Sometimes it seems as though we’re living in a world gone crazy! Every day we are bombarded with change. With finger pointing, blaming somebody else, maintaining an attitude of 100% Responsibility can be difficult. In these tumultuous times it’s tempting to ignore the people around us and focus only on our own sanity and survival. This is not healthy! When we focus on ourselves, our world gets smaller and our problems and anxieties get larger. But when we focus on others, our world expands and our own problems seem to get smaller.
Now is the perfect time to seek out opportunities to coach our direct reports, as well as other high potential people in our organization.
What is coaching? The International Coach Federation defines coaching as “partnering with people in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.”
More than ever, we need to focus resources on what really matters – accelerating the development of people and keeping them engaged. We believe coaching is the best way to make this happen, and recommend three different types of coaching during these chaotic times:
Critical Short-Term coaching
Strengths coaching
Group coaching
Critical Short-Term Coaching
Critical Short-Term Coaching is appropriate when we need to accelerate development of people who are underperforming or assuming new responsibilities. It requires us to get to the heart of the issues fast, set short-term goals, and get quick buy-in to desired outcomes. The focus is on taking action and developing new habits, while holding people accountable for results. For the duration of the coaching, encourage them to have feed-forward conversations with other stakeholders and weekly update meetings with you.
Strengths Coaching
When we are using our innate strengths, we are more motivated, committed, and engaged in our work. Better yet, when we are using our strengths, our work is effortless and we actually perform better under stress. So given our current situation, doesn’t it make sense to coach our people to discover, develop, and leverage their strengths? Encourage them to view their world through “strengths-colored glasses,” reengineer their work where possible, and talk to you about how they can contribute more using their strengths.
Group Coaching
Group Coaching is sometimes the most effective and efficient way to help others maximize their personal and professional potential. In addition, when we coach a group, it can have the added benefit of building trust and improving communication. Group coaching is appropriate when everyone needs to develop the same competency and can be a powerful learning experience!
Group Coaching Process
Create a safe environment
Facilitate an open discussion
Agree to take certain actions
Follow Team Trek’s Experiential Learning Process:
What happened? Observation
What did you learn? Interpretation
How will you apply what you’ve learned? Application
Whatever type of coaching we do, we should ask those we are coaching to complete a brief Action Learning Plan. It will greatly increase their chances of success and help them focus on what’s really important when their job and everything around them is changing.
When life’s moving at warp speed, coaching helps us to develop, engage, and become more available to our people. As we maximize their potential, we fulfill our own purpose and potential. There is no better way to cope with chaos, expand our world, and achieve results...and we must start today.