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Mastering the Art of Coaching: A Guide to Leading Effective and Productive Sessions
Workplace leaders have to wear a lot of hats:
· Leader
· Manager
· Coach
· Trainer
· Performance manager
· Counsellor
· Mentor
These roles are all similar and overlapping but they are not the same.
Leadership is strategic and high-level. It’s heart stuff: values, purpose, motivation, inspiration. Management is functional. It’s head stuff: tasks, budgets, rosters. If management is fixing potholes in the team’s road, leadership is climbing a tree, looking around, and declaring “wrong road”! Training is solving skill and knowledge gaps in team members. Performance management is feedback, comparing expected results to actual results and working up a plan with team members on how that gap gets shrunk. Counselling is appropriate compassion and support on personal issues be they work-related or not. Workplace leaders need to be careful not to go where it’s inappropriate with counselling. Mentoring is an ongoing relationship between someone starting out on a journey with someone who has already done that journey. Think Luke Skywalker and Yoda.
And, that leaves coaching. This isn’t coaching using the common sports metaphor of a sports coach. A sports coach is an expert and is probably a trainer, leader, manager, performance manager and counsellor. Coaching in the sense that I use it is the asking of provocative questions to drive personal development in an individual that has a goal and / or has gotten stuck. It’s not for everyone. It’s not necessarily about a work issue or a problem or a matter of non-performance. But it might be.
Coaching is usually short-term, one-on-one, and with a singular goal. The effort needs to come from the person being coached. It’s more about motivation, realisation, and helping individuals get out of their own way. The coach does far less of the talking and most of that talking is questions. It’s likely to take a few sessions but it’s not going on forever. If the coachee isn’t into it, it won’t work so know when to call it quits.
The mission of this monthly newsletter is to capture and distribute what we at The People Engagement Experts have picked up that passes as wisdom in a form that is directly practical and useful. What trainers like me might call 'takeaways'. Things like infographics, checklists, and templates. Books, presentations and training courses are great (as an author, speaker & trainer, I would say that) but most days they're a bit much and people have work to do. This newsletter will feature one short-form tool each month. This month, it’s SOAR – a coaching process that stops you falling into the trap of doing all the talking and having all the answers.
We start with the S of SOAR for Status Quo – asking the coachee questions to get them to honestly and accurately summarise their current situation.
We move to the O of SOAR for Objectives – what do they specifically want and why?
From there, the coachee has homework – to research and reflect to draft up a list of Alternatives. That’s the A inSOAR.
Finally, for now at least, the R inSOAR stands for recipe. What do they need, what’s the plan, and how does accountability get maintained?
You can also download a free one-page checklist of open coaching questions, and the 'questioning diamond' model was the subject of a previous newsletter, to get better buy-in from your coachee.
Have a crack. Let me know how you get on, and any thoughts on the concept or practice.
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