Transcript G505 Coaching Toolkit - support staff appraisal

Maximising the Potential of Coaching…
This toolkit has been designed for People Managers.
It’s intended to set you on your way – we recognise we are all short of time, so we have selected the most practical/easy to use
tools.
What will you get from taking time to explore this toolkit…?
• Feeling equipped with some powerful tools to handle change
• Improved ability to give and receive feedback
• Time – by applying these tools you will start to empower individuals, which will result in less involvement from you, greater
sense of satisfaction from individuals you support and more time for you!
• Prevent unnecessary escalation of people management concerns
• More effective working relationships
• Encourage positive action and feel motivated to learn additional techniques
• An opportunity to embed key messages from the corporate programmes in place such as Impact Leadership and Excellence in
Management.
We feel it is important to point out from the outset that this toolkit may not provide all the answers you need – however we have a selection of
tools available for you to use which will help support you and your team.
Questioning
By clicking on these links you will access
various interactive tools and information
about the subject.
Remember if you want to talk through any
of the tools with someone, please contact
HR Direct on 01603 222212
When to
Coach
GROW
Listening
Questioning
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Questions are a great way to generate thinking and responsibility in other people. Used effectively, they can:
• Help people solve their own problems
• Help people become more self-sufficient
• Help people think things through more clearly so they are able to generate their own solutions
• Encourage people to take more responsibility
• Give you more time, as you will be spending less time solving other people’s problems
Types of Questions
Closed Questions: invite only a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answer. They are particularly useful for summarising or gaining confirmation.
Sometimes however, they can hide information or narrow people’s thinking.
“Are there any other problems?” invites the answer ‘No.’ “What other problems might there be?”
invites more thought.
John Whitmore, ‘Coaching for Performance’
Closed Questions start with words like:
• Do / did / does e.g. ‘Do you understand?’; ‘Did you like that?’; ‘Does that make sense?’
• Will / would e.g. ‘Will you do that?’ or ‘Would you use that?’
• Can / could e.g. ‘Can you do that?’ or ‘Could you call him for me?’
• Is / are e.g. ‘Is that alright?’ or ‘Are you OK?’
• Have e.g. ‘Have you done this before?’
Open Questions: These invite a fuller response, and some will generate fuller responses than others. More focused open
questions include: Who?; Where?; When? and Which?. Open questions that generate the most information and so require the
most thought before response are:
What? e.g. ’What could you do?’; ‘What options do we have?’; ‘What is the most cost effective solution?’
How? e.g. ‘How could we approach this?’; ‘How did you come to that decision?’; ‘How does the process work at the moment?’
Open questions are most powerful when followed by SILENCE. Really listening will also help you identify the next most effective
question. One-off questions can be really successful as, in a moment, they can help people (including you) think things through and
identify additional information and solutions. Using them in a more structured way can be even more effective.
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GROW Model
The GROW Model can help you develop your own, or someone else’s, thinking in a systematic way or help
identify areas that may have been missed. When visiting a topic for the first time it can be useful to visit all
four stages. Once you are more familiar with it, conversations may begin, or end, at any stage.
“Following the GROW sequence – Goals, Reality, Action, Will – will generate prompt action and peak performance”
Sir John Whitmore, Coaching for Performance
The GROW Model provides and framework and focus to your questions, to enable you and/or the person you are coaching
to make the maximum progress in the minimum time.
Typical examples of when the GROW Model can be used…
• As a framework for discussion i.e. start by agreeing a goal (long term or for the session) then exploring reality, options
and will/wrap-up.
• Useful as a ‘check-point’ during a conversation e.g. when a team member comes to you with a number of options for a
particular situation (which can feel overwhelming for you and for them) it can be useful to check back on or re-articulate
the goal before moving on.
• As a planning tool when assessing a problem or situation
• As a structure for a more formal coaching/development discussion
Effective Listening
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We spend nearly half of our waking hours listening but often we only hear, rather than truly listen. Active
listening skills are a key building block in developing effective relationships.
Listening, as opposed to hearing, is a skill which can be developed. It requires the listener to concentrate fully
on the speaker; to recognise distractions (both environmental and attitudinal) and put them aside.
