The 20 minute course in...

coaching - The Marketer magazine

http://www.themarketer.co.uk/articles/professional-development/fast-la...

Fastlane The 20 minute course in... coaching

If the daily task of managing people at work is starting to feel like Groundhog Day, it is probably a good time to add coaching to your repertoire of business management skills

Managing staff in the traditional way means your team are bound to come to you with the same old problems, inevitably taking up a lot of your time and energy. Managing staff using coaching enables your team to take ownership of their own problems and to reach their full potential in doing so, leaving you free of those Groundhog Day conversations, says Mike Amos, head of coaching at HR consultancy Chiumento. Sound too good to be true? Its not, insists Amos. Thats why coaching is becoming prevalent across all types of business. Why coaching The watershed moment usually comes when managers have formal coaching sessions themselves, says Amos. Typically, when high-level people are offered their own coach often from outside the business they like it so much that they decide to put it into action for the people that work for them. The alternative is when companies such as Chiumento come in and provide coaching training programmes for managers. The aim of these courses is not to turn managers into coaches, but to allow them to use coaching as one of their many management tools. Theres a third way too reading articles like this. It doesnt have to cost the earth to start using coaching, says David Heath, managing director of McCanns Human Resource Consultants. Some people simply read about how to do it and get on with it. But before you pour yourself a drink, put your feet up and read on in the hope of a life-changing moment, be warned that coaching isnt easy to define and is even harder to practise. At its most basic, business coaching is about helping individuals to achieve their goals by accessing and developing their own abilities, says Simon Foster, senior client director at the Centre for High Performance Development. We all talk about improving things getting fitter, losing weight, working less. We also know that, however much we talk about these things, they only become a reality if we set ourselves targets to map the way to our goals. The same is true with coaching. Its up to the coach to help the individual identify these goals and targets and its also up to them to encourage the individual to find ways to achieve them. Thats not easy for todays managers, who are paid to get results and so typically do a lot of telling and instructing. In coaching, you need to take a step back and allow the coachee to learn from their own mistakes and to find their own answers. What youre doing is allowing them to develop and display their individual talents. The theory is that in the end, although you may have invested a good deal of time with them upfront, the net result is far superior. Adrian King, an executive coach at Praesta Executive Coaching and author of Business Coaching, likens the process to giving someone a fishing rod instead of a fish. If you always give people the answers yourself, the business will only ever grow as big as you. With coaching, you can take the business to new

Dos and donts

Do be consistent. Coaching needs to be made part of your management style on a daily basis, rather than switching on and off. Do get supervision. Check in with a coaching expert to find ways to improve your coaching style. Do stay neutral and objective. Observe, listen and ask questions to understand the coachees situation. Do think of coaching like raising children. If you tell them what to do, theyll do it adequately, but if you let them learn for themselves, theyre more likely to excel. Do be afraid to use specific coaching models. Theres plenty to choose from, ranging from the GROW model to neuro-linguistic programming, but get to grips with the basics first. Don't break confidentiality. Coaching must be based on 100 per cent trust. Don't expect coaching to solve every problem. Coaching is a very useful tool, but its not the answer to everything and there are occasions when it isnt appropriate

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The 20 minute course in... coaching - The Marketer magazine

http://www.themarketer.co.uk/articles/professional-development/fast-la...

levels, he says. Not surprisingly, people dont always like being coached at first. Being given a fishing rod would take many of us out of our comfort zone. But once theyve landed that first catch, youve usually got them hooked. The marketing environment Coaching is essentially about bringing out the best in each and every person. Marketing is about bringing out the best in a brand. In terms of alignment, thats not a bad start. There are other reasons why coaching works for marketers. Standards in the industry are increasingly high, with leaders always on the lookout for ways to improve. Marketing is often the first area to be cut in a budget, leaving marketers under pressure to achieve results with fewer people. Moving away from a problem-solving culture to one in which people find their own answers is understandably popular. Marketers, however, may find coaching particularly challenging. Stuart Duff, partner and head of development at the business psychologists Pearn Kandola, explains: The marketing environment naturally attracts people who are intuitive and instinctive and so make quick decisions and give quick instructions. Coaching encourages them to slow down on their assumptions and genuinely listen. Thats not easy. Interestingly, we have the opposite problem when we train people in coaching at organisations like PricewaterhouseCoopers, where they can get too involved in the detail and arent able to stand back and see the bigger picture. Outcomes Alexia Leachman, global marketing manager at the tanning company St Tropez, says that in the past, when she gave a member of her team a new challenge, theyd often try to get out of it. They wouldnt say outright that they couldnt do it, but theyd create excuses. I tended to be directional, telling them what to do. That was quite time consuming because I needed to be heavily involved. But now I use coaching by asking them questions to help them find the answers questions like What do you want to achieve with this project?, What do you think are the steps you should take to get there?, Which one do you want to start with? and What could you do if you come up against a problem?. Because Leachmans coachees come up with their own solutions, they own them and are far less likely to approach her for help. They are also far more likely to relish a new challenge, she says. Like many managers, Leachman doesnt tell her team that shes coaching them. Theres a lot of cynicism around business coaching, as well as a lot of misunderstanding for example, that its the same as mentoring. I just dont think its necessary or even helpful to explain every technique you use as a manager to your team. Leachman says that as a result of coaching each member of her team for at least one hour a week, they now feel they have the authority and confidence to run with each project independently. She has no doubt that coaching impacts the bottom line, but is there proof that coaching really does accelerate capability? Experts admit that this is still very much a matter for debate. There are a variety of measurement tools, but some are quite complex. You may do better to simply look back to the goals set up in the initial coaching sessions and assess whether theyve been reached, then evaluate their relationship with the wider business goals. You could also take a look at the retention and progression rates since coaching was introduced. David Heath of McCanns Human Resource Consultants adds that an interesting

for example if the market has taken a sudden dive, says Lisa Cann, a chartered marketer and coach for Lane4, the global performance development consultancy. Don't coach if youre not up to it. Some personalities are simply not suited to coaching.

