How often do you come back from holiday, a weekend away, or a similar break from routine, all fired up with enthusiasm and determined to make some changes? Whether your goals focus on improved profitability, work-life balance, personal fulfillment, or some other issue, you probably find that once you’re back in harness, your motivation fades away. Dealing with the present day gets in the way of change.
For some, the pressure for change comes from an external source. In the workplace, greater demands than ever are being put on people to fulfill marketing objectives, keep up with developments in IT, improve team-working and leadership skills - all on top of doing a full day’s work. The expectation to deliver can be enormous, and for some, the consequences of failure to perform can be catastrophic.
One-to-one coaching, with its emphasis on individual development, unlocking unique potential, and overcoming real and perceived obstacles, can be a highly effective tool for developing and sustaining a huge range of qualities relating to personal and professional development, regardless of the status or function of the individual concerned. Far from being some sort of fashion or fad, it’s an incredibly effective process. Most of those who have been coached genuinely report “it was the best investment I ever made”.
Coaching is a process of unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It works by helping and supporting the individual to achieve, rather than by teaching them how. Regardless of the issue(s) involved, coaching can help you:
Case Study: Business development performance
Tom was an associate in the property division of a large regional law firm. The firm had ambitious plans for expansion and management consultants were brought in who advised the firm to set business development targets for all fee earners (previously the sole responsibility of partners). Tom was terrified of the new challenge, and over several months as his stress levels soared, his pace of work slowed, he increasingly took sick-leave, and his attitude towards both colleagues and clients deteriorated markedly. After his annual appraisal, at which it was spelled out to him that his prospects with the firm were limited if he failed to improve, he sought help from the firm’s HR Director who was able to arrange confidential coaching support augmented by formal training in relevant areas. After six months, Tom’s attitude and performance were transformed and he was promoted to partner within a year.
Generally, coaching helps in three ways:
1. Clarity and focus
Coaching helps you decide exactly what it is that you really want. Many of the difficulties people experience with moving forward and achieving goals are associated with lack of clarity and precision about what those goals actually are. Until you can put your goal into words and see clearly what you need to do (or stop doing) in order to achieve it, it’s often impossible to change. Coaching not only facilitates this process, but thereafter acts as a ‘route map’, helping you decide the way forward and the pace you need to maintain.
2. Confidence
Although they may present a brave face, many people suffer from lack of confidence. At times feelings of inadequacy and fear can be almost crippling, yet in a highly competitive, professional environment where you are expected to consistently generate 110% performance, it can be impossible to reveal how you truly feel. Denial leads to increased stress, tension in relationships with colleagues and certain types of avoidance behaviour. Ultimately, lack of confidence can greatly hamper your prospects and your ability to lead the life you want, whether it involves promotion, flexible working, a career change, or simply the ability to say ‘no’ to certain unreasonable demands.
3. Support
Unswerving support from someone with no agenda of their own is a particular strength of the coaching relationship. At work, you may be able to ask for training in areas in which you feel your performance needs improving (e.g. certain marketing skills), but training tends to be a one-off, skills-transfer process. At the end of it you’re left by yourself to get on with things. Coaching can provide ongoing support and motivation, enabling you to keep going, growing and tangibly improving your performance. By helping you break down achieving your goal into small, manageable steps and constantly supporting and encouraging you, your coach can help you progress along what - if taken as a whole - may seem a long and impassible road.
Your coach can also be a great sounding board for your thoughts, aims and ideas. Although you may bounce ideas off friends, family or colleagues, they will invariably have their own agenda when responding. Your coach, however, is completely impartial and their focus is entirely on how you feel about things, and your perceptions of reality.
One of the great strengths of coaching is that no one need ever know you are being coached. Although coaching sessions can take place face-to-face, they are more commonly conducted over the telephone. Timing is to suit you – evening and weekend calls are obviously popular – and sessions are generally weekly, taking place over a number of weeks or months (although some people have found they need only one session to deal with a particular issue). Each session is generally around an hour in length and the cost varies according to whether it is face-to-face or telephone, and of course, the number of sessions.
In between sessions, you will probably be required to undertake tasks or activities related to the achievement of your goal and any support needed in relation to this will be available by telephone or email.
Frankly, coaching isn’t for everyone and there are three golden rules that you have to accept for it to be successful. You must:
Any good coach will be prepared to spend time in advance discussing your needs and should also offer you a free initial session enabling both of you to judge how well you work together.
Case study: Developing leadershipIn order to improve productivity and increase turnover, Ann’s firm disbanded its traditional departmental structure and reorganized into teams. Although one of the youngest and the only female partner, Ann was asked to head up her team which comprised several older and more experienced partners and a disparate mix of other professionals. As a highly organized multi-tasker, she felt confident of her ability to perform the management aspect of the role - planning, budgeting and organising staff, systems and work levels, but was less confident of her leadership ability. Faced with the challenge of determining the team’s direction, communicating that direction to others, and motivating and inspiring them to follow it, she felt out of her depth and unsure of how best to interrelate with her colleagues.
Ann could see that people management skills would make or break the success of the team-working structure, and turned to the Managing Partner for help. He suggested that the firm would provide her with three months coaching support on a trial basis. Working with a coach, Ann was able to come to a clear understanding of her own strengths and weaknesses and motivation, and develop self-awareness and resilience when dealing with her team. Her coaching support was extended for a further six months, and was also pursued by other team leaders. The new structure is now delivering its objectives for the firm and profitability has increased dramatically.
Coaching, if you’re prepared to commit to the process, can generate remarkable results. But it takes time, energy, and perseverance. If you’re considering whether the effort is worthwhile, you might do well to ponder on the words of Robert F. Kennedy: “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."
(c) Dianne Bown-Wilson, the M3 Consultancy