Tag: people

  • Coaching 101: Myths busted and advice for using a coaching approach

    Coaching 101: Myths busted and advice for using a coaching approach

    Coaching 101: Myths busted and advice for using a coaching approach

    Do you want to help your team members improve their performance? Do your one-to-one meetings often end up with you giving all the answers and telling them what to do? Do you want your team to be more self-sufficient and empowered?

    If the answer to any of the above is yes, then I suggest you learn how to coach. Increasingly seen as an essential management tool, coaching supports people to give their very best regardless of their current performance level. Coaching is focussed on helping them find solutions themselves, rather than the manager providing direction or advice. As a coach, and a trainer of coaches, I’m going to share with you some of my key ideas on why all managers and leaders should be coaching.

     coacHing_cmi1. Coaching myths

    We’ll cover aspects of how to coach later, but first, let’s look at some of the reasons why managers don’t coach, and debunk these myths.

    Myth 1: “It takes too long; it takes less time if I just tell them the answer or what to do.”

    You may worry that coaching is too time consuming, but it takes no more time overall than many other management practices. Crucially coaching builds capacity in your team to resolve their own issues – or to come to you with solutions, rather than questions. This saves you time in the medium to long run

    Myth 2: “I’m not a professional coach, surely an external person needs to do this work?”

    While there is real value in independent coaching, anyone can add a coaching approach to their management toolkit. I’ve trained hundreds in coaching skills, and you’d be surprised how quickly people can take it on board. David Rock defines coaching as ‘the art and science of facilitating positive change’ – and if you think about it, that’s what good managers are all about. The aim of coaching, and the skills you need, are aligned with being a positive and supportive manager: meeting people where they are, then helping them build on their skills, strengths and experiences, addressing shortcomings, finding solutions and identifying strategies to meet agreed targets.

    Myth 3: “I’m the manager, I have the right answers, I should always share them.”

    You should if there is only one right answer. But allowing your colleagues to maintain ownership, think issues through and work out their own solutions helps to get the best from your people. If you focus on goals and outcomes, your team can be more creative. Sir John Whitmore argues that coaching encourages acceptance of responsibility, which results in a commitment, in turn optimising employees’ performance.

    A coaching approach helps establish boundaries around their responsibility for delivering outcomes and resolving issues. Your role is to work with people not for them – helping them work towards solutions rather than micro-managing. It helps when people own their goals.

    Telling people the right answers isn’t always effective. Think about training sessions: a significant U.S. study found that the application of learning following a training course was around 22%. The majority simply didn’t put anything into practice. But when training was combined with coaching or some sort of a follow-up, it really helped people put their learning into practise. Suddenly, application went up to 90% – so with an approach of coaching rather than telling you could generate a much better return on your time investment.

    2. When to use a coaching approach

    PWC’s Global Coaching Study for the International Coach Federation found that coaching creates improvements in areas such as self-confidence, relationships, communication skills, work-life balance, work performance, business management and team effectiveness.

    So, is there any occasion when you would not want your team to have those benefits? I’d encourage you to make coaching part of your daily management skills – but especially when there are high stakes pieces of work, big projects, or issues where you’re carrying an awful lot of responsibility.

    Coaching can be delivered just in time; you can talk about a project just as it arises. Coaching is targeted, it can be specific to your organisation and the type of work or individual that you are talking to. It can build on their experience, knowledge, and skills while addressing their specific challenges.

    By adding a coaching approach to your practice you can look forward to reaping its many personal and organisational benefits.

    3. What a coaching approach looks like

    Now we’re going to consider how you would start coaching. You can coach anytime, anywhere. Your coaching conversations don’t need to be formal or take more than a few minutes. It is however distinguished from other management activity by two key points:

    • it is solution-focussed
    • it leaves ownership and accountability with the staff member or coachee.

    To achieve this, coaching involves asking insightful questions and providing reflection without giving advice or direction.

    3.1 Start with the outcome

    Start conversations with ‘what do we want to achieve?’, ‘what do you need?’. Encourage your staff member to articulate where they are aspiring to be or what an ideal outcome would look like.

    Then you look at the current situation: ‘This is our goal, and this is where we are at the moment. Let’s talk about how we bridge that gap.’

    Next, encourage the coachee to come up with potential solutions or options. Rather than providing advice, ask questions to help them work issues out for themselves: ‘What options do you have?’ ‘What do we need to do to make this project a success?’ ‘How are you going to marshal your skills, experience, and resources to achieve it?’ and the magic coaching question: ‘What else?’ Aim for as many options as they can gather – I often find that the really innovative solutions only emerge once I’ve exhausted all the obvious ideas.

    Ensure that there is a specific set of outcomes or actions from the coaching conversation. The coachee needs to choose and commit to their own next step to draw real benefit from this approach.

    This basic process I’ve described has been worked up into a number of coaching models. There’s not much difference between them beyond which acronym you prefer.

    3.2 It is not about you – ownership and accountability belong with the coachee

    In coaching the question is always, ‘what are you going to do’, and then ‘what support might you need to succeed’? Accountability and ownership rests with the coachee or individual whose job or project you are discussing.

