Keys to making coaching part of your practice

When people are learning the skills of coaching, they can find it difficult incorporating coaching skills and the coaching approach when they return to work. Sometimes we hear people say :

• Oh, things got too busy so I couldn’t find the time
• It was difficult to incorporate the skills and approach because my team are not used to seeing me like that…
  • They really just want me to tell them the answer! or
  • It’s not the usual way we interact and I felt strange slowing things down
• I often missed the opportunities for coaching and was too far in before I realised!
• It all made sense in the workshop, but when I got back to work, it was difficult to actually make the change on a practical level

 

Forming new habits and making changes stick can be difficult for everyone! As we wrote in a previous blog, DIA Discoveries – Making personal changes stick, if you want to set yourself up for success in incorporating new habits, it is important to:

 

1. Be crystal clear in your own mind as to what is driving you to make this change (know your why)

2. Have a plan and set some targets

3. Publicly commit to the change

 

The same goes for enhancing your coaching competence too.

Ask yourself :

Why do you want to make coaching a greater part of your leadership practice? (to help build awareness, responsibility and self belief of my team members…to give more development opportunities to my team, to get them to show more initiative and ownership, to help them find more of their own solutions…)

Set a realistic goal – I will try using coaching 4 times this month.

Tell someone – Share this goal with your manager / a peer / the team – and have them check in with you to see how you are going! Making it public increases your chance of follow through!

 

So set yourself up for success by exploring these three questions.

And then be on the look out for coachable moments…. or even create some! It is ok to be transparent with people and pre-organise some time for coaching / development in your one-on-ones. It is also ok to even say it aloud as you become aware of the coachable moment (This is a good opportunity to unpack some thinking. Would you like some help with your thinking on this? Have we got the time now to explore this further, or shall we book some?)

Coaching can be done in the moment – in a 5 minute conversation in the kitchen – or might need more time if the topic / issue needs more exploration. But don’t use – I don’t have time – as an excuse for not making this very powerful approach part of your leadership toolkit!

Here is a visual you might like to use to help you as you build your competence…

 

 

Click here to see more blogs on coaching.

 

We provide skills development workshops in the area of Coaching. If you’d like to find out more – click here.