How do Coaches Help?

A633.8.3.RB – How do Coaches Help?

Coaching is a vital and important part of leadership.  While many feel that coaching is not a definable concept.  Cathy Joy however, feels different.  She is a coach and product designer for Interaction Associates (von Hoffman, 1999).  She feels that coaching means helping people define clear goals and setting specific time frame in which to achieve them.  These goals can be a wide variety of goals which all require some form of help to achieve.  When a leader calls on the needs of a coach they are looking for some specific help.  A coach will help personnel with identifying their unique strengths and weaknesses (Goleman, 2000).  If the leader or client is looking to a coach they have already taken into account their own personal and professional issues as well as the possible options.  They have in essence taken an inventory of these and then tried to work out and solve these issues with little to no success.  The coach will come in and help to identify their where they are falling short and take these weaknesses and tie them to their personal goals and career aspirations. Coaches will help in establishing long term development as well as ways to conceptualize plans for completing their goals.  Coaches also are excellent at providing feedback and dialogue.  When a coach challenges personnel with tasks they allow them to complete them no matter what the outcome will be.  Coaching in this manner helps ensure people know what is expected of them and how they fit into the organization.  The dialogue also helps show how personnel fit into the larger vision and strategy within the organization.  In the end coaches are normally brought into a situation when there are issues within the organization.  Coaches bring in new ideas and concepts to help people when they are stuck or having difficulties with certain aspects.  Coaches will bring in new ideas and thought processes which will help motivate and inspire personnel toward common goals.

How does coaching impact both leadership and strategy?  Coaching affects these two areas quite often.  As mentioned prior a good coach will maintain a constant dialogue with their personnel.  This constant dialogue will ensure those within the organization know what is expected of them and how they fit into the organization vision and strategy.  According to the Obolensky text (2014) coaching is a good technique to bridge the divide between the S1/2 (sell-tell) and S3/4 (involve-devolve) styles.  Coaching also helps move individuals toward level 5 followership.  The GROW model of coaching is a question based technique that uses a variety of open and closed ended questions which can all be used to help develop and implement strategy within an organization.  The GROW model stands for Goal, Reality, Options, Will.  Some questions within this concept could be what would you like to achieve?  What would happen if we fail?  How far are we from the goal?  How could we achieve our goal?  What is the very first step in the process?  As you can see these questions all come into play when developing a strategy within an organization.

Coaching within an organization can make a difference in many ways.   First off coaching can promote confidence as well as motivation for those being coached (GROW, 2016).  Coaching also has positive impacts on productivity and satisfaction of members with the organization.  Coaching also improves communication witch is key to success within organizations.  Coaching can improve interpersonal relationships as well helping people and organization achieve their short and long term goals.

My organization uses coaching every day.  We are always teaching others how to improve their process and procedure to try to increase productivity and keep morale high.  When people are happy to come to work they normally will be better workers and help make the organization a better place.  By using coaching in my organization we ensure everyone knows enough about each other’s job so that if one person is out for any reason than the rest of us can step up and fill in.  We all have the confidence and motivation and understanding to do this and it helps my organization run very smoothly and effectively.

 

Goleman, D. (2000). Leadership that Gets Results. Harvard Business Review, 78(2), 78-90.

The GROW Model. (2016). Performance Consultants International. Retrieved from:

http://www.performanceconsultants.com/grow-model

Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex Adaptive Leadership Embracing Paradox and Uncertainty. New

York, NY. Taylor & Francis Group.

von Hoffman, C. (1999). Coaching: The ten killer myths. Harvard Management Update, 4(1), 4.