Three Critical Steps to Coaching Executives within Your
Organization
By Mark David
Originally published in Info-line: The How-To Reference Tool for
Training & Performance Professionals, published by the American
Society for Training & Development.
September 2001
A Coach's Guide to Leadership
Organizations look to their coaches and trainers for answers and
guidance. Today, executives have more to accomplish with less
resources - limited funds, fewer facilities, less equipment, and,
often, downsized staff. They need a coach to show them how to reach
their full potential as managers in order to leverage their most
valuable resource - their people.
Coaches see and communicate what others can't see. They research
and uncover what is needed for change and convey methods for
getting there. As a coach or trainer, it is your job to preplan and
strategize ways to teach, guide, and help executives move in the
direction they need to go. Even as you coach your organization's
leaders, it is you who must take the lead.
Coaching has become a platform for communication within
organizations. Great coaches have the ability to communicate on a
consistent basis and have mastered being great communicators - in
writing and verbally, in groups, and in one-on-one meetings. Great
coaches have extraordinarily good listening skills. They not only
motivate and instruct, but show others how to reflect upon
themselves. It takes a gifted person to be able to stop people in
their tracks and honestly assess themselves.
Great coaches study their landscape. They are at once
super-generalists and specialists. As generalists, they know many
things about their organization - the industry, its economics, the
goals of the company, political implications of actions and
decisions, and the interplay between management and front-line
employees. As specialists, coaches know where to find the data and
knowledge to communicate real-world facts with the executives they
coach. They read and study voraciously. They are self-taught.
Great coaches are extremely proactive in the way they behave,
interact, and coach others; they pull the wagon forward rather than
pushing from behind. They are centered, confident, and
down-to-earth. They match their actions to their words. They are an
example, demonstrating focus, consistency, and follow-through. They
are conscious of what's right and wrong. They have incredible
integrity in the big things and the small. Great coaches show
others how to behave through their own actions and find hundreds of
opportunities each month to model exceptional behavior. They, of
all people, don't just talk the talk; coaches walk the walk.
Executives aren't the only ones with limited resources; coaches are
feeling the pinch of economic downsizing as well. You have only so
much time each day to coach others in the behaviors and thought
processes needed for success. Great coaches don't restrict
themselves to one-on-one meetings or closed doors. They find ways
to coach the people in their organizations on-the-spot, in the
field, throughout their day - and so must you.
In order to be effective and have executives respond openly and
positively, you must follow three critical steps: (1) build trust
and rapport, (2) help each executive create a plan to achieve their
goals, and (3) help them create a connection between themselves and
their front line.
The Three Critical Steps
Step 1: Build Trust and Rapport
Step 2: Help Executives Create a Plan to Achieve Their Goals
Step 3: Show Executives How to Create a Connection with Their Front
Line
Conclusion
Article Side-Bars
How to Open People Up with Qualifying Questions
Trap Doors for Coaching Executives
The Importance of Sharpening Your Coaching Skills
The Real-World Benefits of Having a Coach
Why Executives Resist Coaching
|
