Coaching for Profit

Have you ever noticed that when someone has a problem you usually can give them some viable solutions? And when it’s you who has the problem, confusion and emotional stress limit your ability to figure out what to do by yourself? This is not an atypical situation and you are normal as you may be glad to have confirmed. This is why consultants and friends exist. Someone who is objective stands in a better position to offer guidance. Coaching is a methodology that enables people to get help and improve performance.

When people improve, their confidence increases and they naturally want to continue doing what they like. This is known as intrinsic motivation. The benefit is derived when you do something repeatedly your competency increases as does the value you contribute to the organization. While another management coach could be helping you, how can you coach your associates and what’s the benefit? Executive coaching helps executives become more effective. Effect executives create more satisfied employees who in turn create more satisfied customers. Satisfied customers translate directly into higher profits. We all want that. So what is coaching and how can we achieve positive results through coaching?

Coaching is not teaching or managing. Not that those activities aren’t worthwhile but coaching is designed to help the client achieve personal meaning and more worthwhile purposes at work and in life in general.

Executive coaching is both person-centered and system-centered. A successful coaching intervention will benefit both the individual and the organization. You can hire a coach for yourself or others, or you can learn to become a coach yourself for your associates.

There are, however, political considerations. The employee may not likely be candid about the changes required for concern that the job may be in jeopardy. Coaching focuses on the client’s desire for change or achieving goals. The coach has the responsibility to conduct a diagnosis to determine the current state of reality. Then goals must be defined and the intervention is designed to close the gap and develop a plan for achievement of the goals. The purpose is to help the client perform to their best ability by determining what new skills should be developed to support growth. The process involves conversation, questioning and then making suggestions.

Take heart as the coach need not be an expert in the area of the client’s desired achievement. The coach plays the role of an interested and guiding facilitator by knowing what questions to ask, listening to the answers and making suggestions to move the process of change forward. Coaching benefits the client because the opportunity is developed for the client to discuss current activities and consider alternative methods of responses. The coach is a sounding board where the objectivity and progress can be assessed in a non-threatening atmosphere. The client gets to test thoughts and theories before putting plans into action. Better to practice in a no-risk situation than to alienate a client, vendor or fellow associate.

While it’s tempting to react immediately to a situation when it occurs, cooler heads would prove beneficial. Wait or schedule a time to separate from the daily operational activity and frame the meeting to analyze past behavior with a goal of improvement. The past should be examined for the benefit the learning experience that can be wisely invested for future gains.

To give you an idea of the questions to be asked and how a coaching intervention may operate, there’s a method developed by Mike Leibling and Robin Prior in their book Coach Made Easy. It’s called the “ABC Technique.” In part A, develop an understanding of the situation. Ask, “What were your thinking, feeling or needing? What are you scared of or what were you hoping for? What is important to you and what skills or information may you be missing? Remember to use appreciative inquiry and ask what was going well that you may have missed at the time and you can expand upon for the future?

Part B focuses on what could be better. Ask what is the best thing you could be thinking? What role could you have been playing to attain the best results from the situation? In your mind, what’s the best thing you could believe to be true so that you get the desired results from that situation? You would be using the creative power of your mind to develop an ideal scenario. In the absence of this type of successful creative projection your chances of accomplishment would be diminished. It would be well worth yours and your coach’s time to do some thinking and planning to design a more successful future.

In Part C, focus on understanding how things could be. What exactly will you be willing to do to get what you want? What could you ask and what could you answer when asked questions by others? Role playing can support a comfort level when trying new learned behaviors. The coaching approach provides a secure environment to test new ideas and listen to how they sound. Consider what you may want to stop doing. I was coached away from using certain standard phrases in my sales presentation. I had used them for so long, without feedback or examination that I didn’t realize how I was sounding. In a safe manner with my coach, I was able to change and even laugh about how I must have been perceived. My coach laughed harder but I didn’t mind!

Remember to be sensitive as a coach when guiding someone through changes even as positive and as beneficial as those new behaviors may be. Think about how you feel when you have to chosen to make changes. It may not be easy but it will be profitable both on a personal and professional basis.

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Joseph Greco is president of Greco Apparel. Visit them on the web at www.grecoapparel.com