What is Coaching?

Welcome to Coaching Conversations

We have created a NEW and Innovative line of books called Workplace Coaching Books. These books use QR codes with embedded audio and video lessons speaking directly to the reader. Each book comes with assessments and journal based coaching pages where they document what they've learned and what they've applied. In addition each book comes with the self analysis link that prompts them to share what they've learned and what they've put into action leading to greater learner application a

Coaching Talks is a dynamic leadership development speaking series customized to your needs. Need help spreading the value and application of workplace coaching? Let us help:

We provide many styles of speaking services:

• We provide virtual keynotes
• We specialize in 4 part virtual series (we always customize)
• We have a unique feature called "Speaker Tracks" where we send to all audience members reinforcement lessons after the talk (to the pc or cell phone), thus keeping people on track after the talk

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Chapters

• 1:12 What Coaching Really Means
• 2:04 Corrective Feedback vs Coaching
• 3:06 The Trust Gap And Mindset Shift
• 4:49 Lead With Strengths And Awareness
• 7:22 Sources Of Coaching Support
• 9:25 Coaching John: A Practical Framework

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:36

So what is coaching? So often in the workplace, people will define coaching from many, many different perspectives. Recently, I was talking to a supervisor and she started to tell me that, yeah, I was watching one of my tellers at my credit union and I was coaching her at the front lines. I said, Oh, what do you mean? She said, Well, I was pointing out and I was showing her with my finger the steps she was missing when she was engaging with one of her members. And I said, Oh, I said, Well, what was your follow-up? She said, What do you mean? I said, Well, how did you continue that conversation? She said, No, that's a pretty good idea. I should do that. So let me cynically share with you what is being seen in the workplace. And it's even getting more confusing. And I think there's a value of going back and defining what is coaching? Coaching isn't in the moment. In that situation, that supervisor was really providing corrective action and feedback. And there's nothing wrong with that. But if somebody was missing steps of a procedure, is that a one-time event? Are they never going to miss those steps? Or let's say that the teller wasn't showing good open body language and a smile and eye contact. Is one conversation truly going to be suffice? So, what is coaching? Coaching is a structured, ongoing partnership where a leader helps an employee think, learn, and grow rather than telling them what to do. It's about asking thoughtful questions, listening more than speaking, helping people discover their own solutions and developing skills and knowledge and confidence and certainly self-awareness over time. I'm infamous for citing Tasha Yurik's book, Insights, where her study showed that 85% of people significantly lack self-awareness. So telling someone they have a terrible attitude, telling someone not to miss the steps of a procedure, telling someone to be more engaged with members or customers is going to take a continuous effort. Here's the tough thing. If 85% of people lack self-awareness, that presents a challenge. If the Gallup organization shares a great study that people engage eight times more, think about this for a second. Eight times more when we lead with the good stuff, their strengths. So what happens? We have to change our mindset of what is coaching. It isn't corrective action, it isn't feedback, it isn't constructive feedback. And a lot of times what we want to do is we want to integrate these things. And so when we call people into the office, I've been teaching leadership coaching for 34 years. And I ask this question all the time. And I ask it in polls and surveys, I ask it in speaking engagements. If a boss calls you into the office and said, I need to see my office right away, what's the employee's first response? Everybody write that down. Do you know in 34 years, not one person ever has responded favorably, like, oh good, my promotion's here. Well, at our company, it's usually all good stuff. It's usually, uh-oh, what did I do wrong? Why is that? Because they just woke up one morning with that expectation. No, we as a leadership coaching or leadership community in society, we've conditioned that. We are very triggered to correct and fix what we want to fix. And then later we call it coaching. That's not coaching. So where does coaching come from? I think it can come from self-discovery, peers, bosses, outside coaches, yes, AI. So where can it come from? So if you're a leader and you want to coach, I want to just give you a really rough example of a very simple opportunity. And I want you to think about someone who's resistant to feedback. You're going to coach someone on the resistant to feedback. And you find out that this person has a goal of becoming a leader someday. Now that's valuable. We call it the motivator, which I'm going to show you in the next slide. So if this person wants to become a leader, you have some valuable information. And when you think about peers, you might say to a few peers, John wants to become a future leader. I know he can be a little bit challenging at times. I want you to praise him every time you see him, as much as you can, what he's doing well. You, the boss. You might call John into the office and focus on the good things that John's doing. Now, one might be thinking, but wait a minute, you're not addressing the resistance to feedback. I'm going to get there. Now, the self-discovery might be you might get this person a book on the accepting feedback. And you might also get this person a book on becoming a first-time leader. Now, you might even go so far as to say, John, I believe in you so much. I'm going to hire you an outside coach. I want to work with you on your engagement, your work with your teammates, your acceptance of others, your collaboration with others, as I think this will position you really well for today and tomorrow, becoming a first-time leader. Yet I want the outside coach to work with you on emotional intelligence and becoming the best leader you can. And then I might give you an AI tool. Now, something we do here at Progress Coaching is we have our own coaching framework. If you don't have a framework, I would encourage you to get one. So let's go back to John. Let's talk about John. So, what is coaching? It's about self-discovery, it's using questions. So we teach three types of coaching. Now, the reason I teach this right now in this module isn't to sell you, but to give you a reference point. Conversations can feel like they're all over the board. How often do we have conversations with people or employees? And you say at the end of the conversation, how did we get here? Where did I, where did I go wrong in this conversation? It's a lot like a speech, yet the coaching stage is just smaller. It's just you and that employee. So I might say to John, you know, John, every week I want you to come in with two examples of where you really invested in your teammates well. And I want you to share with me how that will help you with your goal of becoming a first-time leader. So what I've actually just done is I've used the learning project, which is the bookend of our direct coaching. That start and ends the conversation. The questions I'll get to in a second, the activities I'll get to in a second, but the learning project is tied to the area that John needs to improve. Greater acceptance of feedback from bosses and peers. Now, the motivator, as John has shared, because you've dug in, you found out, John, where do you want to go? What's your next step? Well, I want to become a first-time leader. And when you find out the motivator, you find out the magic sauce.

