In my profession as a coach, trainer and speaker, I find that most organizations do not understand how beneficial and vital coaching in the workplace is. Professional coaching is the process of equipping staff with the opportunities, tools and knowledge they need to fully develop themselves to be effective in their commitment to themselves, the company and their work. (integral.org.au). It is not just management skills, coaching focuses more on employee growth, development and achievement by removing roadblocks to performance and enhancing creativity.
Coaching is used in organizations like IMB, MCI and HP amongst managers, employees and managers-employees to develop their leadership. Coaching has also been used successfully by royals, dynasties, empires and presidents since the beginning of recorded history.
Why coaching?
- Coaching allows for succession planning,
- Enables in-house talent development planning,
- Creates an engaged staff,
- Gives organization competitive edge,
- Encourages employee retention.
Within all of us in great potential to do great work, given the chance and encouraged. Think of it as a parent-child relationship. Children model their behavior after the adults they observe, primarily their parents. Therefore to have happy capable functioning adults, we must give children the tools to perform their best by coaching them on the ways of life. Similarly, to have happy, empowered and productive teams we have to build their capacities by engaging them through different opportunities.
A recent article by Ben Chumo titled, “Employees key pillar in Kenya Airways revival” highlights this well. Kenya Airways (KQ) under former CEO Sebastian Mikosz face a number of challenges that hinder their success. So in an interview published in Daily Nation’s Smart Company magazine on December 24, 2019, the former CEO highlighted these challenges that in his opinion led to his failure to revive the airline. For an incoming CEO this serves as a very useful coaching session and a happy welcome/parting gift. Mikosz didn’t look at this as competition, he put aside his personal feelings to give other people the tools, knowledge and opportunities to develop and achieve beyond what he’s done. Any organization that is looking for long-term sustainable performance needs to take something from this.
How do we coach people?
“The shop floor is a mirror reflection of the top floor.”-The “C” suit. Eliminate the “Us vs. Them” mantra and bring people together regardless of seniority. Let them see with sincerity that we are one and fairly giving everyone the opportunity to advance.
- Empower them,
- Build their self-confidence,
- Build their decision making capacity,
- Instill trust,
- Hire people that can adapt to change,
- Behave ethically so they can model after you,
- Learn to coach your people at every level of business.
Chumo’s article also highlights another important point:
“The critical role of organizational leadership, just like that of a country, is to create an enabling environment for people to deploy their resourcefulness – skills and competencies – to add value to the resources they apply to the business. Leadership must trust their people and occasionally verify where necessary. Avoid breathing down peoples’ necks.”
How often do leaders catch their teams doing the right thing? If anything we often catch them doing the wrong thing and call them out in front of others to “make an example” of them. But how effective is this method really? Not a lot if employees’ resulting attitudes can be trusted. However for every mistake we call out, how many good deeds do we miss opportunities to shine a spotlight on? How are we instilling and verifying the trust in our work relationships? Coaching is possible and most effective when there is trust in organizations.
As I have also highlighted in my own writing:
“When an employee does not trust their manager, the company suffers. When an employee doesn’t trust their manager, they do the bare minimum at their job. They may want to do more however the uncertainty and lack of connection to the company discourages their efforts. A good leader acts as a bridge between the company and staff. Hence the quality of this relationship largely determines the experience of the employee while with the company.”
Read more here.
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