Coaching for Optimal Performance

Contents

1. Characteristics of Good Coach

2. Elements of Good Coaching Session

3. Communication Skills for Effective Coaching

Characteristics of Good Coach

Benefits of Good Coaching

Improve employee performance

Help develop employee’s competence

Help diagnose performance problems

Help correct unsatisfactory performance

Foster productive working relationship

Characteristics of Good Coach

Positive

Goal Oriented

Supportive

Focused Observant

Positive

• Your job is not correcting mistakes,

finding fault, and assessing blame

• Instead, your function is achieving

productivity goals by coaching your

staff to peak performance

Characteristics of Good Coach

Supportive

• Your job as coach is to get workers

what they need to do their job well,

including tools, time, instruction,

answers to questions, and protection

from outside interference

Characteristics of Good Coach

Goal Oriented

• Base your assignments on clear,

definable goals

• Tie specific tasks to those goals

• Communicate those goals to the

people who actually have to do the

work

Characteristics of Good Coach

Focused

• Effective communication is specific

and focused

• You are far more likely to get action if

that employee leaves your office

focused on resolving the issue at

hand

Characteristics of Good Coach

Observant

• Being observant means more than

just keeping your eyes and ears open

• You need to be aware of what isn’t

said as well as what is. If you are

paying attention, you won’t have to

wait for somebody to tell you about a

problem

Characteristics of Good Coach

Boss vs. Coach

Boss

• Talks a lot

• Tells

• Presume

• Seeks control

• Orders

• Works on

• Assign blame

• Keeps distant

• Talks a lot

• Tells

• Presume

• Seeks control

• Orders

• Works on

• Assign blame

• Keeps distant

• Listens a lot

• Asks

• Explores

• Seeks commitment

• Challenges

• Work with

• Takes responsibility

• Makes contact

• Listens a lot

• Asks

• Explores

• Seeks commitment

• Challenges

• Work with

• Takes responsibility

• Makes contact

Coach

Elements of Good Coaching Session

Elements of Good Coaching Session

Establish

a purpose

Establish

ground

rules

Keep

focused

Develop

dialogue

Speak

clearly

Discuss one

specific

issue

Elements of Good Coaching Session

Establish

a purpose

• Having a clear purpose at the

beginning of coaching session will

enable you to conduct focused

and productive discussion

Elements of Good Coaching Session

Establish

ground

rules

• As with any meeting, you and the

employee need to have a common

understanding of certain factors

• The most important are time and

roles

Elements of Good Coaching Session

Keep

focused

A few guidelines to keep focused :

• Avoid making “noise” – anything

that distracts from the atmosphere

• Don’t look at your desktop or PDA

• Don’t touch your papers

• Don’t answer the telephone

Elements of Good Coaching Session

Develop

dialogue

• A Don’t launch into a monolog

• If you’re coaching effectively, your

employee should probably do most

of the talking

Elements of Good Coaching Session

Speak

clearly

• These tips will help you

communicate more effectively:

• Use the simplest, most

common terms

• Avoid the jargon

• Be specific

• Use the known to explain the

unknown

Elements of Good Coaching Session

Discuss one

specific issue

• Define the issue and limit the

discussion to something

manageable

• You’ll get other chances to discuss

other concerns – but only if you

resolve this specific concern right

now

Communication Skills for Effective Coaching

Seven Communication Principles for Coaching

1. Soften the ‘you’s or change the into “I” to avoid

sounding pushy

• Instead of : ‘You’ll have to….’, say ‘Could you….’

Or ‘Would you be able to….’

2. Focus on the solution, not the problem

• Instead of ‘We’re out of milk….’, say ‘We will pop

down the shop for some milk’.

3. Turn can’ts into cans

• Instead of ‘We can’t do that until next week’, say

‘We’ll be able to do that next week’.

4. Take responsibility – don’t lay blame

• Instead if ‘It’s not my fault’, say ‘Here’s what I can

do to fox that’.

Seven Communication Principles for Coaching

5. Say what do you want, not what you don’t want

• Instead of ‘Don’t drive too fast’, say ‘Drive carefully’

6. Focus on the future, not the past

• Instead of “I’ve told you before not to……, say ‘From

now on…….”

7. Share information rather than argue or accuse

• Instead of ‘No, you’re wrong’, say ‘I see it like this….’

Seven Communication Principles for Coaching

E – explore by asking questions

A – affirm to show you are listening

R – reflect your understanding

S – silence, listen some more

To listen more effectively…..

Attend physically – the right body language helps us to

focus on the speaker and encourages the speaker to give

us more information.

Attend mentally – follow the speaker’s flow of thought,

listen to understand, not evaluate; listen first, then assess

Check it verbally – paraphrase, clarify, probe further,

summarize your understanding

Good Habits of Effective Listeners• Looking at the speaker in order to observe body language

and pick up subtle nuances of speech

• Asking questions

• Giving speakers time to articulate their thoughts

• Letting people finish what they are saying before giving

their opinion

• Remaining poised, calm, and emotionally controlled

• Looking alert and interested

• Responding with nods and ‘uh-uhms’

brief

focused

relevant

constructive

An effective question is open and ….

Asking Questions in Coaching Session

An effective

question is

BRIEF

• The longer the question, the

more likely you are to louse it up

• Short sentences aren’t just easier

to understand, they are also

easier to say.

• To keep you question brief, think

about two things : 1) what do you

want to learn from then answer?

2) what words will best elicit this

information?

Asking Questions in Coaching Session

An effective

question is

FOCUSED

• Target a single and a particular

aspect of that subject per

question

• If you don’t, you may render any

answer meaningless

Asking Questions in Coaching Session

An effective

question is

RELEVANT

• Keep you questions on subject

and on target

• If an answer strays off the point,

tactfully refocus

Asking Questions in Coaching Session

An effective

question is

CONSTRUCTIVE

• You need to accentuate the

positive in you approach to

questioning, not because it make

you seem nicer, but because

your questions will be more

effective

Exploring Questions

Open Questions

Open questions yield lots of information

because they allow a person to explain what is

most important or interesting and encourage

elaboration.

Probing Questions

Probing questions are those that relate to the

topic we want to explore further. They

encourage the speaker to flesh out the details.

Closed vs. Open Questions

When did that happen? What led up to that?

Was your trip successful? What did you manage to

accomplish on your trip?

Did you like the candidate? In what ways do you think that

candidate meets our need?

Did you have a good meeting? What happened at the meeting?

Some Probing Questions

• Can you be more specifics?

• Can you give me an example of that?

• What happened then?

• For instance?

• How does this affect you?

• What might cause that, do you think?

• Can you fill me in on the details?