Roles of coaches

• Provide tailored feedback

• As a workplace coach, you may need to provide detailed feedback to help people improve their
performance and achieve career goals.
• Work alongside team members
• You may need to monitor employee performance and shadow their progress throughout the day.
This allows you to track improvements when they approach extensive tasks during each shift.
• Answer career questions
• You may need to answer questions from employees about their progress. Starting from these
answers you can go even further by implementing workplace strategies, setting goals, and
recommending certain qualifications or work experience.
• Write regular reports
• As a coach, you might write detailed reports about the performance of the team and how they
respond to your feedback. You may evaluate their improvements at the end of each month and
determine who may need extra support
• Build training sessions
• You may prepare training sessions for people to join during the week, as this can help
them learn new strategies in the workplace. As a workplace coach, you can also build
independent training sessions that cater to specific people in the company.
• Encourage a positive attitude
• Managers typically want employees to stay positive in the workplace, as this can
improve productivity and help everyone feel comfortable. You may encourage people
to be more positive and suggest ways to help them
• Collaborate with managers
• You might have regular meetings with the manager that involve conversations about
employee performance and company objectives. This might help you discover the
manager's goals and what they want to achieve for the business.
Roles of coaches cont....
Recognize the strengths and achievements of others, celebrate
success, and map out ways to expand and reinforce progress
Courageously and skillfully work with team members to address
issues, concerns, and challenges that routinely occur in an
organization
Be coachable. Be open to feedback and input from team members,
colleagues and peers. Be willing to grow, develop, and learn.
QUALITIES OF A GOOD COACH
• Good coach is positive
• Enthusiastic
• Supportive
• Trustworthy
• Focused
• Goal oriented
• Observant respectful
Qualities of a good coach. Cont....
 Self-awareness
• How well do you understand yourself? How good is your coaching style, and how do employees receive it? These
are some of the questions you need to ask yourself when testing your effectiveness as a coach.
 . Bringing issues to the attention
• A good coach is specific about problem areas. Specificity fosters positive change and shows good leadership. It is,
therefore, essential to bring well-defined issues to the attention of the people with whom you are dealing.
 Well prepared for every session
• It is essential to schedule coaching sessions early. A coach needs to have solid topics for the coaching sessions- well
prepared with ideas, examples, and proper information. Coaching sessions will lack direction if they are not well
structured.
 Treating employees as business partners
• Coaches encourage the input of individuals and trusts that they will deliver. They show respect to their mentees.
Effective coaching should not have feelings of resentment.
 Understand mentees’ weaknesses and strengths
• Maximizing employee strengths makes the company get the best out of them. This focus means that employees will
feel valued, hence high productivity both as a team and individually.
 Stating clear expectations
• Both the coach and the employee should understand the purpose of each session. They should agree on the target so that the meeting ends
successfully.
 Set enough time
• A good coach allocates ample time for questions and concerns. This focus shows that they respect employees’ time. It also gives the
employees a chance to participate fully.
 Getting employees ideas
• A good coach listens to the ideas of those he or she is coaching. They should make these ideas part of the solution.
 Understanding the viewpoints of employees
• A coach who listens to the views of employees helps them uncover the possible causes of conflicts.
 Encourages employees
• It is your role as a coach to show optimism and encouragement to employees. For instance, when discussing a topic that seems
uncomfortable to the whole team, a good coach should quickly model a constructive and positive attitude for the employees to feel free to
discuss it.
 Coaching done with mutual respect is the most successful. Begin by showing respect to the employees, and the same will bounce back to
you, and you will make a good coach in the workplace.
Coaching Traps and Problems
 Lack of coachee commitment
 Some coaches are too complacent to grasp the benefits of coaching. They may find the exercise meaningless and will not commit to a coach/coachee relationship. Since coaching opportunities
tend to originate from management or HR, coachees, lacking ownership of the process, may resign to go through the motions without fully understanding the responsibilities that go with it.
 The temptation to ‘spoon-feed’
• It is easy for coaches to fall into the trap of giving instructions and closely directing the coachee through every step of a task or a change. It is essential to strike the right balance, allowing
coachees themselves to arrive at the solutions to their problems while ma-king sure they stay on the right track and moving forward. This can be tricky. Asking leading questions may not be
enough for coachees who lack the discernment skills to figure out what to do next.
