Coaching Skills for HR Professionals

Howard Miller Fulcrum Point www.fulcrumpointpartners.com

GOAL
Give attendees of this webinar actions to help implement any or all coaching skills In their day to day job

AGENDA
Situations where to use coaching skills Foundations for successful coaching Coaching Skill Benefits Essential coaching skills tools

Situations where to use coaching skills

Problem solving and Employee Development When employees aren t meeting their goals When a project is behind schedule Career development and growth To find out further insight into what motivates an individual

What is coaching?
Coaching is helping another person figure out the best way to achieve his or her goals, build skill sets or expertise, and produce the results the organization needs. Helping someone get from where they are to where they want to be.

Foundations for successful coaching

Goals which are specific, measurable and timely Knowing what you need Giving effective feedback, both positive and constructive* * if in position to do so

Coaching Skill Benefits

60% of respondents from North America (73% from Australia/New Zealand and UK/Ireland, 67% in Continental Europe and 69% in Asia) believe that the coaching they receive from their manager has significantly improved their job performance

Coaching Skill Benefits

64% in North America feel it has had a significant impact on their job satisfaction (74% in Australia/New Zealand, 70% in UK/Ireland, 71% in Continental Europe and 68% in Asia).

Coaching Skill Benefits

Coaching ROI Coaching produced a 529% return* on investment and significant intangible benefits to the business.
* Executive Coaching, study done by MetrixGLobal LLC

What is your time worth?

If your annual salary is Every minute is worth Every hour is worth 30 minutes a day saved for one year is worth 1,250.26 1,874.66 2,499.78 3,125 3,750.04 4,375.16 5,000.28 5,625.40 6,249.82

20,000 30,000 40,000 50,000 60,000 70,000 80,000 90,000 100,000

.1708 .2561 .3415 .4259 .5123 .5977 .6831 .7685 .8538

10.25 15.37 20.49 25.61 30.74 35.86 40.98 46.10 51.23

Coaching Skill Benefits

87% agreed or strongly agreed that, in general, they like to be coached. 84% of managers surveyed (84%) indicated that they love to coach

Barriers to coaching

People feel coaching takes too much time They worry they need to know the answers Rewards/Bonuses on focused on results, so decision makers focus on results when its others who need to be involved as well Coaching is seen as separate from the work

Barriers to coaching
Coaching takes TRUST Conversation vs. interrogation Feedback vs. reprimand Check in vs. micromanaging Concern v. spying

Barriers to coaching

Coaching takes TRUST Interest vs. meddling Goal-setting vs. orders Delegating vs. dumping Partnership vs. boss/subordinate

Coaching Skill Benefits

Blessing White* cite the following as compelling reasons for managers to coach: Retention Poor employee engagement Central to career planning initiatives

Coaching Skill Benefits

Anyone can use the skills that professional coaches use. Analysts, IT, project managers who find themselves in difficult situations or processes which seem to have the same issues over and over again Managers to help with their employees HR to help managers

Coaching Skill Benefits

Anyone can use the skills that professional coaches use. Use coaching skills when you are more reactive instead of proactive You seem to have problems without solutions

What are the essential coaching skills?

Listening (listening more and talking less!) Asking questions that lead to opportunity Focus on the outcome and do not engage in the stories of the employee

Listening
To whom should you be listening? To whom do you usually listen?!

Listening
Level I: Internal Listening Level 2: Focused Listening Level 3: Global Listening

Listening Level 1 Listening Level 1

Internal Listening
Attention is on ourselves on the sound of our own inner voice Listening to our own thoughts, opinions, judgments, feelings and conclusions

Listening Level 2 Listening Level 2

Focused Listening
Attention is a sharp focus on the other person listening is directed at the client Listening for words, expressions, emotions, what they don t say, values, vision, and what makes them energetic

Listening Level 3 Listening Level 3

Global Listening
Listen at 360 degrees Awareness includes everything. What you see, hear, smell and feel You don t need to be right!

Listening Level 3 Listening

Effective listening involves using intuition

Listening Level 3 Listening

Intuition The act or faculty of knowing or sensing without the use of rational processes; immediate cognition. Knowledge gained by the use of this faculty; a perceptive insight. A sense of something not evident or deducible; an impression.

Listening Level 3 Listening

Level 1 Listening (Internal Listening): NO! Level 2 Listening (Focused Listening): Yes! Level 3 Listening (Global Listening): a bigger Yes!

Listening exercises The listeningLevel 3

Two minute activity: talker, speaker, observer Telephone game Interpreting words

Listening exercises The listeningLevel 3

Results Listening isn t easy to do. There is an urge to ask questions. By just listening to everything a speaker has to say, some of those questions are answered even before they are asked. There is an impulse to take notes.

Listening Level 3 The listening exercise

Results It s easy to get distracted by outside noises, such as the email notification beep from your computer. You have to focus more intently to listen to a speaker who talks too quickly, or too slowly, or speaks with an accent.

