There is no doubt that coaching in the workplace will improve performance and morale when done properly.Think back to someone who helped you to develop your skills. Whether it was in sports, or a family member, or perhaps a mentor, there is no denying the powerful impact that a coach can have in your life. When a coach is active in the workplace, his or her influence can have a dynamic impact on the productivity of the entire team, as well as the individuals.
Coaching is extremely important if you want to impact an organization and drive performance that will increase revenue and morale.This happens when leaders conduct the type of coaching that their team members will look forward to with excitement.Coaching will help create the culture by design, rather than by default, and it will ignite the team members’ commitment to the leader and the organization.
Sometimes coaching can happen spontaneously when a performance issue is important enough to address immediately.However, designing an on-going coaching game plan will create consistency of timing and feedback.Over time, you will see the performance of the individuals and the team grow tremendously.
I’ve never met a leader that disagrees with the characteristic benefits of coaching.However, they do have what they consider some very good reasons why coaching doesn’t happen.Let’s review the top 5 barriers to coaching in the workplace and how to overcome them.
No Time.
The real issue:
The number one reason I hear leaders say they don’t coach is that they simply don’t have time.In researching this issue, what the leader is really saying is this: “I don’t have time to coach someone for 30 minutes to an hour on a regular basis.”
Well, guess what?Very few busy leaders have this kind of time.
The solution:
If your coaching session is more than 8 minutes…it’s too long.You are most likely covering too many issues at once and doing all the talking.Remember, this is not an annual review.The basis of the coaching is to focus on one issue at a time and give room for improvement and understanding.
After spending years perfecting an 8-minute coaching model, I have discovered that you can revolutionize teamwork, productivity, and morale, all while saving time.On the average, a coaching for improvement session should last about 5 minutes, no more than 8 minutes.
The essence of coaching for improvement is to customize your approach based on the personality and history of the team member.Identify if there is a lack of understanding.Is there resistance? Or do they lack regard for the big picture?You ask questions that reveal each of these and act accordingly.This approach will prevent you from wasting time in discussing irrelevant or sidebar topics.
Leader Confuses Coaching with Counseling
The real issue:
Remember as a kid when you were being disciplined, if your parents chose the lecture route, it could be more painful than actual punishment. Listening over and over again to what you did wrong was painful then, and it’s much more painful now as an adult.
The solution:
Remember: Telling is not teaching.Coaching is not a focus on what you did wrong; it is a skillful participative approach to take you to a new level of performance.
Remember: It’s not coaching if it does not involve some form of demonstration, application, role-play or some type of job aid for the future.
On the other hand, counseling happens when there is a problem or violation of company policy.In counseling, the situation requires progressive discipline and a more direct approach.
Coaching will take a much more collaborative communication process than counseling. When your team understands the coaching difference, they will look forward to it, because they always want to win, and coaching helps them to keep the winning advantage.
Leaders Treat Symptoms Rather than Root Issues
The real issue:
As a leader, it’s not profitable to apply bandages where root issues have not been identified and resolved.Once the root issue is resolved, it can also correct additional performance issues both present, and in the future.
The solution:
It’s mind-boggling how often leaders fail to use their intuitive abilities in the workplace.Until you know someone’s real desire or agenda, it’s really difficult to know them.Proper discovery is always on the other side of the right questions.These questions will uncover three reasons for their lack of performance:understanding, resistance, or a lack of regard for the big picture.
Once you uncover the specific category, you can begin to resolve the root issue.For instance, you could give them the information on how to implement a required technique. However, if it’s because they feel the technique doesn’t work, giving them the know-how becomes a shallow answer to the real symptom of resistance.
Every leader should understand how to ask the right questions to get to the real root issues.
No Follow-up or Recognition of Improvement
The real issue:
You’ve heard it before.Allow me to repeat it.“If you don’t inspect what you expect, you will lose respect.”Example: You tell a teenager to clean his or her room, and they do as they are told.The problem remains, you never took the time to recognize and acknowledge that the expectation was fulfilled.Now, when you tell them to clean their room, they realize there’s no point in doing so because you won’t check anyway.
The solution:
I believe that the follow-up step is perhaps the most important step in any coaching conversation.It allows the team member to recognize the importance of the time spent together.It communicates that the conversation is important, and not just the “flavor of the month.”
It communicates that you care enough to make sure they fully comprehended the coaching session.Most of all, it allows the team member to demonstrate their improvement and achievements.
Remember during the follow-up conversation to recognize all improvements as well as lesser degrees of failure.
Leader Fails to Blend or Identify with the Team Member’s Personality
The real issue:
We don’t see things as they are, we see things as we are.Your team member can’t begin to do things for your reasons when they’ve been programmed throughout life, to do things for their reasons.The team member may have some personality differences or cultural differences that prevent them from seeing the challenge or opportunity the same way you do.
The solution:
When you began to ‘celebrate the differences’ and to accommodate the personality traits and the history of the team member, you will begin to understand how to speak change and improvement to them in their language, not yours.
There are lots of tools to help identify the primary personality traits of your team member.The challenge is to avoid negative stereotyping or placing anyone in a box.Use the personality information to help them process the coaching conversation in a way that makes it easier for them to both understand the message and implement it.
Every coaching conversation should be empowering and inspiring so that the team members know what to do next to improve the situation.
As a leader, you will discover removing these barriers will unlock performance so that both you and your team are continually experiencing…the best ever!
About Dr. Sandra Steen
Sandra Steen is founder and CEO of Sandra Steen Consulting, an organization committed to improving results and enhancing life for leaders and business owners. As a much sought-after speaker, consultant and coach, Sandra has traveled across the globe working with companies such as AT&T, Sony, Procter and Gamble, Shell Oil, Royal Caribbean, Dow Chemical as well as a host of other Fortune 500 companies and small to medium size businesses, universities, and non-profits. Sandra is well-known for balancing truth, humor, and transparency to shift frustrated audiences from non-performance to clarity and bottom-line results through a magnificent, creative and effective purpose-driven process.In her spare time, you can find Sandra pursuing her love of the arts, which recently landed her a small role in an upcoming movie documentary.