 Dependence
Some coachees can become too dependent on coaches, relying on them as substitutes to handle tasks they find too daunting. To address these situations, coaches must manage expectations from
the very beginning. The coach/coachee roles & relationship must be made clear & explicit, reinforced during all coaching moments & conversations.
 Giving advice pre-mature
 Overpowering resistance
 Creating dependence
 Excessive support
• Insufficient support The organizational culture.
• Lack of understanding of the value of coaching.
• Not seen as a priority for the business.
• Resistance from senior management.
• Low levels of skills and experience within the organization.
• Lack of time and resources.
• Incorrect matching of mentors/coaches and learners
• lack of top-down support
• Resentment felt by those not involved in the scheme or the
perception of favoritism
• Creation of false promotional expectations
• Overdependence of the mentor or mentee
• Gender issues
• blurring of role boundaries and so on
• Leadership and management styles of the organisation – a smaller organisation, or family based business
may well have more directive approaches to leadership and management, which make the introduction of
a different ‘style’ more difficult.
• Credibility of internal coaches and mentors
• Demand for coaching vs. capacity to deliver
• Cost of external coaches
• Lack of engagement with stakeholders when introducing coaching
• Little understanding of the impact and benefits of coaching
• Treating coaching and mentoring as an ‘addition’ rather than integrating into already existing operational
approaches and practices.
• Poor communication skills
• Conflicting relationships
• Lack of commitment from learner
• Poor support from managers to those undertaking coaching
THE COACHING PROCESS
• 1. Identify the goals:
highlight outcomes desired from coaching eg stegths to leverage
( continue), limitations to address ( stop, let go), new leadership
behaviours to add( start)
Assess impact that achievement of these outcomes could have on
i)organization results
Leadership excellence
Personal fulfillment and legacy
• 2.understanding through assessment: This is a key step in any
coaching conversation and requires the coach to ask insightful
questions , actively listen, be comfortable with silence and see the
situation through multiple perspectives .Ask open ended and probing
follow up questions in to create a safe , accurate and positive
environment for the coaching participants to open up, self discover
an effectively work with the coach
2. Assess current state:
Gather additional data regarding strengths, limitations, new behaviours
Possible sources:
360 online surveys
360 interviews
Strucrutured assessment interviews
Diagnostic instruments
Performance feedback
Other feedback
• 3. Refine goals/ create plan
• Clarify and refine goals based on new data commit to change
• Draft a development plan
• Areas of focus
• Outcomes desired in one year
• Measurement of success
• Specific actions for next 30,60.90 days
4.Take action/coach
• Practice new and different behaviors
• On the job, special projects, community activities
• Work with coaching tools and framework
• Commit to a few simple work and personal practices to maximize
daily effectiveness
• Involve colleagues –feedforward
• Attend workshops as appropriate
• Read applicable books and periodicals , do other forms of self study
5.Measure / follow-up
• Track and evaluate results
• Reframe actions for next 90 days
• Set goals for next level contribution
• Confidentiality: all coaching conversations , feedback report
SKILLS IN COACHING
Questioning,
Giving feedback
Paraphrasing
 Working with emotions
 Building rapport.
 QUESTIONING SKILL
 A good coach and mentor will stand out by the questions they ask
 Hone questioning skills
 Open and closed ended questions
 Closed questions apply where we need someone’s agreement to something, if checking understanding, clarification seeking,
confirming something
 Open ended:
 Gets learners to provide more detailed information, ideas, opinion
 Help build relationships and rapport within coaching and mentoring relationship
 Encourage the learner to be more involved in the conversation and engage and commit around discussion
 Give the freedom for the learner to answer more openly, in their own way expressing feelings and emotion
 Allow the coach or mentor to get the learner to demonstrate their understanding of a decision, though, feeling or emotion
WH: What, where, who, when, how, not why
1.WHAT: Helps open up conversations, good for beginning awareness raising process
2WHEN;helps pinpoint both areas when there might be triggers to behavior's as well as gaining commitment to actions for change
3.How: this gets learner to consider approaches to implementing their ideas, demonstrating thinking process, at the same time giving
them and coach confidence or need to explore
WHY: Avoid why because it can be interpreted as a a challenge and potentially a challenge to someone’s fundamental values and beliefs
Types of questions;
• 1) Challenging questions: a way of getting the learner to consider ideas opportunities and
perspectives outside of their normal or typical thinking or stretching them outside of their
comfort zone.eg how do you know this is the best approach to consider
• 2) Clarifying : An approach by the coach to gain information to ensure they understand the
learners perspective and thinking eg where did you try it? Who did you get feedback from?
