In these challenging and pressured times, individuals can find themselves requiring additional support on a one to one basis in order to further develop their knowledge, skills or performance.
This is where we can help. Being involved in the running of coaching and mentoring courses, we not only understand the theory of coaching and mentoring, but also the practical steps in implementing and conducting it. The additional benefits of using external support can be that the reticence some individuals feel to ‘opening up’ to a coach that is known to them is overcome. Similarly, the ‘corporate politics’ that can sometimes be involved, whilst understood, is not allowed to overshadow the process. There can also be reluctance on the part of an internal coach to ask searching questions of someone known to them!
Whilst not always the case, our experience suggests that the more senior members of management are often the ones requiring the coaching. Their working relationship with those around them creates a dynamic which manifests itself in a variety of ways, some being:
- Their team members feeling dissatisfied and disgruntled with the way they are managed and developed with resultant poor team spirit, work performance, or, sadly valuable team members looking to leave the team or even the company
- Their peer group feeling that the individual is either out of touch, losing the plot or failing to manage and cope with situations required of a person at their level
- Interestingly, the individual needing the coaching is often the one who recognises the symptoms least, feeling everything is fine and everything is under control!
Our Style:
We approach each situation afresh, with no pre-conceived ideas or solutions. The first step to making progress is recognition, recognition on the part of the individual that there might be a situation requiring attention. We help people reflect and make decisions to develop and improve.
Our approach:
We initially meet with the commissioning client to discuss and understand the scenario and the individual concerned. Typically from this point and once the necessary agreements are in place, we would hold our first ‘one to one’ meeting with the individual concerned to generate a rapport and understanding. Depending upon the progress made and the nature of the coaching need, certain questionnaires might also be introduced at this first meeting, these can bring certain details into sharper focus and underscore what has been identified through discussion when the time comes for the second meeting.
The number of such coaching sessions can vary and have been known to involve team members if the nature of the problem warrants and the individual is in agreement. Such involvement has been found very useful in defining the issues in these early stages if a manager’s team are being affected.
Following these exploratory coaching sessions, where the individual recognises that issues exist, we move onto the solution finding phase, where the individual is coached to identify approaches to overcome the problem being addressed. This being followed by an action plan being constructed by the individual with our help to continue the approaches agreed and review meetings planned in.
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