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Progress! Manager as Coach E-Zine - Issue No. 10/ May 2006

Dear Reader,

Working with many different managers who are coaching their staff, I've noticed there is a wide variety of ways to make time for coaching in a busy working life. This month’s article surveys a few of those coaching systems. I wonder which way would have the biggest impact on your team, and your time?

Cheers,

Angela Spaxman

Alliance Partner of Progress-U Limited

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Coaching Myth: Coaching Takes a Lot of Time
Or: How to Manage Your Coaching Time

By Angela Spaxman, Business and Career Coach, Director of Spaxman Limited,
Coach Training Expert for Progress-U Ltd.

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"What may be done at any time, will be done in no time."

-- Scottish Proverb

Yes, it’s a myth. Coaching doesn’t actually take more time from a manager’s life. In fact, effective coaching creates new time by leveraging on the energy and abilities of team members. However, we need to invest some time to save time in the long run. In this article, we’ll review some of the different ways to manage your coaching time to get the benefits most effectively.

One of the most convenient excuses for starting anything new is that we don’t have time. And so it is when I’m teaching people the skills to coach in the workplace, people often comment that they don’t have time. What they really mean, of course, is two things:

1) They are unsure how much time it will really take.
2) They know they will have to change the way they manage their time in order to spend more time upfront with their people before they can save time through coaching.

In this article, I’m not going to go into how to change your time management effectiveness, except to say that the only way to improve your time management is to consciously change your priorities. One of the key transitions to effective management is to spend more time managing people rather than doing the work yourself. So of course it makes sense that you would need to spend more time listening and talking to your staff. By using coaching skills, you can ensure that you use the time you spend with your people to the greatest effect.

Given that you will have to spend more time with your people, how will you spend your coaching time? Let’s look at three simple options.

Option 1: Coaching by Walking Around

One of the big advantages of being a Manager Coach rather than an external coach is that in many cases you have frequent daily interactions with your coachees. You have opportunities to watch them in action, experience their strengths and weaknesses first hand and give feedback and coaching. Just in time coaching can be very motivating and effective as you can be available to encourage and empower your coachees throughout the day capitalizing on the moments of opportunity that occur.

This is a very time efficient method as the coaching will happen in a few minutes here and there, adding up to very little additional time.

However, for this kind of coaching to be effective, you must be very aware in all your interactions. You have to be ready to coach, even while you are focusing on your other roles.

To be an effective ‘just in time’ coach, it’s ideal if you have evolved to the extent that you can be yourself as a coach. That means judging and criticizing are just not you, and at the same time you hold high standards that you are able to share in an empowering way. You may find you have some staff members who you can coach this way, and others you cannot.

If your coachee feels overly nervous when you’re around, rather than empowered, then it’s a sign that you have not yet built sufficient trust with this coachee. Perhaps you are showing subtle judgment or criticism such that they are not at their best in your presence.

On the other hand, if you don’t have the skills to call attention to improvement opportunities on the fly, then many coaching moments could be wasted.

I know a coach in Ottawa, Canada who coaches politicians and senior civil servants ‘by walking around’. She moves through the legislative buildings watching her coachees speaking and networking and gives them immediate, private feedback on their performance and the political dynamics that she sees. She’s a very strong person and yet not judgmental. She sees evidence and speaks what she sees without calling it ‘right or wrong’. It just ‘is’ and every action has an impact. What a great attitude for an empowering and ever-present coach.

Option 2: Coaching in Management Meetings

When managers begin coaching, they often simply change the way they run their regular one-on-one meetings to include more listening, more open questions and more support focused on the coachee’s needs. This is an easy way to start to change your ways and it causes little disruption to the usual way of doing things. The meetings may last longer than in the past, but they are also likely to be much more productive. In fact, you may even find the meetings are quicker or less frequent than before as you are likely to cover the needed communications more effectively.

The main risk of using this method is that you can confuse your coachees about what role you are playing. As a more traditional manager, you may spend most of your management time giving instructions and criticisms. As a Manager Coach you are likely to spend more time asking questions and listening to their ideas. If they don’t realize why you are suddenly asking for their opinions, they may wonder if you are trying to test them or even lure them into a trap so you can fire them! They will not be able to collaborate with you if they don’t know what you expect of them.

The easy solution, of course, is simply to explain to your coachees what role you are playing at different times in the meeting and the reasons for your different roles. This will also help you remain clear about your intentions and actions if you change roles mid-meeting.

As your coaching relationships improve and as you more fully delegate responsibility to your staff, you may find that this type of coaching naturally evolves into Option 3, as explained below.

Option 3: Scheduled Coaching Meetings

This type of coaching models the interactions between an external coach and a coachee and it is quite different from normal management meetings. The meetings are usually planned ahead and the coachee has the responsibility to set the agenda. These meetings are the coachee’s chance to use the coach’s time (in this case the manager’s time) however they choose.

One main advantage of this system is that it allows the coach and coachee to keep their roles very clear within the meeting. This clarity facilitates more effective coaching because the manager is less likely to slip into a directive or hierarchical role.

Another huge benefit is that the coachee retains full responsibility for how they want to use the time. This system instills tremendous trust and responsibility in the coachee. It can also be a highly efficient way for a manager to ensure staff members are getting the kind of support they most need.

The success of this type of coaching depends on the manager’s ability to fully trust the staff member with the responsibility for both job performance and career development. It does not mean it is only useful for very experienced and effective staff. Someone can be fully responsible for their performance without necessarily being fully competent, I believe. Almost everyone is motivated to do a good job, given the chance.

Many managers use these kinds of meetings for occasional performance and development reviews. For example, annual appraisal meetings often use a structured format to encourage the employee’s responsibility and input, and to facilitate collaboration.

I’ve worked with some very popular, effective and busy managers who use scheduled coaching meetings almost exclusively to manage their staff. It takes discipline to manage the time, and trust to coach the people.

Recently I asked several of my clients to choose role-models for themselves as effective managers, and all of them selected bosses would had treated them as coaching clients. These bosses had time for them, either in a very structured way, or more spontaneously. These bosses were willing to listen to their concerns and offer both questions and suggestions. These bosses let them take full responsibility for the decisions they made within the scope of their jobs while also informing them of the big picture in which they played a part.

Coaching Fact: Coaching Takes Time AND Saves Time

Whether you do your coaching in small doses or in dedicated meetings, I think there’s no doubt that coaching saves time in the long run, especially if you care about your whole team’s quality, productivity and effectiveness.

How will you spend your coaching time?

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