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What
is Coaching?
Coaching is a rapidly growing form of training that is
no longer exclusively reserved for those destined for
senior positions. Findings from the Chartered Institute
of Personnel & Development’s Training &
Development survey 2005 revealed that the use of coaching
is widespread throughout UK businesses, with 88% of respondents
reporting that they now use coaching in their organisation.
But what is coaching being used for? CIPD (www.cipd.co.uk)
research shows that the main reasons for implementing
coaching is to improve individual performance, deal with
under-performance and improve productivity.
What are the Benefits?
For employers - coaching can be used
as a retention tool by showing employees that they are
valued enough by their organisation for such an investment
to be made in their development; to remotivate staff who
have become stale in their jobs or perhaps have relationship
issues which are holding them back. The cost of replacing
staff is forever increasing and being short staffed and
spending time on recruitment, can in itself be a demotivating
factor for managers who are already stretched.
For employees - coaching provides an
opportunity to obtain a clearer view of their strengths
and future potential plus the ‘feelgood’ factor
of being valued by the organisation. Where the reason
for coaching is underperformance, again an opportunity
is provided in a confidential and non-threatening environment
for the employee to obtain an external perspective on
what is going on and the opportunity to correct any problems
without losing face.
When is Coaching Appropriate?
From time to time, there will be situations when a director,
manager or employee needs the opportunity to ‘see
the wood for the trees’ or to obtain some specific
advice on an employment issue or to set out where he/she
is going at work. Sometimes our best employees leave because
they cannot see any development path or do not feel that
anyone is interested in their career or future development.
With flatter structures in companies nowadays, it is even
more important to encourage your best people and to provide
avenues for their own development. It is better for you
if they do it in conjunction with your business needs
rather than independently.
Sometimes
employees or managers get 'stuck' in their roles and neither
the individual nor you as their employer is getting the
best out of their time at work. It may be an attitude
problem or simply that no-one has ever explored their
particular strengths and weaknesses with them and how
they might maximise their contribution at work and gain
increased personal satisfaction.
In
these situations, we can provide a constructive, listening
ear and can call upon a range of coaching techniques and
tools arising from our Job Search seminar and other experience.
Possible scenarios could be:
- an employee being turned down or overlooked for promotion;
- an employee/manager who is underperforming;
- an
employee/manager who has relationship issues.
In
dealing with people who have lost their jobs, we have
gained insight into many of the unspoken rules which affect
people's progress or otherwise at work. Often employees
do not realise how politics operate within the workplace
and how their interpersonal style and relationships can
affect other people's perception of them.
One redundant employee commented that he wished he had
attended the Job Search seminar during
employment rather than as he was leaving as he felt it
would have helped him enormously to have understood some
of the unwritten rules at work and about politics in the
workplace.
Coaching Anecdotes
One incident which sticks in Gill King's memory from corporate
life, is coaching both a manager and the employee concerned,
on how to deal with the employee's sex change. Another
was helping an expatriate Managing Director [having been
returned early to the UK against his wishes], to reintegrate
into the parent company.
How can we help?
Many large employers provide career management services
for their employees. King
Associates can provide this service
for your employees either on-site or off-site according
to your preference. A series of 'one to one' meetings
and telephone sessions allow an individual to focus on
issues which may be troubling them at work in a confidential
and supportive environment. Even if there are no troubling
issues, the opportunity to review one's progress and perhaps
widen one's horizons can provide new motivation. Constructive
feedback and an external perspective are provided by an
experienced business coach. This consistently proves to
be a positive and energising process.
Fees would be agreed with you depending on the brief we
agree and the projected number of hours Coaching in the
programme which can be offered to the employee(s) concerned.
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