Be aware of and take the opportunities
Openings arise
- from routine work
- special assignments: new products, processes or services and working party memberships
- job changes and promotions
- deliberate efforts to delegate - "Molder would you take care of
the Xenia project for me - I'll brief you on it in Scully's office this
afternoon".
Discuss
- clear, meaningful standards of performance - qualitative and quantitative
- talk about vision and aspirations for personal development - the discourse sets expectations
- encourage help seeking, risk taking and reflective processes
Job Roles
Keep job roles under-review. Jobs are dynamic and people vary on the amount of uncertainty or clarity they want from their job situation. Job change or promotion may be difficult but a new role orientation (in whole or in part) might work wonders
- offer stimulus to those whose motivation has tailed off or career ideas have become muddied.
- give people the chance to experiment with with activities that stand a chance of success - rather than obvious No-Nos. This aspiration is in line with both the Peters notion of empowerment and the Pinchot recommendation to offer scope for "intrapreneurs".
- recognise that personal insecurities, more often than not, act as a
barrier to learning.
Collaboration
Work towards collaboration not peer competitiveness --- easier said than done. Some people have deep seated antipathy towards each other and this is not an unnatural condition. The standard assumption at work is that we can and must put these emotional matters behind us. That's the assumption - the practicality may be insurmountable.Feedback
Be clear about the problems. difficulties and competencies required for both giving and receiving feedback.Exchange feedback on perceptions of learning style. Is the learner taking sufficient risks or too few.
A management by objectives approach
John Humble's Mbo approach involves focusing on "key result areas". These are significant areas of a job which offer a focus and challenges. "Suggestions for improvement" are another element of MbO.Suggestion: allocate time to get support for a job problem via coaching.
Sort out the support and resource issues
Who is now in a position to help? Who is best placed? Experts may be fairly directive. Non-experts may be supportive facilitators (non-directive).
The learner himself/herself is the key resource - hence the focus on
self-managed learning however evaluate the expectations. A set of work commitments
may be too ambitious when set against personal circumstances - the family,
housing, love, competing activities, health.
Manage the environment
Set the scene. Get the environment right. Meet, discuss, give enough time. Understand each other's roles and capacity to give/take. Be there when you are needed or find someone who can be.Create a Helping Process
Work on "Genuine positive regard for the other". Review the process - the give and take. What each is going/contributing. What are the patterns of dominance? Who feels the blockages - why? Give time and space.Be genuine and concerned for the other. Use all the best skills of
- showing and demonstrating without dominating/taking over
- being an active listener. Listening helps to unpick the vqariables and inform the exploration of the "problem"
- summarise - offer reflective descriptions of what was said, the stage you have reached, what has been agreed.
- call time out
- empathise, understand feelings but avoid becoming embroiled
- be clear as to your own needs as a coach. Your NEED FOR
- POWER
- AFFILIATION
- ACHIEVEMENT
Use questions to open up discussion
Rather than make statements and assertions associated more with a "TELLs" strategy -- use questions to explore, examine, listen and penetrate
- offer information on resources
- don't confuse coaching with staff appraisal
Learn to switch off from coaching
Turn off the music. Be aware that life goes beyond the job and that the imperatives of "continuous improvement" are themselves presumptuous.
That's the sound of the men, working on the chain-gang.
Sam Cooke
Being constantly pushed for personal development and nose-to-the-grindstone, job improvement can be very pressurising for the individual - their lives are more than just "working for the man". "Pick up they bed and walk", "develop thyself", "improve yourself and others through coaching" injunctions are all insidious arguments to work harder, perform better for the company.
© Created by Chris Jarvis for the BOLA Project.