Friday, August 21, 2009

Some Tips for Effective Coaching

By Bart Icles

More and more executives, managers, supervisors, and human resources professionals are getting interested in using coaching as a tool in career growth and development. These leaders and professionals indeed need to start giving value to this tool or they might end up missing an exciting opportunity to inspire and influence the next advancement of management potential.

Lots of managers, executives, and human resources professionals believe that coaching is a unique way of delivering training. Coaches work hand in hand with managers so that training programs can be tailored according to the needs of the different skill areas. Coaches can also help managers in making behavioral changes that are required in career growth and development. It is thus important that coaches have a clear understanding of the different competencies where they will be making an impact on. They must be able to measure these competencies so that they can continuously work on helping develop these skills.

There are certain factors that coaches must observe so they can effectively roll out the coaching process. Coaches must understand that they need permission before they can give any coaching. An effective coach must be able to define the boundaries of his or her relationship with the different managers and executives. He or she must also be able to listen well and at the same time provide feedback. In other times, coaches are required to help managers obtain a 360-degree feedback that can help much in developing action plans that help improve their leadership capabilities. For a coach to work at his or her best, it is vital that the coaching role must be agreed upon.

Coaches must remember that they are not in control. The coach does not control the relationships or actions or decisions of the person that he or she is coaching. The coach merely gives recommendations and at the end of the day, the coached person is still responsible for his or her own actions and decisions.

Being a coach and giving coaching sessions entails a lot of responsibilities. To become an effective coach, one must both be resourceful and knowledgeable. When you are tasked to coach and along the coaching process there are questions that you cannot provide answers to, it is best that you tell the truth. The coach is always an educator but it does not necessarily mean he or she is an oracle who has answer to every kind of question. It helps to have highly honed communication skills so that you can easily express what you really mean to say, especially in those cases when you really do not have an answer to specific questions.

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