Sponge-worthy:Coaching Employees for Better Performance: Part I

Well, after being encouraged by my company's CEO to write more - "technical" weblogs, I took the cue to at least write more regularly. Honestly, being in a project management role for a remote team in day to day work, I use technical work (software design and coding for me) , is more therapeutic than second nature, which I can write about. (So, my apologizes to the big guy in my company, but I will keep trying...)

In this blog entry, I write about couple of things. The main topic being the recent seminar I attended about coaching employees.

The second being tip to all the employers (US based only) in Atlanta (GA), Dallas (TX), Houston (TX) and Charlotte (NC) area, who want save on some training budget...:)

First the tip, Matrix Resources (http://www.matrixresources.com) organizes free executive seminars one several management and human resource topics. These are half day seminars and organized after lunch. (Yes, there are free sodas and snacks). The feedback, I have from people who have attended has been very positive and I am told that most of the speakers are very knowledgeable and impressive. And did I mention it was - FREE ! (Umm... yes I did)

Click here to to find about Free seminars in your area from Matrix Resources -

The coaching seminar was conducted by Carol A. Hacker (http://www.carolahacker.com). Carol, is NOT a hacker, as her name suggests...:) (but she may have married one...)

In fact, she is very inspirational person with a great sense of humor and accommodate nature. She has overcome serious medical condition in her life and has become a successful business consultant. She has held many interesting positions including a tasting expert on advisory board of Miller Brewing Co. (Makers of Miller and Miller Lite). (You can't get "higher" than that, can you?)

Her approach to conduct the seminar was very participative, where in she divided the audience into team of minimum 4 and maximum of 5 members in a group. Standing rule, no two members should be currently working together. (Umm... Honestly, we (me and my partner in crime) broke this rule...).

During the course of the seminar, she involved the audience in several exercises and asking the team to pick a different team leader for each exercise on some interesting rules (person wearing the newest pair of shoes, person with most pets, person with maximum number letters in their name are examples)

Here are some salient points (or nuggets as Carol will call it) :

• Coaching (def.): is a manner of communicating that keeps the conversation positive and focused on successful outcome. It presupposes that the employees have the answer and the coach is simply the person who "holds the mirror" while the employee re-adjust the behaviors based upon the truth they see now.
  
  (Source: Presentation Slide by Carol A. Hacker )
  
  
• When should a manager consider coaching?
  
  (a) When the manager wants the employee to challenge status quo.
  (b) When the manager detects a sense of frustration in the employee
  (c) When the manager feels that the employee is not performing well.
  
  (Source: In Team discussion)
  
  
• Coaching takes commitment, time and practice.
  
  No surprises here. Both the coach and the person being coached should be ready to spend the time and effort related to coaching. Also, as any other applied skill, it takes practice to perfect the process.
  
  
• Caveats abound...
  
  Because of an employee - manager relationship, true level of trust required for coaching may never be achieved. (That does not mean, that one should stop trying).
  
  Use of emotion free language (verbal/non-verbal) is a must. Most managers are not trained in this or accustomed to this.
  
  Managers have a tendency to fall back on old management techniques, under pressure.
  
  
• Common characteristics of good coach as described by the audience - patience, knowledgeable, good humor, aware of his/her limitation, flexible and persistence.
  
  
• Role of a coach
  
  Achieve results and excellence through others rather personally taking charge of everything.
  
  Focus on developing employees in order to achieve business results than micro-managing them.
  
  Create an environment that fosters learning, independent thinking and opportunity to contribute.
  
  (Source: Presentation Slide by Carol A. Hacker )
  
  

The seminar was a half day seminar (about 4 hours long including 3 breaks). So I believe I should cover it in 2 blog entries.

Next time, some more from the seminar... Coaching behavior, different level of performers and coaching approach for each of them and some more coaching tips...