You have a new member on your team, new to the organisation even. How do you support and challenge them? If they don’t know how to do the job, then of course, training is the right intervention, at least to start with. But if they have already done the job somewhere else, and are motivated
Conversations
Team Meetings ~ Leader as Coach: When to use a Coach Approach
So far, we’ve looked at one-to-ones and feedback that uses a coach approach. Let’s move on to team meetings. As always, contracting is really important, to ensure that everyone knows what they are there for. What’s the purpose of the meeting, what are the desired outcomes and what will success look like by the end
Corridor Conversations ~ Leader as Coach: When to use a Coach Approach
Coaching, contrary to popular belief, doesn’t need to be a one hour conversation hidden behind closed doors away from the work, it can be short and sweet too, ‘corridor conversations’. Tweet This! Afterall, as Teresa Amabile says, any progress is good progress. Here are three scenarios. Great opportunities for a bit
Giving Frequent Feedback ~ Leader as Coach: When to use a Coach Approach
Within your one-to-ones, and as you see things that merit it, you will want to give frequent feedback to keep your employee motivated and on-track. Creating and delivering a specific message based on observed performance is vital to effective feedback. You may have told a fellow manager, a co-worker or even your boss that he
One to Ones ~ Leader as Coach: When to use a Coach Approach
When to use a Coach Approach – Overview Previously, you’ve read here that it’s more difficult for a leader to coach his or her team members directly, due to the conflict of interest that you have: you want them to perform well in this role, where they may want to discuss a move to a
Pacy coaching: Go slow to go fast
I’m going discuss pacy coaching; some people think that asking questions that enable a person to think through a solution for themselves is slower than telling people what to do. They are right, but only in the short-term. In the long-term, however, telling people what to do does not develop their capacity to think for
Leader as Coach: Creating Awareness
Creating awareness comes bit by bit, and then all at once. Slowly, slowly, we (the leader as coach) help the other person to get clear on what they want to figure out; we ask questions that get them to a place of new knowing; we listen in a way that allows us to play back
Leader as Coach: Active Listening
Active listening is as much about silence as anything else. Silence is golden. That includes in your role as leader coach. Silence allows the thinker to think. So, get comfortable with silence. And when the thinker does speak, pay attention. Notice what they are saying, but also how they are saying it, and what their
Leader as Coach: Establishing Trust and Intimacy
Establishing Trust and Intimacy with the person you are coaching is paramount if they are to do their best thinking. They need to feel confident that they can be vulnerable and share their truths, their whole truths and nothing but their truths. If they keep certain things to themselves for fear of being judged, they
Leader as Coach: Establishing the Coaching Agreement/ Contracting
In this series about coaching competencies, we move to establishing the coaching agreement, or in one word, contracting. If you add contracting to your conversations, those conversations are much more likely to be transformational, as they will be focused rather than meandering. There are three aspects to contracting: The Big C contracting before the coaching
Leader experience
I look at everything through an “experience” lens. Customer experience, employee experience, coachee experience. I’ve recently turned my thoughts to the leader experience. What makes work a great experience for leaders? They are employees of course, so the employee experience relates just as much to them as it does to anyone else at any
The importance of place
Today’s post is by my very perceptive colleague William Buist. Our conversations occur in many interesting place, that enable us to do our best thinking together. William writes: I’ve run Mastermind groups for many years and they are enormously powerful gatherings that lead people to both expose elements of their business, and themselves, to scrutiny in ways that
The magic in the middle of coaching
I’m being facetious of course, talking about magic in the middle of coaching. But if you can create a shift in the room, that does feels pretty special. To create that shift, we don’t tell people what to do. That’s more likely to create push-back, even if it’s not immediate. People tend to do things
When coaching, endings are critical
Most of the value in a coaching conversation comes from what happens after we have left it. So great endings are critical to make sure that value actually materialises. In my work, I use CLOSE to remind managers as coaches how to wrap up well. It’s great for team meetings too – no need to
When coaching, start with the end in mind
Stephen Covey reminds us to start with the end in mind. Any great coaching session will do just that, starting with the end in mind. In my work, I use a model to contract well, called CONTRACT. Whether you are a professional coach or a manager as coach, it works to provide a container within which new
The Alchemy of Conflict
Today, I welcome Penny Gundry, a good friend and colleague. Penny writes: I have worked for many years in companies who are experiencing conflict. When I met a man who also works in this area, I was particularly struck by how he described his work. He used the analogy of the alchemist. Historically the term
