Career and Executive Coaching from Hong Kong

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Dear Readers,

It’s almost half way through the year (so fast!) and so you may be thinking about completing a mid-year performance review with your staff. Ideally you have already taken steps towards developing your staff and advancing their careers. Have you?

This month’s article outlines some very quick ways to develop your employees’ careers in your everyday management activities. The more you can do this, the easier it will be to complete your mid-year and end-year performance reviews.

Cheers, Angela

Coaching on the Run

Last months article discussed different ways to manage your coaching time. The most time-efficient way may be what I called ‘Coaching by Walking Around’ which means using opportunities that come up in your everyday interactions with staff to develop them and advance their careers. In this article, we’ll take a very practical look at five different coaching opportunities that you can listen for and act on during your day to day management activities. With each opportunity you’ll need to recognize it, verbalize your support and mobilize the employee to take positive actions.

Here are the five coaching moments to watch for followed by examples:

1. When your employee demonstrates a new skill or interest, seek ways to expand on it.

For example, let’s say Bob’s accounting assistant June adds graphic elements to spreadsheets and shows a good eye for colour and clarity. Bob notices the extra effort and added value. He praises her efforts, comments on the positive impact of what she does and asks about her interest in visual presentation. He asks her to think of ways she can use this talent more within the organization.

2. When your staff member seeks feedback, provide real, specific feedback aimed at development.

Mary’s marketing assistant George asks her what she thought of the latest designs that he produced. Rather than just saying something positive, Mary thinks for a minute and relates some specific aspects of the designs she liked and a meaningful suggestion for improvement. Mary leaves it to George to decide if and how he might act on her suggestion for his next design project.

3. When your employee enquires about changes in the organization, confirm his or her emerging interest and show them how to find out more.

Salesman Robert asks his functional boss Lee what’s happening with plans for the proposed division of the marketing and sales departments. Although it is a complicated topic that is far from resolved, Lee spends a few minutes to discuss it. Lee outlines the timetable for the decision and asks if Robert is seeing an opportunity for himself with the change. Since Robert seems to be interested in making something of the opportunity, Lee suggests he speak to the Marketing Director to learn more about the plans.

4. When your employee is not doing well at some aspect of the job, seek to discover root causes and support them in finding solutions.

Following a change in organizational structure, Lucy has to coordinate the workload of several colleagues. Her boss Fai has noticed some tension among the colleagues that Lucy works with and she realizes that Lucy is more grumpy than usual. Rather than letting the potential problem escalate, she takes a few minutes to ask Lucy what she finds difficult about her new role. Fai and Lucy then brainstorm to think of how Lucy can handle the situation differently.

5. When your staff member is venting frustration as a result of boredom or inefficiency, acknowledge their feelings and encourage them to take action in any way they can.

Stanley notices that his marketing manager Josephine is being unusually cynical during the weekly meeting. Rather than letting it pass, he takes a few minutes in private to ask what is bothering her and she admits that she’s frustrated with the lack of support she gets from her counterparts in the region. Stanley acknowledges her feelings and listens as she describes what causes her problems. He asks her a few questions to help her clarify what she can do to reduce her frustration.

To be effective at coaching on the run, you first of all need awareness. That means you are listening and watching for opportunities for staff development. And you know how to support and mobilize people to take advantage of the opportunities. A few well-spent minutes can greatly advance your efforts to build strong coaching relationships with people. Your time will pay off in increased staff motivation, engagement and retention.

What would be the impact on your staff if you took more chances to coach?

What stops you from coaching your staff on the run?

June 2006

This article was inspired by an article by Beverly L. Kaye of www.careersystemsintl.com.

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Angela Spaxman works with business people, professionals and managers who want to love their jobs and excel. Her clients could be accelerating their learning about management and leadership skills; inspiring, empowering and developing their team members or creating careers or businesses that suit them perfectly.  Angela has been coaching full time since 2000 and has 13 years of experience in the people-development field as a coach, corporate trainer and consultant. She is a graduate of Coach U, a Certified Practitioner of Neuro-linguistic Programming, the Founding President of the Hong Kong International Coaching Community and a Board of Directors Member of the International Association of Coaches.