6.5 THE SKILLS YOU NEED TO BE AGREAT BOSS: Helping People Get to Know Themselves

(EXTRACTION FROM TEAM MANAGEMENT: Coaching Your Team at http://www.mindtools.com)

 

Coaching to Develop Self-Awareness

Developing self-awareness is important both in the workplace and at home for better relationships and for a more fulfilling life.  By understanding how we relate to others, we will be able to adjust our behaviour so that we can deal with others positively.  In understanding what upsets us, we can actually improve our self-control.  By understanding our weaknesses, we can learn how to manage it.

People can develop self-awareness on their own.  Coaching can be a better way of helping people view their own actions and reactions objectively.

SIX APPROACHES TO HELP OTHERS BUILD THIS SELF-AWARENESS
Using Psychometric Tests	·        useful for giving people an objective view of how they behave, and how they compare in outlook with others ·        able to categorize them by the personality traits or preferences they show ·        can point out the similarities and differences between people ·        examples: o   the Big Five or OCEAN model – looks at five main features of human personality: §  Openness, §  Conscientiousness, §  Extraversion, §  Agreeableness, and §  Neuroticism o   the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator   (or MBTI) – useful for: §  understanding our preferences for interacting with others, §  how we like to receive information, and §  how we make decisions
Sampling New Experiences	·        reactions or responses to new environments, new people, or new demands can help understand how to deal with some of the more familiar aspects of our lives ·        encourage people to explore unfamiliar roles or situations ·        the key is to help interpret the experience, and ensure that any learning from it passes back into the coachee's day-to-day life
Telling Your Life Story	·        stories can reveal whether people really understand who they are, and why their lives have turned out in the way they have ·        questions and feedback often make the difference between a story that's just told, and a story that's really heard and understood
Daily Writing	·        By writing down thoughts and feelings on a daily basis, you build fluency ·        captures the mood of the moment ·        can help the writer understand the range of emotions experienced
Defining Your Role	·        We all play many roles in life; colleagues, family or friends ·        builds a picture of how we see ourselves relative to others
Using the Coach as a Mirror	·        coaches are the perfect "mirror" for coachees to see themselves as they really are ·        coach's role here is to help the people they're coaching to be honest and straightforward when observing their own behaviors and actions

Self-awareness is important in helping us to make the right choices in life, and to understand how we relate to others.  Working with values and beliefs doesn't mean its challenging people's religious outlooks or personal philosophies.  We work hard to get the things we want and need in life.  Those needs and wants will vary greatly from person to person.  Our behaviors don't always follow the pattern of simply working hard to get what we want.

6.4 THE SKILLS YOU NEED TO BE A GREAT BOSS: Achieving Full Potential

(EXTRACTION FROM TEAM MANAGEMENT: Coaching Your Team at http://www.mindtools.com)

 

High-Performance Coaching

High-performance coaching is about helping all people reach their full potential.  This means working with people to improve their performance at work.  High-performance coaching may also involve working with other people within your organization – collaborating with other managers and leaders to make the workplace a high-performance organization.

The approaches and techniques used in high-performance coaching borrow heavily from the worlds of sport and the military.  It usually starts with finding out people's "starting points" (their visions or life ambitions), then moves on to explore the directions in which people need to move to achieve those visions, and the steps they need to take now to do so.

High-performance coaching helps people explore their motivation, and overcome the blockers that hold them back.  It's particularly useful for the following:

Using High-Performance Coaching

Long-range career or life planning

Navigating career change points

Making fundamental changes to performance or behavior

Handling major life setbacks

The Flow Model introduced by positive psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, in 1990

This model shows the emotional state that we're likely to experience when trying to complete a task, depending on the perceived difficulty of the challenge, and our perceptions of our skill levels

Emotional Interference Gallwey's simple formula: Performance = Potential - Interference "interference" generally means emotional interference: ·        Fear o   most obvious and most inhibiting emotion o   many fears are unfounded o   the minds play negative tricks on us to keep us safe ·        Guilt o   drive inappropriate work-life balance ·        Worry o   Some people seem to worry about everything o   Worry can lead to physical problems such as poor sleep, bad eating habits, and ultimately, exhaustion

In coaching, building this rapport is even more important.  Mutual trust is critical in a coaching relationship, and building rapport can help people gain that trust.  the main characteristics of our behavior that help to build trust as credibility, reliability, intimacy, and care.