    Your role is to facilitate their thinking, not to solve the team member’s issues, or do their job for them. Understanding this distinction is remarkably freeing and allows for better quality conversations. It will be tough at first, but try hard not to be directive.

    Listen to the other person, rather than your thoughts about how you might respond. What is really important to them? What are their challenges? What opportunities are they seeing? What next steps do they want to take?

    When encouraged to come up with our own solutions, we maintain ownership and accountability, and feel much more motivated to follow through than when we are told what to do.

    3.3 Provide support and challenge

    Provide support and help where it is needed. Ask your team member to articulate what they see as the main challenge in a particular project and how you can support them in overcoming it.

    Encourage them to identify the resources available to them; or similar situations or tasks where they have previously been successful.

    Praise people for difficulties they’ve chosen to tackle, for taking ownership and accountability or for doing a great job of resolving their own issues.

    Also provide constructive challenge. If you hear ‘We can never do that because…’ ask them, ‘Are you sure? Can you tell me what it would take for us to actually be able to do it? Could we do something differently to enable us to achieve this?’ Challenging is often a crucial part of coaching conversations.

    4. Coaching is a crucial management skill that you should have

    So you can see that coaching has wide-ranging benefits for your team and you – and is a great return on your time invested.

    There’s no reason why you can’t go ahead and put into practice the ideas I’ve shown you in your next one-to-one or team meeting. If you’re interested, and would like some support in how to coach effectively, then I’d suggest two options. You could learn by being coached yourself, or you could find some training on coaching skills.

    If you want to get the most from your people, if you want to help them develop, then coaching is a great skill to use – as after all, personal growth takes place at the intersection of ownership, accountability, support and challenge – and that is what a good coach provides.

     

    Eszter Molnar Mills is a highly experienced and qualified leadership coach, and has taught coaching skills to hundreds of managers. Eszter and her team at Formium Development provide training and support to managers so they can get the best out of themselves, their teams and their organisations.

    How we can help you

    Coaching: if you’re looking for someone to help you to find solutions for your goals, we have a number of coaches available for phone/video conference coaching. Click here for more details.

    Training: if you want more help on using a coaching approach as part of your management toolkit, then get in touch about our in-house workshops on Coaching Skills for Managers.

    Webinar: People who join up to our newsletter get access to a bunch of helpful information and resources. This includes periodic access to our webinar on Coaching.

     

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  • The future of learning and development?

    The future of learning and development?

    The days are numbered for sheep-dip, classroom-based training courses, chosen by the L&D team, and often forgotten by the following week.

    Well, maybe not numbered, but the recent CIPD/ Towards Maturity report – Driving Performance and Productivity provides evidence that companies relying on old-fashioned models of learning and development are being outstripped by those embracing a learning approach that is more collaborative, multi-channel, integrated and accountable.

    The report’s message is that the top 10% of companies, for performance and productivity, are benefiting from using these modern methods – sometimes 3 times as much as the average, and massively above those in the lowest 25%.

    Here’s a few key findings:

    • 76% of the ‘Top Deck’ (highest performing 10%) are confident in incorporating the use of new media in learning design (33% average, 14% bottom quartile)
    • 62% routinely collect information on the extent to which learning points have been understood (30% average, 5% bottom quartile)
    • 71% collect information from learners on the extent to which learning points have been applied at work (24% average, 2% bottom quartile)
    • 73% involve learners in the design of the most appropriate learning solution (25% average, 1% bottom quartile)

    So the challenge to L&D teams is – how can you harness these approaches so that your company benefits? How can you incorporate these ideas into your strategies, and how to shift the culture towards collaboration, individual accountability for learning, and greater integration into strategic and operational needs?

    The report provides compelling ROI evidence that I’m sure will help those arguing for greater resources or the input from colleagues. But the important takeaway for me is the change management and strategic thinking that will be required to embed these ideas. It is about changing the perception of learning and development from a top-down obligation to a more bottom-up opportunity to thrive.

     

    Eszter Molnar Mills is a strength-based leadership and organisation development specialist and founder of Formium Development. She helps organisations and individuals reach enhanced performance by reflecting on what works, and developing skills and strategies for improvement. Eszter leads our learning partnership work; contact us to discuss how we can support your learning and development strategy.

  • Impactful women leaders

    Worldwide, at the lower levels of organisations over half of the staff members are female but if you look higher the number of women shrinks. Therefore, we’d like to share with you list of 5 impactful leaders who just happen to be female.