Tips from the top

Stuart Duff, head of development at the business psychology consulting company Pearn Kandola, advises on what makes coaching work Think about motivation. Motivation underpins pretty much

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The 20 minute course in... coaching - The Marketer magazine

http://www.themarketer.co.uk/articles/professional-development/fast-la...

thing happens when managers crack coaching. They dont just see other peoples motivation rise their own motivation increases, too. After all, its incredibly satisfying to help people develop and to have more time to yourself. What makes a good coach? If youre not a good listener, forget coaching, says Rebekah Fensome, a business coach within the marketing sector. Giving full attention to what the other person is saying is the cornerstone of good coaching. That requires a lot of patience, as well as the ability to cast aside your own assumptions so that you can take on board the other persons agenda. Youll need to leave your judgmental head at the door. Youll need to be energising, encouraging and empathetic, as well as able to build a rapport with others and to give unconditional regard to a persons development, she adds. With your face, cues, body language and words, youll need to show that you have 100 per cent confidence in them. If they sense fear in you, they will never believe in themselves. Thats crucial because coaching is ultimately a confidence building exercise. Youll need to encourage the coachee to leave their comfort zone and stretch themselves and, once you get to know their objectives, youll need to work on championing these through your coaching. Remember that the best coaches are people who can do some very creative lateral thinking its about opening up options so that peoples horizons are broadened. Coaching is certainly not for control freaks. The whole ethos behind coaching is that people must learn through their own mistakes, so be prepared for a few hiccoughs in the short term. But rest assured that it will pay off in the end. Common mistakes A big mistake is trying to give the coachee answers rather than supporting them to find their own solutions, says Jonathan Perks, head of leadership development at Penna. A coach may feel they need to be an expert in the subject they are discussing when in fact this is not necessary. Once an individual knows the structure of a coaching conversation, they can help the coachee to talk through any issue and provide options where necessary. Carla Cotterell, European key accounts director at Advertising.com, adds: Coaches often spend too much time providing examples from their own career. While personal anecdotes can help build rapport, it is important that the coach remains focused on the needs of the member of staff they are working with. But cut yourself some slack. Just as coaching means allowing your team to learn by their mistakes, allow yourself to get it wrong sometimes too. Fear not if you dont feel like the worlds best coach within a couple of weeks, says Stuart Duff. While many people take to it instinctively, Ive had others tell me it takes them a good couple of years before they get out of telling mode when coaching.

every aspect of our behaviour at work. Consider why this person is here and what they want to achieve each day. Ask open questions. Under pressure to be the expert managers often ask closed questions or look for confirmation of their own views. This can hinder their teams creativity, ownership and accountability. Open questions give them more latitude to find their own answers. Know yourself. Being aware of your own personality preferences gives you more scope to develop tactics and adapt your approach to suit the personalities of the people you are coaching. Have a framework in mind. Coaching is all about asking the right questions at the right time. Keeping the structure of the discussion simple will help the manager to stay on track and keep an eye on progress. It can take minutes, not hours. Coaching is a fluid, practical way to get others to make better choices and take more responsibility a skilled manager will use coaching as and when opportunities arise.

Are you ready to coach your team?

When showing members of your team how to approach a new area of work, you: a) Tell them how you would do it; b) Talk them through some potential challenges and options to overcome them; c) Ask them open-ended questions about how they might play to their strengths and overcome their weaknesses.

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The 20 minute course in... coaching - The Marketer magazine

http://www.themarketer.co.uk/articles/professional-development/fast-la...

If a member of your team comes to you with a work-related problem, you: a) Offer a solution; b) Invite them to come up with a solution and then guide them through achieving it; c) Ask them what they think the best end result would be and help them work out the steps they would take to achieve it, bearing in mind their individual personality and working style. A member of your team makes a mistake. You: a) Tell them you never made any such mistakes and to buck their ideas up; b) Give them some options on how to rectify the situation; c) Invite them to work out what caused the error and what they have learned from it, reassuring them that it was probably a good learning curve. Your team has been achieving good results with very little management input. You: a) Decide to let them get on with it. If it aint broke, why fix it?; b) Reassure them that youre happy with what theyre doing and that they can come to you if they have any queries; c) Think about ways you can help them to stay at the top or do even better such as learning how each individual in the team operates or by ensuring they dont become victims of their own success and burning out too quickly. If you answer: Mostly (a) Coaching is nowhere to be seen in your management toolbox. If you want to embrace coaching, go on a comprehensive course, but even then recognise if its not for you. Mostly (b) Youre halfway there, with some coaching techniques beginning to rear their heads. Mostly (c) Youre obviously a natural. Coaching already helps you to unleash peoples potential. Kate Hilpern writes on coaching and management for Coaching at Work

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