COACHING INCREASES PRODUCTIVITY

A strategic and tactical tool for those who want to stay ahead.

Coaching is one of the most strategic and tactical tools available to business today.

Coaching has become a popular mainstream way of developing individuals, teams, managers and executives in organisations. In our rapidly changing world and workplace, new work habits and skills are required. A good reputation today does not guarantee continued success tomorrow. Professionals need to constantly condition, innovate, motivate and refresh their work styles, skills and behaviours. In today’s competitive and dynamic business environment, coaching isn’t a luxury, it is often a necessity.

Coaching is the powerful, collaborative relationship between a coach and willing individual, which enables, through a process of discovery, goal setting and strategic actions and the realisation of extraordinary results. Coaching is interdevelopmental, in that collaboration develops the coach and the individual being coached. It is also a body of knowledge, a technology and a style of relating that focuses on the development of human potential.

The process of coaching assists in the meaningful utilisation of information and provides clarity and focus which expedites efficient and effective goal setting, strategy and action. It thus drives the achievement of positive results. The executive coach collaborates with line managers to identify the specific competencies that they require for success in their institution; this assists them in defining short and long-term business, management, and behavioural goals and competencies linked to the institution's strategic business plans and the individual’s own personal long-term career objectives.

A coaching session begins with an overview and understanding of the individual’s professional background, how the individual got to where he is in his career, what he expects to gain from coaching and where he wants to go in his life. The coach then acts as a guide to assist in setting and achieving specific goals.

A coach works privately with the individual and provides objective, professional support and guidance to increase performance, satisfaction and fulfilment. This is accomplished by the coach and individual building on and enhancing the talents that the individual already has, and assisting him to acquire the extra skills and perspectives that he or she desires and needs.

In the organisational environment, coaching uses the dynamics of the company, teams and individual members to enable the coaching process to evolve the individual’s capacity for learning and renewal. This frequently leads to the achievement of goals and often, surprisingly, breakthrough results.

Coaching differs from training in that training provides knowledge to individuals and it assists in the process of internalisation of knowledge. Coaching facilitates the transformation of skills and knowledge into positive action and results. Research indicates that combining training with coaching substantially increases productivity.

In an article in the Harvard Business Review, January to February 1998, entitled ‘The employee customer profit chain at Sears’ by Rucci, Kirn and Quinn, a model was developed to study the effects of executive coaching in a public sector municipal agency.

All 31 managers underwent a conventional managerial training program, followed by eight weeks of personal executive coaching. The training, which included goal-setting, collaborative problem solving, practice, feedback, supervisory involvement, evaluation of end results and a public presentation, increased productivity by 22,4%. Compared to training alone, training and coaching together increased productivity by 88%.

Effective leadership requires emotional intelligence and the ability to understand and manage intentions, emotional responses and communications. Business and line managers have more pressure than ever before to produce results, yet they are often promoted through job expertise alone without the emotional intelligence and work-life balance skills necessary to sustain them. A competent coach develops these aspects in the individual and provides him with a clear pathway for ongoing professional and personal development.

In recent research by Daniel Goleman, author of Working with Emotional Intelligence, the business case for coaching is strongly presented in its application to enhance and expand the emotional intelligence of leaders. Continual self-discovery is crucial to the development of a leader’s own emotions, team and social skills. These enable him or her to lead effectively in today’s business world.

Goleman recommends that leaders, executives and motivated professionals relentlessly seek the truth about themselves. He recommends the coaching process for self-discovery and personal reinventing.

The coaching process, with its focus on self-assessment, as well as purposeful and appropriate assessment of one’s self by others in the workplace, provides the ideal vehicle for personal and professional growth. It is a strategic and tactical tool for those who want to stay ahead.

Dr Sandra Perkins is a Director of Orion Business Solutions and Dr Antoinette Gmeiner is a Master Executive Coach and the CEO of Orion Business Solutions.