• 3)Hypothetical: used by the coach to get the learner to think differently by getting them to
use think in different contexts or situations eg what if you what if you were leading a team,
what would be your approach?
• 4)Comparing; gets the learner to think about identifying different ways or approaches eg
out of options what do you think is best fit
• 5)Probing questions; explore areas or answers in more detail eg what were your reasons for
taking that approach. What pat of conversation did you find difficult?
Developing coach questioning skills:
• Become more aware of your approach to questions by getting
feedback from peers, reports and colleagues on questions you ask
• Before going into meetings prepare set of open questions to draw
information out from meeting
• Practice your questioning and become more conscious of your
questioning
Listening Skill:
 Listen with curiosity, i.e. Convyeing , genuine interest in what others are saying
Take in what you hear
Reflect with accuracy- do not assume you have understood your coach
Pay attention- comfortable tone, do not finish sentences or cutting off, pay
attention to body language, be focused at the moment, make eye contact, respect
Clarify: do not be shy to ask questions about an issue eg what do you think about….
Summarize; Briefly summarize what you have understood
START HERE NEXTWEEK
Giving feedback skill; feedback gives information on past behaviour
Feedback makes employees understand their previous shortcomings so tha
they improve,.
HOW:
Positivity; to motivate, challenge
Specific; e.g avoid good job rather tell them what they did
Soon after: after the behavior or situation has occurred eg if he does well
say immediately
Use both positive and corrective feedback
Sincerity: ensure to be sincere in the feedback
 Building rapport skills.
Check your appearance
Active question
Check on your body language
Lead with empathy and respect
Good introduction
Good communication is basic
Find a common ground
Create shared experiences, be empathetic
PARAPHRASING
Paraphrasing is the second essential skill a coach must have on their
tool belt.
 Paraphrasing is generally defined as a way to express another person
or another speaker’s meaning using different words.
Sometimes paraphrasing brings greater clarity to the speaker’s
perspectives. Paraphrasing is taking the important aspects of what the
student, speaker, or teacher has said and rephrasing them in a
reflective, thoughtful manner.
Working with emotions: ( LISTEN EMPHATHICALLY)
 Working with emotion in the helping disciplines, whether in therapy, counselling or coaching, is
usually understood to mean the recognition and interception of clients’ feelings, such that they
are brought into consciousness in order to work with them in some way. This work might involve
some form of transformation of the emotion, attempts at regulation or just encouraging
acceptance so that they the client can move forward.
 Emotions play a significant role in everyone’s lives. It is inevitable therefore that coaches and
clients experience emotions during coaching sessions.
 Check their energy level, emotions present, tone of voice, words theu use
 In 2007, Bachkirova and Cox examined the personal theories of emotion that organizational
coaches hold, suggesting that ‘complex actions of individuals are affected by personal theories
even when they are not conscious and/or articulated’ (2007: 601).
 Their findings offer examples of what they term the ‘emotionality of coaching’ (603) and pinpoint
where in the coaching process emotion might be detected:
A client could arrive in a state of emotional tur-moil, and this may undermine
previously organised thoughts or behaviour.
 During the coaching some feelings related to events in the client’s life may
intrude on their goal-directed focus and may interrupt it.
The intrusion may persist over time and override other plans. The client
seems to be influenced by some seemingly insignificant details such as a tone
of the coach’s voice, facial expression or small details of the environment.
Some expressions of emotion by the coach, such as smiling, laughter or even
expression of some negative emotions, may impact the working relationship
with a client further, adding to rapport and mutual understanding.
EXPLORE OTHER COACHING SKILLS
NOT DISCUSSED HERE? ( 10 MARKS)