Coaching For Success And Improvement (By: Nick Terzis )
We live in a constantly changing world and a marketplace that is challenging organisations to strive for sustainable success and improved performance. Even the most successful companies cannot rest on their laurels because today’s excellence is not necessarily the recipe for tomorrow’s success.
How many times have we heard that the real competitive advantage is people? This is not a glib tag line, but a fundamental truth. People who learn are nimble and adaptable are more likely to gain and sustain the edge in the marketplace for their organisations.
Coaching is one proven method, which helps translate the rhetoric of “people are our important asset” by unleashing the potential of people to optimize the performance of their companies. It is a pre-requisite competency for leaders, managers and supervisors who have a genuine commitment to investing in people’s growth.
There are many definitions of coaching, but it is best embodied in the definition by Skiffington & Zeus (2000): “Coaching is a conversation, a dialogue, whereby a coach and coachee interact in a dynamic exchange to achieve goals, enhance performance and move the coachee forward to greater success”. Coaches help individuals establish new actions, behaviours and skills through listening, observing, challenging and guiding people to learn for themselves. The coach focuses the mind on exploring rather than fixing problems.
The Coaching for Success and Improvement workshop builds particpants’ skills in guiding individuals towards success in new and challenging situations in addition to situations requiring improved performance. One of the ways it does this is through the use of models, tools and frameworks to build and enhance coaching skills.
One such model is the GROW (an acronym for Goal- Reality Options –Way Forward model, which provides a sequence of questions for coaching sessions. It starts with the coach asking questions of where is the individual heading (Goal) and establishing where they currently are (Reality), before exploring the various ways (Options) of making the journey. In the final step, establishing the Way Forward, the coach ensures the individual is committed to making the journey and is prepared for the conditions and obstacles they may meet on their way.
Coaching is not just another HR fad, but a key leadership tool that when applied effectively is a powerful driver of unlocking the potential of a company’s most important asset –its people – leading to improvement in employee and business performance.