Demonstrating empathetic listening can use verbal and non verbal techniques including
• Refraining from judgement
• Paying attention
• Maintaining good eye contact
• Positive body language (view ‘Non Verbal Communication’)
“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit
down and listen. ” ~Winston Churchill
Effective managers are active listeners – you not only hear words, but also feelings, opinions, experiences and
values. This can give insight into reasons for behaviours
Experiences, behaviours and feelings can be overt (capable of being seen by others) or covert (not seen by
others – hidden ‘inside’ the speaker) – ‘The Art of Effective Listening’ offers you the opportunity rate your own
listening ability and useful information of the levels of listening.
Really listening, teamed with good questioning can work together to aid problem solving.
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Useful Quotations…
“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and
listen.” ~Winston Churchill
“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.”
Ernest Hemingway
"I like to listen.I have learned a great deal from listening carefully.
Most people never listen."
Ernest Hemingway
“Communication sometimes is not what you first hear,
listen not just to the words, but listen for the reason.”
Catherine Pulsifer
When to apply Coaching…?
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The benefits of the techniques and tools we are providing via this resource are that they are simple, effective and easy to use;
therefore we hope that they can be picked up and applied to real life situations and experiences at any time. However we would
like to stress from the outset that although Coaching has so many benefits – it is only one approach to a given situation – there
are different approaches out there!
“Managers emerge from coach training programmes equipped with new, as well as previously unrecognised, skills they can use. Their
motivation is high – and then they return to work. At follow-up workshops managers frequently report that they have not had time to coach and
have forgotten much of what they learnt, or that they tried it and it did not work. But the problem is not the coaching. Rather, they have not
been targeting who and when to coach. Coach training often fails to explain that coaching is only one answer to performance issues – one that
works when applied to the right situation and individual. Managers need to recognise when and who to coach, and when not to coach”.
(Pemberton, C: Coaching at Work Today)
A common concern is knowing when to coach. For a useful guide/ framework - please click on the following links…
• ‘When to Coach and When to Tell’
• The Skill/Will Matrix
• Article – Knowing when to coach
The art of Coaching need not be a structured or even formalised process; taking up great time and energy on your behalf.
Coaching can take place at any time and any place. Some people fear they need time to prepare – know the subject inside out
– however we are advocating that the less you know about a situation, the better! Why? As this allows us to naturally be more
attentive – listening more and makes us question further to clarify what we are hearing.
Typical examples of when Coaching is most commonly used….
• Overcoming difficulties in a team/task/role
• To enhance knowledge
• To develop new work related skills and behaviours
• To achieve an end result positively
• To move forward with projects/tasks/problem solve.
If you have any queries, questions or
something you would like to talk through –
please contact HR Direct.
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Considerations
Tell
Coach
There is room for manoeuvre in required action
Not likely
Likely
The rules are not negotiable and you need to
enforce policy
Likely
Not likely
It is a skilled employee, that just needs an
answer to a technical question
Likely
Not likely
THE ASK/TELL REPERTOIRE
NATURE
There is a high risk/impact of getting this wrong
It requires an urgent response
Both can apply –
consider joint approach
Likely
Not likely
Likely
There is a performance issue, where you have
to insist on a particular standard being met
Likely
Not likely
It is a serious disciplinary issue
Likely
It is a new employee. (May initially need more
guidance)
Make
suggestions
Ask questions
and paraphrase
Demonstrate
Benefit
Not likely
OWNERSHIP
The individual owns the agenda
Ask
questions
and
paraphrase
Not likely
Both can apply –
consider joint approach
Higher, if coachee has
reasonable skills and
at least one creative
idea to bring
Quality of task
completion
Give
advice
Tell what
and how
Tell what
and how
Lower, unless the
coachee’s role is to
repeat a relatively simple
task that has little scope
for being redesigned
Deeper Understanding
Learning by coachee
Deeper Understanding,
but only if the coach is a
true expert
Higher in most cases
Motivation of coachee
Lower, unless coachee
feels completely lost
Slightly more,
depending on speed
of coachee’s learning
Initial time from
coachee
BEHAVIOUR/MOTIVATION
The scenario a result of an individuals behaviour,
rather than process
Not likely
The individual is motivated to deal with the issue
Both can apply – consider
joint approach
The individual is avoiding the issue
Both can apply – consider
joint approach
The question is ’How’ not ‘What’ to do in this
situation
Not likely
The individual has experience and capability of
dealing with this issue competently
Both can apply – consider
joint approach
This is a poor performing individual
Both can apply – consider
joint approach
Likely
Likely
Potentially high
Tasks which the
coachee will probably
need to repeat in
some form
©Management Futures Ltd
Learning by Coach
When to use
Slightly less, assuming
that the task can be
specified easily, and that
the coachee understands,
and follows the
instructions
Very little
“Mission critical” tasks
where failure would lead
to disaster; very simple
tasks
www.managementfutures.co.uk
Tel:020-7242 4030
WORKSHOP HANDOUT 4
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Listening Skills
Listening, as opposed to hearing, is a skill which can be developed. It requires the listener to concentrate
fully on the speaker; to recognise distractions (both environmental and attitudinal) and put them aside.