Listening Level 3 The listening exercise

Results Listening takes a lot of energy. It s hard to do when your energy is low, or if you are tired or hungry. You have to focus more intently to listen to information about something you don t understand, or you find boring. It s hard to keep quiet and listen when you KNOW the solution.

Listening Level 3 The listening exercise

I know you believe you understand what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you hear is not what I meant.*
*Robert McCloskey

Listening Level 3 The listening exercise

Misunderstandings are often caused by how our biases or expectations affect what we see and hear.

Listening Level 3 The listening exercise

The story listening exercise I will read a short story twice. I will then read three different statements For each statement there will be a poll for you to select true or false

Listening Level 3 Tips to increase listening

Becoming consciousness about listening more and talking less makes a difference Turning away from your computer and phone while talking to someone.

Listening Level 3 Tips to increase listening

Coming up with a time 90 seconds or two minutes when you consciously decide to let the other person talk without interrupting. Putting a finger over your mouth to remember to wait a bit before you speak.

Asking questions that lead to opportunity

Too often we ask questions which emphasize the problem and don t offer the options for solutions. Questions which lead to opportunity could be open or closed questions

Asking questions that lead to opportunity

Open questions Are open ended Lead to greater creativity and insight Get to look within or to the future Closed Questions Answered with a Yes or No

Asking questions that lead to opportunity

Its not a science, more an art form A question might work one time, and not another where the situation or person is the same The skill is when a question doesn t work, immediately ask another one! Avoid starting a question with the word why

Asking questions that lead to opportunity

Situation: You work with a manager who keeps having problems with 2 of his employees. You have given him suggestions but he hasn t done them. Which of the following could be a question which will lead to opportunity?

Sample Questions
Talking to a employee with poor performance In your current job, what are you favorite things to do? In your current job, what could be better? What daily habits or routines do you want to create? What daily habits or routines would you like to stop?

Sample Questions
To ask a manager Which employees will get low appraisals at this time? Which employees will get a lower appraisal from last year? How often are you meeting with your reports? What motivates your reports?

Sample Questions
Career development/growth What activities excite you? What other jobs do you see yourself having? What aspects of your current job do you love? What motivates you? What else would you like to learn? What do you enjoy doing?

Sample Questions
General Questions What else? What s next? How else can I see the situation? Is what I m saying entirely true? What's wrong? What would you like to change? What if it doesn t always have to be this way?

Sample Questions
General Questions
Such as? Like What? For instance?

Focus on the outcome and do not engage in the stories of the employee

In coaching terms, not engaging in the stories of the coached employee means not exploring the why and what happened in the past (a therapist does that, a coach doesn t)

Focus on the outcome and do not engage in the stories of the employee

It also means not engaging the excuses an employee presents when not meeting expectations. When we do this we are focusing on the problem, not a solution.

Focus on the outcome and do not engage in the stories of the employee

Using your coaching skills means focusing on solutions. Don t focus on what went wrong, but on how we can prevent it from happening again. Most of the time, we ask what happened with the intention to help, but it puts others on the defensive.

Reasons this is challenging to do!

Requires you to think before you talk to your employee. What is the goal? What do you need?

What is the goal?

Use quantifiable goals SMT not SMART The A and R of SMART are not quantifiable
Specific Measurable Timely/Trackable

What do you need?

Need

If you don t know what you need then why are you having the conversation?! Express what you need by saying I NEED. Do not deviate from using those words
Need: I need you to be on time Not a need: I want you to be on time

Reasons this is challenging to do!

If you focus on the goal when listening and asking questions, you avoid the subjectivity that can waste countless hours

Conclusion
If you listen to level 2 or level 3, and/or ask questions that lead to opportunity, focus on the goals not the stories, you are using coaching skills! When you use these skills, they can help you increase your capabilities and productivity

Conclusion

Most challenging skill: not engaging in the employee s story Most important skill: having goals which are SMT Most inspiring skill: asking questions which lead to solutions

Sources
The Coaching Conundrum 2009, Global Executive Summary, BlessingWhite, http://www.blessingwhite.com/%5Ccontent%5Creports% 5Ccc_exec_2009.pdf High-Impact Performance Management: Part 1 Designing a Strategy for Effectiveness, by Stacia Garr, Bersin & Associates, August 8, 2011, http://www.bersin.com/Practice/Detail.aspx?id=14459&s =Performance-Management

Sources

Executive Briefing: Case Study on the Return on Investment of Executive Coaching, by Merrill C. Anderson, Ph.D., MetrixGlobal, LLC, November 2, 2001, http://www.synergismcoaching.com/MetrixGlobal.pdf Tony Robbins The Manager Trap, 13 Pitfalls to Avoid, Howard Miller Coactive Coaching, H Kimsey House, L Whitworth, P Sandhal

Conclusion
Howard Miller howard@fulcrumpointpartners.com 415-642-0843 www.fulcrumpointpartners.com

Conclusion
Book: The Manager Trap: 13 Pitfalls to Avoid
http://www.amazon.com/Manager-Trap-13-PitfallsAvoid/dp/0984399518/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1307731033&sr=8-5