I was witnessing a performance feedback session between a Manager and his team member.
Manager: We agreed in the last meeting that you will complete this project last week.
Team member: Yes, but you asked me to do these other activities which has taken a lot of time.
Manager: Don’t give me an excuse. You should have come back to me if you couldn’t prioritise.
Team member: Silence….
This is neither a feedback session nor coaching for improvement ….
What is Performance Coaching:
“Performance Coaching is a professional interaction between the Manager and his team members which leads to Performance Improvement.”
The above conversation is nether a professional discussion nor will lead to any performance improvement. At the most it will help the manager to vent out his anger and a resultant demotivation of the team member.
Leaders as Coaches:
One of the important competencies that differentiates a leader from a Manager is the his ability to influence his team to go for the vision set for the team.
Can someone be influenced?
Even though the textbook definition of influence is “the art of getting someone to do what you want them to do”, I believe it has to be intrinsic. Any external influence could be temporary, due to fear of punishments or to avoid embracement. It doesn’t trigger the inner transformation for a better performance. The true development comes when the individual realises the inner need for change.
How do we make someone realise the inner need for change?
This is exactly where the Coaching competencies becomes very important.
1. Creating Trust and Intimacy:
Trust is an emotional bank account. You need to deposit trust before expecting to withdraw (expect from others). It take time before the deposits could mature and withdrawal is permitted . Hence managers have to work on building the trust with their team. A safe space has to be provided for the team members to express themselves. Trust leads to approachability.
2. Active Listening:
Apart from providing a safe space the manager need to listen with a curiosity to know what really went wrong from the perspective of the team member. This gives the time for the team member, to expresses his views and also gives a chance to the manager to understand the emotions and through not only the words expressed but also the tone and body language.
3. Powerful Questioning:
A good conversation always starts with an open ended question. For example:
“Manager : What do you think we could have done to avoid this situation”
An open ended question makes the employee to think and express his views, which reflects their thoughts, beliefs and values. The manager then can lead the employee to explore a bit deeper into themselves. This exploration will take them to unchartered territories within themselves (the blind spots within). This triggers the need for change within and the transformation is profound and long lasting.
4. Creating Awareness:
Such deep explorations creates new awareness about oneself. For example in the above conversation:
“Manager : What are your learnings from this.
Team member : I should have approached you for assistance to prioritise well in time”
Such awareness leads new learning for the employee and it helps to explore how these learnings are going to put in practice in the times to come.
5. Action Planning & Goal Setting
One of the key competencies of the coaching framework is to set the actions to be taken by the client and clear goals set with dates for review. This can be well used in the above example.
“Manager : How would you like to go about approaching this now.
Manager : Is there anyone who could support you in this process or Is there anything I can do to support you in this.”
Coaching as a process, takes time to bring the realisation among the employees, but it is worth the time spent. For a Manager to move into a leadership role coaching competencies become a necessity. People Development is a key metric for any leader. Unless we bring the real transformation among our employees how do we develop them. And the real transformation comes when the inner realisation happens. Coaching is the best tool for bringing this realisation.
COACHING SKILLS DIFFERENTIATES A MANAGER FROM A LEADER
