a huge
temptation to slip back into telling people what to do,
giving advice and 'rescuing' people rather than letting
them learn.
Where we find ourselves coaching people in matters we have
expertise in, we must work hard to resist this temptation
and remember that coaching is about helping people to lean
and to become independent and resourceful. This is to
everyone's benefit over time.
"I went on a course about this, but then it was called
feedback. That's all coaching really is."
Well-constructed feedback can be extremely valuable to
people as they try to improve performance in any area.
However, it is limited to what we can observe and notice
and this is of no consequence if the performance issue is
to do with how people feel.
Poorly constructed feedback can do lasting damage and
reinforce limiting beliefs. Coaching avoids the pitfalls by
concentrating on the needs and experiences of the person
being coached.
"This is just a fancy new name for what I've been doing for
years - training people!"
Training has its place of course, and when done well, is an
excellent way of arming people with the basic skills and
knowledge they need to perform in their roles. Coaching
comes into its own when we want to develop performance and
allow people to utilise the full extent of the knowledge
and skills they have gained through training.
Unlike training coaching derives its agenda from the needs
of the individual, takes place at work (which is where
learning really happens) and can be more or less be
delivered anytime, anyplace, anywhere.
----------------------------------------------------
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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