SPEAKER_01: 7:38

You find out exactly, exactly the whift, what's in it for them, the emotional attachment to what most people typically avoid, and that's change.

SPEAKER_00: 7:51

Now, the supplemental coaching, I could get him a peer, I could get him a mentor, I could get him a book and becoming a first-time leader, I could hire an outside coach. Supplemental coaching are prescriptive coaching strategies that accelerate coaching and leverage time, but reinforce the direct coaching. Here's the best part. Let's go back to number one, the direct coaching. The learning project is tied to the area of the person is being coached. It doesn't always have to be a weakness. And the learning project starts and ends the conversation. That's it. So I'm going to say, John, last week I asked you to come in with two examples of where you really invested proactively with your teammates positively. Questions. What happened? What'd you do? What are you learning? How's this going to help you become a first-time leader? Activity. It sounds like you had a tough conversation with Lisa, though. Let's practice that conversation. Learning project. John, come in with two more examples next week. That conversation, when practiced, when nurtured, when committed to, is no more than eight to nine minutes a week or every other week. The motivator is typically a one or two-time conversation to dig in and find this person, and we teach some career coaching models. The supplemental coaching takes none of the leaders' in-person time. But remember, you have choices. So when we look at where coaching can come from, you have choices. You can plug it into a framework. So coaching, when we think about that question, what is it? Again, it's about someone going through self-discovery. They have to self-discover, which prompts us as coaches to do what? Look in the mirror and say, what do I need to change? I need to ask more questions. I need to do more listening than speaking. I need to not always give the answer. And I've got to be very purposeful in what I'm coaching to. Now, if I'm coaching John on being proactive and then next week taking initiative, and then next week taking feedback better, and then being more proactive with his email communication, there will be no traction. That's why you want to focus on an area over a period of time to go through the three levels of change effort, progress, and results. So ask yourself what is coaching? What do I need to do as a leader to facilitate that coaching?