By David Saxby
If you were to review the memories of your youth, chances are there was a
teacher, friend, family acquaintance or maybe a sports coach whose name you
still remember.
You’ve interacted with scores of people over the years and their names and
faces tend to fade. Yet, there is probably that one person who is indelibly
imprinted in your mind, a unique individual who had a positive impact on your
life, someone who played a key role in shaping the person you have become. A
person who in some way acted as a coach to support your personal growth.
This same concept, coaching for success, should be alive and well at your
utility company if you wish to develop a team
that creates a winning environment.
But wait, isn’t that what managers do every day? Aren’t managers also
coaches?
According to Webster’s Dictionary, a manager is a person who conducts
business or households while a coach is one who instructs or trains a team.
You could make an argument that they are really one and the same. My belief is
that they can be embodied in the same being, but the approach they take and
the skills they use when working with their staff determines whether that
person is a manager or a manager who also is a great coach. A manager achieves
day-to-day results, often relying heavily on himself or herself to figure
everything out. The manager who knows how to coach helps his staff develop the
skills and talents to support the overall mission of not just that manager
but, in the bigger picture, of the company.
How would your employees respond if you asked each of them if they felt
they had a coach at your utility, someone who was there to support their
growth at your company?
Giving supervisors and managers the skills to be effective coaches for
customer service reps and all other employees who would benefit from that
approach is critical to decreasing employee turnover, increasing employee
morale and exceeding customers’ expectations for service.
Consider these ideas for improving the coaching skills of your management
team:
Give managers the tools for the job. In a research study conducted by
InTelegy Corp., ineffective management and processes was one of the most
common reasons for people leaving a company. Employees felt supervisors
received no skills training on how to manage people, skills like leadership,
motivation, coaching, development and discipline. Hire a specialist in the
coaching field who can provide your managers with the skills to be more
effective coaches. Check out www.coachu.com or the online or CD-ROM
learning programs that offer those types of classes.
Understand learning styles. We all learn and absorb information
differently. A good coach understands the learning style of the individual
they’re coaching. If someone is a visual learner, they learn by what they see
or read. Auditory learners learn by listening. Kinesthetic learners learn by
feeling or experience. We all learn using a combination of visual, auditory
and kinesthetic abilities but, for most of us, one of those styles is
dominant. An individual will learn and retain more if information is presented
in the learning style that they are accustomed to.
Understand individual values. A good coach knows that each of the
players on their team is an individual and that each has different values when
it comes to motivation and encouragement. The style that a coach uses to
motivate and inspire one individual may not work for anyone else on the team.
Each of us has our own beliefs and values
concerning what is important and what motivates us to improve our skills.
Managers who are good coaches make sure they invest in one-on-one dialog with
the individuals on their team. A good coach asks questions, listens to
understand what is important to each person and then incorporates that
knowledge into their coaching style for each individual.
It starts at the top.
Coaching isn’t confined to middle management. The concept of coaching
for success must start at the very top of the company. Does senior management
at your utility model the skills of a good coach? Do they recognize the rest
of the management team for their hard work? Do they take the time to coach
their managers on how to be more effective coaches for their employees?
If top management isn’t setting the example by being good coaches for their
own team, it will be difficult to get the rest of the team to make the
investment of their time and energy.
Recognize players on the team. Good coaches don’t stand on the sideline
and only speak when the play goes wrong. They shout encouragement day in and
day out.
Words like “you’re doing a great job,” “thank you for that extra effort”
and “you are important to our team,” when said with sincerity, make an
individual feel they are part of something. They feel like they belong. It’s
human nature to want to belong. We may not want to admit it, but most of us
enjoy it when someone pays attention to how we are doing. Showing appreciation
and encouraging employees are two skills that every coach should demonstrate
to their team every single day!
Acknowledge those small improvements. Good coaches also look for the
small things that individuals can improve. John Wooden was one of the greatest
collegiate basketball coaches in history. Wooden kept diaries on each of his
players. He kept track of the small improvements he felt they could make and
then, at the end of practice, he would share these thoughts with each player.
Wooden’s unique insight and his unprecedented achievements - a .806 winning
percentage, 19 conference championships, 10 national championships, seven
straight national titles and four unbeaten seasons - have stood the test of
time. A good coach works daily to improve the small things that help the team
perform at its best.
Is he or she the right coach for the team? Just because someone is
great at getting the job done doesn’t mean they are good at developing people.
Perhaps a better question to ask is whether your managers have the aptitude to
be good coaches for their employees. Do they have a feel for how to coach,
develop and encourage other people, to strengthen the talent and skills of
others?
While there is no fail-safe methodology to hiring the right people, you can
improve your odds greatly if you use a personality-profile tool to help
identify the strengths of your management staff and the areas where they can
improve.
With a clear picture of their abilities, it is easier to educate them on
how to be a better coach. Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your
managers will help increase their effectiveness when it comes to coaching the
rest of the staff. Check out
www.hiringsolutions.net.
They have a variety of tools to assist in this area.
Keep employees in the loop. Are your managers keeping their staff
involved? Employees want to feel like they are part of the team - again, that
part of us that likes to belong. Ask for their input and ideas on how to
improve performance, increase productivity and decrease costs.
Most employees don’t have a clue about what it costs the company to handle
a customer call, what it costs to acquire a customer or what it costs to lose
a customer. Oftentimes, front-line employees can identify problems or weak
systems. The funny thing is, they usually have the easiest and most
cost-effective solutions.
Employees are in the trenches every day. They know what works well and what
doesn’t. Keep them involved, share the numbers
with them and let them know what it costs to run your company. They’ll have
more respect and a keener understanding as to what their contribution can be.
A manager with strong coaching abilities can be invaluable in retaining and
motivating your employees and helping them develop their skills. Wouldn’t it
be great if we all had a John Wooden coaching our
team? What if someone asked your employees to identify that one person who
played a big part in their growth and the response was, “There was this coach
at this company and . . .”