6.3 THE SKILLS YOU NEED TO BE A GREAT BOSS: Informal Coaching for Managers

(EXTRACTION FROM TEAM MANAGEMENT: Coaching Your Team at http://www.mindtools.com)

 

Coaching should be something that all managers do with their teams.  It helps to improve a person's performance, and deal with any issues before these become major problems.

FIVE POINT GUIDE FOR USING INFORMAL COACHING
Be patient, and change your perspective ·        Take time to explore the current and upcoming workloads of team members ·        adjust schedule to the demands placed upon your team ·        Be aware of what members of your team are doing ·        be available so that you can offer support and informal coaching if required
Be aware of a people's moods ·        be more sensitive to other people's emotions ·        Learn to recognize small changes in behavior and body language ·        note how people react when a task or project has been successful
Ask for permission before coaching ·        always ask whether it's a good time to take a few minutes for a coaching conversation
Coach – don't manage or direct ·        Avoid offering advice or direction and calling it "coaching."
Use informal moments to make the best use of time ·        use informal moments like sitting in the break room, or passing the person in the hallway ·        use time at the end of a meeting that ends early, or when traveling together to a client's office or other work location ·        The spirit of informal coaching is to be spontaneous, efficient, and professional

6.2 THE SKILLS YOU NEED TO BE A GREAT BOSS: Improving Productivity by Improving Relationships

(EXTRACTION FROM TEAM MANAGEMENT: Coaching Your Team at http://www.mindtools.com)

 

Coaching is a useful way of developing people's skills and abilities, and of boosting performance.  It can also help deal with issues and challenges before they become major problems.  People are much more likely to engage with solutions that they have come up with themselves, rather than those that are forced upon them!  Coaching is considered to be a positive and proven approach for helping others explore their goals and ambitions, and then achieve them.

Teams are the force that drives most organizations.  When members of a team don't work well together, performance and productivity can suffer.  People must learn to work together and understand how to relate to one another.

Team coaching helps people understand how to work better with others.  To coach your team, focus on interpersonal skills and interactions instead of on individual development.  The way people act with their teammates, and the way they communicate with one another are important drivers of effective team performance.

Start team coaching by understanding the dynamics of the team.  Personality and behavior assessments are great tools for improving a team's understanding of its own dynamics, and they give team members a better understanding of why they react to their colleagues in certain ways.  With a greater level of understanding, team members begin to see one another differently.  This allows them to adjust their own behavior for better results, and they're able to interpret others' behavior with more insight and empathy.

Understanding other people's perspectives is a great way to improve relationships with them.  Developing a clear set of behavior and communication expectations is an important aspect of team coaching.  A great way to formalize these expectations is with a team charter.

People have competing values, and these create a major obstacle to team unity and effectiveness.  Identify the sources of competing values – and find ways to fix them.  Be supportive of individual development.

6.1 THE SKILLS YOU NEED TO BE A GREAT BOSS: Coaching and Mentoring

(SHORT NOTES FROM TEAM MANAGEMENT: Coaching Your Team at http://www.mindtools.com)

 

As a leader, one of your most important roles is to coach your people to do their best.  Some people are fortunate enough to get formal training in coaching.

The GROW Model is a simple yet powerful framework for structuring your coaching   or mentoring   sessions.  GROW stands for:

1.    Goal.

2.   Current Reality.

3.   Options (or Obstacles).

4.   Will (or Way Forward).

The GROW Model by performance coach Sir John Whitmore
Establish the Goal	·        look at the behavior that you want to change ·        structure this change as a goal ·        Make sure that this is a SMART goal: one that is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound
Examine the Current Reality	·        describe the current reality
Explore the Options	·        determine what is possible ·        brainstorm as many good options as possible ·        discuss and decide on the best ones
Establish the Will	·        commit to specific actions ·        establish will and boost motivation ·        review progress