What is your organization’s true purpose? Do you post your purpose? Without a fundamental purpose, organizations cannot steer efforts in any general direction. Employees need a reason to serve, shared goals, a common cause and focus. They to know what their organization stands for so they can embrace its stance. This is the foundation of…
Managers who have coaching conversations with their employees have staff who are more engaged in their work. From what I’ve observed in my work in organizations, many managers skip coaching because it involves more time and thought. However, with a coaching conversation checklist, it’s easy to stay in coaching mode and it doesn’t take more…
This is the home stretch in a coaching conversation and, like the previous steps, should not be rushed or skimmed over. Managers can be most helpful here when they act as a guide. Presumably, by now you have outlined the desired vision of success as well as several alternatives for getting there. You’ve prioritized the…
In the work I do, I’ve been observing that many managers don’t use coaching conversation checklists as often as they could. A coaching conversation checklist could look like this (from Zenger and Stinnett, The Extraordinary Coach): F = Frame the Conversation U = Understand the Current State E = Explore the Desired State L =…
Many managers fail to coach their people, preferring to fix problems and suggest solutions. They don’t take the time to have coaching conversations in which they ask provocative questions. As a result, managers don’t coach and fail to teach people to think things through. I’ve been writing a series about a checklist for initiating coaching…
It’s not always that managers don’t know how to coach; it’s that conversations with employees often turn into project task updates instead of furthering their growth and development. This is not unusual. I see it all the time when I’m called into organizations to coach. Yet it can be avoided by use of a simple…
In spite of wide-spread coach training, most of the time managers aren’t using coaching skills to grow and develop their people. Instead, many managers still believe their role is that of a problem solver, cutting short conversations with employees by providing solutions, advice, and answers. I often observe managers who don’t use coaching conversations in…
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been writing about what holds managers back from using their coaching skills to guide and develop their people. Although there are a number of reasons, a main one is that they lack a way to initiate a coaching conversation with an employee. Basically, they just don’t know how to…
Recently, I’ve been exploring what holds managers back from use their coaching skills to guide and develop their people. Despite organizations investing a ton of money into coach training, there are many managers out there who just feel uncomfortable with coaching their employees. One of the major reasons for this is that some managers don’t…
Organizations want managers who are skilled in coaching their people, to develop their abilities and help them grow as individuals and workers. Unfortunately, even though most managers receive training in coaching skills, the majority of them just aren’t engaging in coaching conversations that expand their employees’ awareness, thinking, and capability. Why is this? What holds…