    Sheryl Sandberg – The COO of Facebook and founder of the Lean In Foundation. The non-profit organisation is part of a movement to develop a more equal world – as detailed in her book, Lean In ­– and supports women in the workplace and through empowerment groups.
    Ann Francke – Author of the FT Guide to Management and CEO of the Chartered Management Institute, a non-profit organisation aiming to create better led and managed organisations, through creating more qualified managers and establishing management as a true profession.
    Meg Whitman – Business executive, currently the President and CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and also the Chairwoman of HP Inc. A former manager at Disney and Hasbro, she is still best known for leading the online auction site, eBay.
    Tamara Box – The chair of the Financial Industry Group and the head of Structured Finance at Reed Smith, and worldwide acknowledged expert in strategic financial advice. Tamara is passionate about engaging millennials and women in the professional world. Also, she is one of our autumn interviewees.
    Carolyn McCall – The CEO of EasyJet is one of the business leaders who has been asked to join the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Group – the body that advises the PM and the Government on business difficulties.

  • 5 of the Best … Quotes on strengths

    5 of the Best … Quotes on strengths

    Formium Development team believe in a strength-based leadership approach. Leaders should concentrate on developing strengths instead of fixing weaknesses. Practicing a positive approach will likely help you and your organisation to become a lot more authentic and also more effective. Read our most-liked quotes on strengths:

    1 2 3 4 What’s your favourite quote on strengths? Share with the online community in the comment section, or tweet us your favourite quote @FormiumLtd!

  • 3 ways to create a high performance culture

    3 ways to create a high performance culture

     

    Does culture matter? Recent research carried out by James Heskett at Harvard Business School suggests that 20%-30% of corporate performance can be attributed to a positive, strong performance culture. As Edgar Schein, probably the most prolific and oft-quoted researcher and author in the area of culture, suggested: “The only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture. If you do not manage culture, it manages you and you may not even be aware of the extent to which this is happening.”

    High performance cultures embrace innovation and empower people to contribute to that innovation. They espouse values on taking calculated risks, being innovative, being supportive, and being a learning organisation. Amanda Whittaker Brown of IDeA identified four specific signs of a performance culture and a culture where high performance is an integral part of how the organisation works:

    • People feel comfortable talking openly about performance.
    • Individuals know how what they are doing makes a difference.
    • People share a commitment to achieving shared objectives.
    • When there are problems, people work together to resolve them.

    There are three specific actions leaders can take to create a high performance culture in their organisation:

    1. Co-create the desired culture
    Involve others in designing and shaping the team or organisational culture. In order for you to be able to identify and articulate what a desired culture would be, you need to understand and be able to communicate the vision for the organisation, its purpose and how individuals and teams can contribute. Your team need to be able to understand the difference that they are making.

    Once the vision for the organisation or the team is clear, consider whether the current culture, norms, and behaviours serve it, or whether you need to make some changes. Talk to your team, customers, senior management or board about how they see those objectives and aims being delivered, what your core values are and what type of underlying culture is need.

    Invite your colleagues and stakeholders to co-create the desired culture through conversation. Identify what works well and where changes are needed to enhance individual and organisational performance. Teams and staff can take part in this conversation and feel ownership and accountability, which in turns underpins a performance culture.

    Once you have identified the desired culture, make sure that you are modelling, not just communicating new values and behaviours. If you’re asking other people to change, you need to remember that that will require quite a significant change on your part as well. Agree and describe what high performance looks like, agree how people will work and behave as part of the culture.

    2. Replace a culture of blame with empowerment and accountability
    Develop a culture of empowerment instead of blame, which stifles innovation and creativity. Enable people to take responsibility, to make decisions, to take action. At an organisational level, empowerment is supported by management commitment and relatively few layers of hierarchy. It’s important that people are supported with the right skills so they can take advantage of empowerment. Provide development on teamwork, communication skills, decision making, and risk management or other appropriate areas.

    Ensure that your team has clarity of objectives and corporate priorities and that they are rewarded for doing the right things. Accept mistakes and ensure that people learn from their mistakes.

    Accountability is equally important. It’s not quite enough, from a cultural perspective, for people to be accountable to you because you’re their boss. They actually need to be accountable to each other, so they can say, “We each understand what everyone else’s role is and we each commit to delivering our individual role for the benefit of the team.”

    3. Set high expectations and enable people to meet those expectations
    Maurizio Freda, Estee Lauder CEO said: “You need super talented people who know they need to do fantastically well. When your leadership team takes the same attitude, you create a culture where each one can give his or her best. In particular, you have to find the strengths of each individual in the organisation and then you can create magic.”

    Choose people with lots of potential who have some of the strengths that you’re looking for, and allow them to play to their strengths.

    Provide a combination of high support and high challenge. Set the expectation that people have to do well in this organisation, that you are aiming for excellence and that you trust that people can meet these expectation as they are supported and set up for success. People can meet those high expectations because they get to play to their strengths, they get the development that they need, and if they make mistakes these are looked at as learning opportunities.

    These three leadership activities help you embody Schein’s statement that “Leaders are the main designers and builders of an organisation’s culture.”


    Eszter Molnar Mills is a strength-based leadership and organisation development specialist and founder of Formium Development. A qualified executive and team coach, she helps organisations and individuals reach enhanced performance by reflecting on what works, and developing skills and strategies for improvement. Through team coaching and facilitation Eszter also helps organisations and teams work together to develop positive and productive cultures.