The positive listener
The negative listener
Body language
adopts positive posture;
avoids distracting mannerisms;
good eye contact;
nods and smiles when appropriate;
maintains comfortable distance
looks bored and judgmental;
doodles or fiddles distractingly;
avoids eye contact;
shows little response to what is being said
Attention
keeps attention focused on speaker “When that happened, what
did you do?”
keeps focus of comments on self: “When something like that
happens to me, I…”
Accepting
accepts speaker’s ideas and feelings: “That’s an interesting idea,
can you say more about it?”
fails to accept speaker’s ideas and feelings “I think it would be better
to…”
Empathy
empathises: “So when that happened, you felt angry”
fails to empathise: “I don’t see why you felt that”
Questions
uses open questions which often begin with what, how, who, when,
where (why can sound a little interrogational)
probes in a helpful way:
“Could you tell me more about…”
uses closed questions i.e. those questions that give a yes/no
response
fails to probe
Clarifies
asks for clarification
checks understanding by paraphrasing, etc.
assumes things; fails to clarify
fails to check understanding
Summarises
summarises progress from time to time
widens range of ideas by summarising a number of alternatives
from which the speaker can choose
fails to summarise
narrows range of ideas by suggesting a ‘correct’ course of action
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Non Verbal Communication (Body Language)
Research by A Mehrabian1 in USA suggests that, as far as feelings and attitudes are concerned, the
total impact of a message/communication is transmitted as follows:
7% Words only
38% Vocal (e.g. tone of voice)
55% Non-verbal signal
Head Movements to show receipt of a message; to indicate agreement or disagreement; to indicate
uncertainty; to give somebody else space
Facial Expressions to show a variety of moods including agreement; disagreement; sympathy;
hostility; amusement; concern etc
Eye Contact to establish rapport; to watch for reactions in the other party
Gestures to reinforce/add emphasis to the verbal message; to help somebody else into the
conversation
Posture to reinforce/add emphasis to the verbal message; to help establish rapport; to show interest
and commitment; to help self-confidence; to indicate formality or informality
Body Movements to reinforce/add emphasis to the verbal message; to help terminate a conversation
Proximity to establish rapport; to allow space for the other parties; to indicate degree of formality or
informality; to help engage or disengage
Appearance indicate formality or informality; to help rapport
Warning:
It is important to consider any list of non-verbal signals within the cultural context in which they are
being used because many of these signals will have different meanings within different cultures. This
causes some problems of misunderstanding in multicultural organisations. It is impossible to acquire
comprehensive knowledge of these cultural variations but it is vitally important to be alert and sensitive
to this issue.
1A
Mehrabian (1971), “Silent Messages”, pp. 1-50, Wadsworth, Belmont, California.
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The GROW Model
Structuring a coaching Session is key to its effectiveness and practical use of time. The GROW model is
one of the most common coaching models.
The framework provides a simple 4-step structure to follow. This is highlighted in the diagram below.
