Coaching to Win
Developing People | Driving Performance
Half-truths, misconceptions, and missteps. When it comes to leading, managers often succumb to them and companies perpetuate them.
The half-truths are that leadership is about getting things done and delivering results. The misconception is that like the great athletic coaches, the leader devises the game plan, drills it into the team, and holds people accountable for execution.
The full truth is that leadership is about getting things done and delivering results by enabling others to be their best. A more appropriate image of coaching may come not from the ball field but from the classroom — those great teachers we’ve all had in grade school: they see the promise in each student, envision the oak that acorn could become, convey and uphold those high expectations, and figure out how to engage each student to grow — to figure things out on his/her own.
The work of leadership, therefore, is different from what we typically assume. It is about unleashing others’ potential, helping them discover possibilities in themselves that they themselves might not even see, and tapping their capacity to get done what needs doing to deliver exceptional performance.
In an era when it is increasingly difficult to find the best talent, and at a time when a host of demographic differences — generational, national, racial, ethnic, gender — characterize our workplaces, organizations need to meet their best talent where they are and allow them to bring their all. How do you do that? Coaching. But few of us are naturals when it comes to coaching, and most of us labor under mistaken stereotypes of what coaching really entails.
That’s where Coaching to Win comes in. If the talent within your organization is never unleashed or remains underdeveloped, satisfaction and prosperity for those individuals and the company won’t materialize. Coaching to Win gives leaders skills and tools that enable them to raise their workers’ contribution and sense of value. It unlocks the potential within everyone involved, leader and direct report alike.
If all this is beginning to sound a little fluffy or esoteric, it’s not. The success of your business depends on it. In fact, an extensive Bersin by Deloitte study revealed companies that truly coached their employees experienced a 21% uptick in business. That’s bottom-line results. So it isn’t just good for people. Effective coaching is ultimately good for business. As for Coaching to Win, over 3,000 leaders have gone through the training to date, and they have experienced significant bottom-line business impact, reduced turnover, and increased engagement.
The Bersin study also revealed another important truth. Among the companies surveyed, though leaders generally were expected to coach the people who report to them, these leaders were found to lack the skills necessary to be effective coaches. Coaching to Win was designed to fill the gap, so leaders can gain these skills and fulfill that expectation for the good of their direct reports, themselves and the company.
Today, the battle is won when leaders succeed in engaging the hearts and minds of workers, not merely their hands. When hearts and minds are won, the game changes. Workers are willing to go to the mat to help the company succeed—not from fear or obligation, but because the one who is leading them has ignited their own greatness.
To learn more about this unique and dynamic learning experience, go to:
- Bersin by Deloitte website at http://www.bersin.com/practice/Detail.aspx?id=13396 to read the full case study written on the program in November 2010.
- Workforce.com to read Game Plan: Coaches Drive Performance at Archer Daniels Midland (http://www.workforce.com/articles/game-plan-coaches-drive-performance-at-archer-daniels-midland)
- Workforce.com to read Organizations Need Coaching on How to Coach: Report (http://www.workforce.com/articles/organizations-need-coaching-on-how-to-coach-report).
- Anderson Partners blog entitled Coaching Has a Winning Record at ADM at http://www.apexecutiveperformance.com/blog/post/coaching-has-a-winning-record-at-adm.
For more information on Coaching to Win, please contact Jane Pierce at:
[email protected]
PierceDevelopment.com
714 602-8738