Management, Executive and Performance Coaching
As the challenges facing middle and senior management grow, coaching can really help managers develop their management capability and skills.
We provide confidential, one to one, executive coaching to give busy managers the opportunity to explore and resolve the issues and dilemmas they face.
For more junior managers, coaching can build on management skills to help them to grow in confidence more quickly - making tough decisions, motivating teams and achieving the right results for the business.
Whatever an individual's position in an organisation, the process will be similar. Our coaches will challenge and help you to make your own decisions about your organisation to move things forward.
It is imperative for all organisations to build a culture in which learning and coaching are valued activities. We can help build this culture. We can help make learning, and the development of your people, key contributors to your business success.
More about performance coaching and its value
Coaching employees helps to improve individual performance, deal with under-performance and improve productivity.
This is according to UK organisations surveyed by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). In 2006, their learning and development survey found 8 in 10 organisations use coaching as part of their people development.
Coaching is a powerful tool for encouraging people to solve problems themselves.
Coaching now comes in a number of guises and is carried out by a myriad of providers, from sports coaches and occupational psychologists to HR and training professionals. Coaching, using both external coaches and in-house managers, is a great way to develop great managers.
Despite the different approaches to coaching, there is some consensus about what it is.
-
It is aimed at improving performance and developing skills.
-
It is one to one, and focussed on personal development.
-
It is aimed at resolving specific areas or issues.
-
It depends on excellent listening and questioning skills.
-
It requires honest and constructive feedback and an environment of trust.
-
It is likely to be challenging for those being coached.
There is also widespread agreement that coaching, when introduced and managed well, can be immensely beneficial to organisations and individuals alike. It is a positive, proactive development activity, far more than a remedial intervention when individuals or organisations face difficulties.
ScottishPower provides coaching for senior management and individuals with high potential as part of its talent management programme. Executives are individually matched to coaches to ensure a good fit of skills, personality and experience. On line surveys showed that coaching was both goal orientated and effective in managing work relationships, career decisions, personal motivations and managing workload.
When Theo Paphitis and Peter Jones of The Dragon's Den (BBC) bought Red Letter Days out of administration last year, they commissioned coaching and training to address rock bottom staff morale. The solutions challenged management to take more responsibility for staff issues and staff turnover was reduced by 80%.
John Lewis Partnership has been training its managers to coach, as part of its strategy to improve business performance, since 2003.
-
In 2005 the company reported that staff turnover was down. The retailer had achieved first and second place respectively in customer satisfaction surveys by Verdict Research and Which? Report.
-
Crucially, for longer term improvements, internal surveys indicated significant increases in the numbers of staff who felt their managers encouraged them to take more responsibility, that their manager helped them do their job better, and that they were trained well to do their jobs.
-
These factors point towards even more staff commitment and higher performance in the future.
The greatest benefits are achieved in organisations that develop a coaching culture; using external coaching and developing the skills within management so that coaching becomes a part of normal day to day activity.