The role of a coach is to create a supportive environment where both the learner and coach collaboratively examine and reflect on current practices. Together, they develop new skills and competencies through feedback and address challenging situations through problem-solving. Based on my experience coaching in five countries and now having reached around 2,700 leadership coaching sessions, I am happy to share my insights on
What are the characteristics of a coach? An excellent coach is characterized by the following:
As a manager who applies coaching- your mission is to inspire people to look at the circumstances in a different light and to see new possibilities. The manager as coach is motivated to develop his/her employees and can inspire them as well. He/she sees that his/her employees can accomplish much more than they are presently. The employees themselves are then motivated to change their mindsets and thinking patterns and to go beyond themselves.
For example:Rubee Lee’s team members complain that Rubee consistently writes e-mails that are too formal and harsh; she responds to them that this is simply her style.
Her manager coaches her to improve her writing style. She inspires Rubee to move beyond her barrier of, “This is just my style,” to working on improving her e-mail communication to her team.
#Sets High Standards
A coach strives for excellence in his/her own coaching. A coach’s knowledge, effectiveness as a communicator, rapport with the manager and perceived competence will impact an individual’s willingness to use your input.
The manager as coach sets high standards as it relates to the individual’s potential as well. These goals may not be consistent with the goals that the coach set when he/she was in the role of the manager, but this is another example of how the manager as coach must leave his/her role as a manager behind and focus solely on the development of the individual employee.
For example: In Doris’ new role as director of a large client account in Abu Dhabi, she needs to have a basic command of Spanish. She asks her manager who is fluent in Spanish to coach her. Her manager takes the opportunity to set the goals for Doris higher than she had expected: to communicate basic sentences by the month’s end. Doris is committed to improvement and would be willing to reach higher goals. This would require much practice and coaching, but Doris is willing to stretch to the next level.
#Displays Honesty and Integrity
A coach maintains a genuine commitment to the success of the people he/she is coaching and to honest communication with them.
Especially n this case, where the manager becomes the coach, honesty and integrity is crucial. There are different expectations for each role, which can lead to a conflict of interest and a possible breach of trust. The manager must ensure to maintain confidentiality and trust in both his/her manager and coach roles. Discussions that might have come up while in the manager role may not be necessarily used in the coach role.
For example:Pedro asked his manager if he could coach him on decision-making techniques. His manager knows why Pedro needs to be coached in this area, but he is hesitant to coach him. At the annual performance review, he and Pedro talked about Pedro’s performance goals and prioritized his development plan. Learning decision-making techniques had been one of the lower priorities. Pedro’s manager wanted him to organize his contact list and learn the new marketing software. He knew, though that as Pedro’s coach, the expectations were different and he must act in accordance with the role. Pedro decides that he would like to be coached.
#Thinks Action
A coach understands that the key to change is action. He/she does not get stalled planning or analyzing but thinks in terms of specific steps that need to be taken for people to achieve excellence in developing themselves and achieving the goals that they have set which may not be parallel to the goals that the manager has set in a performance review.
For example: Lee Porter approaches her manager, Sandra Papilla, and asks to be coached on communication skills specifically with one colleague. Sandra works out a step-by-step plan of action and determines ways to measure his progress. After two weeks they set out to communicate with this colleague in full sentences and to focus only on the conversation. After four weeks, they set the goal of being able to accept feedback constructively from this colleague. Communication between Lee and his colleague slowly improved and Sandra knew that the key was defining the behaviors and measuring them.
Comments