 Agree topic for discussion
 Agree specific objectives of session
 Set long-term aim if appropriate
Reality
Goal
 Invite self-assessment
 Offer specific examples of feedback
 Avoid or check assumptions
 Discard irrelevant history
Options
Wrap-up
 Commit to actions
 Identify possible obstacles
 Make steps specific and define timings
 Agree support
 Cover the full range of options
 Invite suggestions from the coachee
 Offer Suggestions carefully
 Ensure choices are made
Reproduced from Landsberg, M; “The Tao of Coaching”, (London, Harper Collins Publishers Ltd 1986), p31)
RP0198 © Roffey Park
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Using GROW in Coaching
There are many useful models for running coaching sessions. The G.R.O.W. (John Whitmore, Coaching for
Performance, 1992) is a particularly effective model. The following sequence of questions may be a useful
starting point:
Goal
What is your goal?
What do you want?
In an ideal world what would be happening?
Reality
What are the relevant facts? Who else is involved?
What have you already tried?
Who owns the problem?
What are the feelings around this issue?
How much of this is within or outside your control?
What are the blocks to getting what you want?
Options
What are the options?
What resources do you have available to help?
What will you do?
What’s the action that will move things forward?
What’s the timescale?
How will you know that you’ve done it?
G.R.O.W. is just one framework for effective coaching. Should you want to learn more about coaching in
your role there are a range of coaching models that provide helpful frameworks to the process.
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The GROW Model
And other useful coaching – session models
There are many useful simple models for running coaching sessions. These can help both coach and client give a structure to the
event.
GROW
GROW is a mnemonic which translates into a number of different versions. One of the most common is:
Goal
What is your goal?
What do you want?
In an ideal world what would be happening?
Also useful for planning the session itself:
What do you want to get out of this session or chunk of session?
If you went away happy from today would you know/be able to do?
Related skills: turning a complaint into an outcome
Reality
What are the relevant facts? Who else is involved?
What have you already tried?
Who owns the problem?
What are the feelings around this issue?
How much of this is within or outside your control?
What are the blocks to getting what you want?
Options
What are the options?
What resources do you have available to help?
What will you do?
What’s the action that will move things forward?
What’s the timescale?
How will you know that you’ve done it?
Another even simpler model is
What? (= what’s happening)
So what? (= what are the implications? What will happen if you do nothing?)
What next? (= what are the options for action; what will you actually do?)
Finally there is
Name it: state the issue on which you want help
Claim it: own your part of it, commit to doing something, look at long term consequences if current state continues
Tame it: look at the options for solutions
Aim it: decide what to do and commit to action
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The Art of Effective Listening
•
Active Listening
•
Effective managers are active listeners. When you listen to people, you listen to them discussing:
•
Their experiences, what they see as happening to them;
•
Their behaviours, what they see themselves as doing;
•
Their affect, the feelings and emotions that arise from their experiences and behaviours; and
•
The points of view in talking about their experiences, behaviours and feelings.
•
Experiences, behaviours, and feelings can be either overt (capable of being seen by others) or
covert (not seen by others, hidden “inside” the speaker).
•
•
•
•
•
•
Overt experience: “He yelled at me.”
Covert experience: “Thoughts about death come out of nowhere and flood my mind.”
Overt behaviour: “I spend about three hours every night in some bar.”
Covert behaviour: “Before she comes over I plan everything I’m going to say.”
Overt emotion: (expressed) “I got very angry and shouted at her.”
Covert emotion: (felt, not expressed) “I was delighted that he failed, but I didn’t let on.”
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The Skill/Will Matrix (part one)
9
High
Delegate / Empower
Direct
Excite/Enthuse/Engage
5
Guide
Will
1
Low
1
5
9
Low
High
Skill
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The Skill/Will Matrix (part two)
Guide (low skill and high will)
Invest time early on:
Coach and train
Answer questions and explain
Create a risk-free environment to allow early
mistakes and promote learning
Relax control as progress is shown
Delegate (skill and will are both high)
Provide freedom to do the job:
Set objectives not the method
Praise, do not ignore
Encourage coachee to take responsibility:
Involve in decision making
Take appropriate risks
Direct (both skill and will are low)
First build the will:
Provide clear briefing
Identify motivations
Develop a vision of future performance
Then build the skill:
Structure tasks for “quick wins”
Coach and train
Finally sustain the will:
Provide frequent feedback
Praise and nurture
BUT – supervise closely with tight control and clear
rules/deadlines
Excite (high skill and low will)
Identify reasons for low will
Motivate
Monitor and provide feedback