Introduction

As a way of managing or leading people, coaching differs from the traditional corporate ‘command and control’ approach in the following ways:

• collaborating instead of controlling;

• delegating more responsibility;

• talking less, listening more;

• giving fewer orders, asking more questions;

• giving specific feedback instead of making judgements.

This is not simply a case of ‘being kinder’ to people – delegated responsibility brings pressure to perform and coaching managers maintain a rigorous focus on goals, results and quality.

The role of the manager/coach is very different to that of an external coach. Whereas an external coach has the luxury of a laser-like focus on the client and his or her development and performance, the manager/coach needs to balance the needs of a client with the needs of all team members – including their need to bond as a team – together with the needs of the organisation as a whole.

Some people argue that it is impossible for a manager to act as a coach, given his or her position of authority over a team. While authority is an important issue, it need not be an insurmountable obstacle – as long as the manager is able to demonstrate leadership competencies to win the hearts and minds of his or her people developing genuine trust and respect in the working relationship, a manager should be able to be an effective coach. It is also a fact that coaching frequently takes place between peers and even upwards on occasion, with some enlightened bosses happy to be coached by their team members.

In his book: Coaching for Performance, John Whitmore raises the issue of managerial responsibility and authority, and asks ‘Can the manager, therefore, be a coach at all?’ He believes the answer is ‘yes,’ but it demands the highest level of leadership competencies of that manager: empathy, integrity and detachment, as well as a willingness, in most cases, to adopt a fundamentally different approach to his or her staff – he or she may even have to cope with initial resistance from some staff, suspicious of any departure from a traditional management style.

Aims

In a highly competitive market place your people are your key differentiator; this course will help you to develop your coaching & feedback skills together with a leadership style that builds a culture in which superior performance at all levels in your organisation is attained, while, at the same time, improving the morale of your employees.

Objectives

By the end of the programme delegates will be able to:

• Explore the importance of coaching as a leadership skill.

• Identify specific ways to build an atmosphere where feedback and coaching are accepted as opportunities to learn and grow.

• Develop motivation and communication skills that support your role as a leader and as a coach.

• Discover techniques for introducing critical coaching aspects into your leadership style.

• Demonstrate an ability to use a range of tools to support a client in a one to one coaching session.

• Assess your present coaching style, its strengths and areas for improvement.

• Describe the techniques to improve performance effectively.

• Demonstrate how to coach an employee

• Demonstrate an ability to give feedback.

Methods: this course will make extensive use of role plays.

Duration: 3 days

Who it's for:

This 3-day course is designed for managers and leaders, from all sectors of the economy, who wish to change their, or their organisations,’ leadership/management style to one that is more inclusive and empowering, this includes: managing directors, general managers, operations managers and directors, financial managers and directors, HR managers and directors, sales managers and directors and marketing managers and directors.

Course Content

Day 1

Introductions, programme objectives, programme methods and follow up.

Exercise: what is coaching? How does coaching differ from training, counselling and mentoring?

History and development of corporate coaching

• The Inner Game;

• The influence of Tim Gallwey;

• The management authority/employee empowerment continuum.

Exercise: what is leadership? How does it differ from management? How do communications from leaders differ from those of managers?

Leaders as Coaches

• Are you a leader?

• Leadership style profiling;

• Personal drivers profiling.

Exercise: working alone, delegates will be invited to complete their own Leadership Style and Personal Drivers profile following which they will work in groups to share their improvement plans.

• The leaders’ focus;

• The functions of leadership.

Exercise: the Word Build leadership exercise (part 1).

Black Box Thinking

• The principles of learning from failure;

• Contrasting the approach of the airline industry to other approaches;

• Feedback as the basis for human learning and development;

• Establishing an open culture in which people admit to failures;

• The Deming Cycle.

Exercise: the Word Build leadership exercise (part 2).

Day 2

Coaching and team working

• Team process roles – the Belbin Team roles;

• Hidden agendas;

• Self-perception;

• Tuckman’s 5 Stages of Team Development – forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning;

• Team Review.

Communications skills for coaching and feedback

• The process of human communication;

• Effective questioning techniques;

• Active listening;

Exercise: working in groups, delegates will have an opportunity to practise and improve their questioning techniques and their ability to demonstrate active listening.

Coaching demonstration

Exercise: Delegates will be invited to participate in a demonstration of coaching designed to illustrate how, through coaching, people are able to develop new insights, new levels of awareness and greater clarity about an issue they have.

The coaching process

• Goal setting and establishing measures of success;

• The importance of developing an evidence-based approach to improve understanding of a person’s issue;

• How to use a range of models to improve understanding of behaviour, including Transactional Analysis;

• How to use creative skills to identify a range of solutions to help solve a client’s problems;

• How to use a number of strategies to help a client commit to action planning.

Exercise: working in groups delegates will have an opportunity to explore their own coaching styles and, with feedback, will be offered areas of improvement to consider

Day 3

Non-verbal communication

• Using the Mehrabian communication model to explore the potential effectiveness of communications techniques;

Exercise: demonstration and practice at recognising/reading non-verbal communications, including facial expressions, body language and tone of voice.

Exercise: how to develop rapport in a one to one situation – demonstration.

The coach’s toolkit

• The job performance wheel;

• The management wheel;

• The wheel of life.

Exercise: working alone, delegates will complete their own job performance wheel, management effectiveness wheel and wheel of life.

• The force-field analysis;

• Dealing with conflict;

• Dealing with multiple points of view.

Exercise: working in groups, delegates will engage in role play exercises to practice the use of coaching tools and techniques while demonstrating active listening and an awareness of non-verbal communications.

The scope of coaching

• When and where to engage in a one-to-one coaching session;

• Coaching as an organisation-wide management style;

• Coaching maxims – a guide to the ethics of coaching.

Using feedback skills to help people improve self-awareness

Exercise: feedback demonstration – the challenges.

• The importance of feedback in human development;

• Levels of feedback and feedback models;

Exercise: feedback demonstration – delivering feedback, effectively.

• The DESC Feedback Model;

Exercise: working in groups, delegates will engage in role play exercises to practise using the DESC Feedback Model.

• Why give feedback – the Johari Window;

• When and where to deliver feedback;

• Institutionalising feedback as a contribution to developing a learning organisation;

• The do more of, do less of, stop doing questions as an approach to culture change.

Action Plans and follow-up