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Mentoring and Coaching for Optimum Performance

Written by: Marshall W. Northcott

Article Overview: How do you bring out the best and help your team members raise their performance and live up to their potential? In what ways can you contribute to their success through your coaching and mentoring effort? Learn more, read on...

Mentoring and Coaching for Optimum Performance

Your role as coach is vital, teaching people to become independent thinkers and conditioning their minds for success. Ask questions, listen and learn. Set ground rules and expectations for coaching. Allow people to progress at a comfortable pace. Recognize limitations or an unwillingness to change. Alter your style and approach based on the individual student. Invest time in your people, get to know them and understand them. Help them help themselves so they can become a more valued asset. Merriam- Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines a coach as a private tutor. One who instructs or trains. Coaching means to instruct, direct or prompt. To train intensively as by instruction and demonstration.

People need a coach for many reasons like training, teaching, educating and informing. You offer them the wisdom and knowledge gained from other experiences and a different perspective to give them the power to simplify complicated issues. You are part of an accountability system for goal setting and achievement. You help them identify issues, concerns and mental blocks, to see the forest for the trees. The systems, processes and procedures you introduce streamline business practices. You provide them assistance in the creation and implementation of tools. Your intuitiveness helps them see what they cannot and raise their level of consciousness in areas of concern.

There are many reasons coaching fails and you must be aware of them in advance. Personality clashes, poor explanation or insufficient communication will destroy a coaching relationship. Lack of commitment to the coaching program from either party. Insufficient follow through or implementation by client. Client discomfort, disbelief, or dishonesty regarding a tool or idea that was to be implemented. If the coaching takes a backseat and is no longer a priority or when other issues take precedent. Insufficient resources to follow through with recommendations or inflexibility from either party cripple the relationship. You must also be aware of a poor coaching environment that is noisy or invites interruptions.

Ensuring the desired outcome requires respectful cooperation, flexibility with in reasonable parameters and putting personalities aside. Open effective communication, where appropriate information is supplied, quality explanations are given by the coach and clarification questions are asked by the student makes the relationship work! Having an agreement of the degree of accountability that should be expected makes good sense. Consistent updates regarding progress, resource issues and other obstacles should be conveyed. A suitable location is a must and in some cases a coaching contract to acknowledge commitment could be signed by both parties.

Coaching isn't always the answer. You must understand why poor performance exists. It could be because of poor or inadequate soft skills or product knowledge training. Inadequate equipment and job related tools could be the source of challenges. There may be real or perceived time constraints. Lack of motivation, an unwillingness to change or try new ideas, or implement different techniques cannot be coached. Sometimes, people are unable to change for either intellectual or emotional reasons. The coach must ask which of the aforementioned reasons apply? Is coaching needed to solve the problem? If yes, what should the coaching sessions address?

In order to coach you must ask questions like, Is this person conscious of what they are supposed to do and when? What is the specific difference between the present and the desired performance level? Do they know and accept that the performance is unsatisfactory? Do they have the skills required to perform their duties? Is the performance standard realistic? What is the impact of the substandard performance? Are adequate resources available to do the job? Is it possible to address the obstacles affecting performance or are they beyond the person's control? Does positive performance yield sufficient rewards? Is the person intellectually and motivationally capable of doing the job if the desire is present?

"Great players don't always make great coaches and great coaches weren't necessarily the greatest players."

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Article Tags: accountability system, backseat, business practices, collegiate dictionary, demonstration, different perspective, disbelief, dishonesty, forest for the trees, goal setting and achievement, independent thinkers, knowledge gained from, level of consciousness, mental blocks, merriam webster, pace, personality clashes, poor explanation, private tutor, wisdom



Related Forum Posts
Re: Essential Leadership skills - Vision Values Mission Strategic Thinking Decision Making Communication Team Bonding People Development Coaching / Mentoring / Guiding / Grooming Presentation Thanks Robert
Business Women Peer Mentoring Spotlight - Hi Ladies, I had an idea on how we could really offer some support to one another here on the Forum. I thought it might be fun if we invited one of the Ladies here to put her business in the spotlight. Then we could all have an opportunity to do a little Peer Mentoring. After a specific length of time, we could then open it up for the next woman to present her business. What do you think? Do you want to be the woman who gets some free tips first? If so, tell us your situation and we'll get started! I'm looking forward to hearing what you think. Warmly, Tami
ARTICLE: Performance coaching in the workplace - To create lasting performance change it is necessary to first understand the positive and negative influence that a person’s personal behaviors has on their execution and what impact these have on their ability to achieve success. Only when we fully understand a person’s behavioral patterns and create positive self-managing coaching strategies can we assist a person to create lasting performance change. The vast majority of employers believe coaching can deliver significant benefits to both individuals and organizations. The majority of employers plan to increase the use of coaching over the next few years, according to a new survey by the Institute of Personnel and Development. Nearly nine out of ten interviewed companies expect their managers and supervisors to deliver performance coaching as part of their day-to-day work. In another large industry-wide study it was found that most managers reported that they were confident in their ability to coach. However, the study also showed that the managers’ actual skills levels as coaches were typically poor. As a consequence they were not nearly as effective in their coaching as they believe themselves to be. Often times, they believed that coaching consisted of just providing 1-to-1 instructional feedback to their staff members on what to do in a given situation to perform better. Many recent studies have shown that technical skills only represent at best 20% of the contribution into our performance. The remaining 80% comes from our ability to choose or make a decision, assertiveness, commitment to grow, ability to concentrate, honesty, optimism, persistence, ability to perform well under stress and so on. These traits are commonly called our soft skills or attitude. Few managers understand just how deeply rooted their own behavior patterns are, let alone how to positively change them in other people. Performance coaching is frequently confused with other types of coaching, such as Executive coaching and Life coaching. Performance coaching is a form of Directive coaching. Executive coaching and Life coaching are both forms of Non-directive coaching. Directive coaching is usually more suitable for a manager who sometimes acts as a coach. Performance coaching in the workplace has developed immensely from what it was only 4 years ago. To choose the right coach will make a huge difference. You also better make sure to know what you want. If your coach knows what (s)he is doing – you will get on your way to get it! [i:38tu5pgr]- Peter J Karlsson[/i:38tu5pgr]
Re: need pricing help please - here's my opinion that was derived from the person I heard it from (Russell Brunson) I view internet Marketing products as a Ladder. At the bottom of the Ladder is ebooks and at the top is One on One Coaching. so the ladder would look like this starting from the Top ($$$) to Bottom($) One-to-One Coaching ($$$$$$) Workshops ($$$$$) Teleseminars ($$$$) Video($$$) Audio ($$) ebooks ($) I agree with this methodology mainly because of the convenience factor and value from the customers point of view.
Different Hats - CEO Sales & Marketing & Leadership Development Company Strategic Vision 10 Alliances & Growth Strategies 10 Hiring & Managing People 8 Mentoring 8-9 Strategic Planning for Clients 10 Execution of Marketing Campaigns 9-10 (i have great people who do the nitty gritty) Financial Management 9 Bookkeeping 3 (outsourced as I really hate the fine details like GST0 Administrative Follow Up 6-7 (again have great staff) Writing & Publishing 9 (getting better all the time!) Speaking 10 (so I have been told) Self Promotion 9-10 Web development & Promotion 6-7 (learning more and have brought on players who are 10+) Babysitting Employees (1 - wont do it, that's why I work so hard to hire and motivate the people I have) Great topic Kevin!! Jude


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