Sustaining a High Performance Culture
Many organisations seek to revitalize strategic management by utilising balanced scorecard approaches, developing capacities to respond to fragmented markets, outsourcing non-core capabilities and by applying insights from research on emotional intelligence. However, unless a coach approach is used these strategies will often fail because of a lack of ownership and commitment from the heart and soul of the organisation – the employees. In this article we will investigate why a coach approach is critical to implementing these and other organisational strategies designed to sustain business success.
Current research shows that in a world where information is transparent and access to it is global, the ability to leverage a company’s strengths will come from the development of human capital. The area of human capital is a domain of increasing returns whereas the returns on financial capital are limited.
In the real time economics of the future, only one thing will provide the key to sustained high performance - capability. Companies who continually build a strong and a differentiated capability will survive and prosper as turbulence and accelerating change erode traditional business models. Building capability starts with the individual and is compounded as it spreads to work groups, teams and throughout the entire organisation. What is becoming clear in the midst of rising complexity is the need for everyone in the organisation to have a development plan linked to ongoing organizational alignment and profitability. Time and resources must be allocated to personal and professional development just as they have been traditionally allocated to "hard" systems.
The challenge for leaders is to:
- Align employees around organisational vision and strategic business goals
- Translate organisational vision and goals into terms that genuinely engage all employees
- Align employees’ day-to-day priorities with the organisation’s strategic business goals
- Focus employee effort by clearly and frequently communicating with passion those things that really matter to the business
- Create an environment where employees are rewarded in line with their contribution to the organisation and in terms that are personally meaningful
- Provide employees with ongoing feedback and information that enables them to achieve their fullest potential
- Foster cross functional collaboration so that individuals and teams are committed to achieving organisational goals rather than achieving goals in isolation from the big picture
Shifting from command and control to coaching
High performing organisations have recognized that the traditional "command and control" style of management is no longer sufficient to build a capability characterized by rapid response, leveraged creativity, resilience and sustained high performance. The evidence shows that employees who are coached in their performance rather than managed to perform are more committed to, and invest more in, the outcomes of their work and the achievement of organisational goals. Thus, leaders who are able to adopt a coach approach will successfully lead their organisations in the new-world economy.
A coaching culture, created and led from a strategic leadership point of view, is able to connect, clarify and commit people and systems to the most effective course of action. Today more than ever, organisations need to determine what really matters to their business and set forth on a path to rapidly and systematically achieve these objectives.
Furthermore, a coaching culture is about shifting the workplace horizon from one where people receive direction from others to one where people are engaged to commit to doing things they care passionately about. This process encourages the development of personal leadership and responsibility throughout the organisation.
In this context, coaching has been identified as a critical leadership, management and organisational development competency. A professional discipline, a skill set and a way of being, coaching is designed to enhance performance, sustain success and drive organisational transformation.
Understanding coaching
The very first use of the word "coach" in English occurred in the 1500’s. It was used to refer to a particular kind of carriage. The root of the verb "to coach" means: to convey a valued person from where he or she is to where he or she wants to be.
Coaching is a process that enables individuals, teams and organisations to transform or modify their vision, values and abilities and produce spectacular results in their lives and in their places of work. It can be described as a collaborative, mutually designed, relationship between a coach and a willing individual that focuses on the development of human potential. Through a process of discovery, goal setting and strategic actions, the relationship is able to generate extraordinary results.
The powerful coach is one who is a vision builder and value shaper, a person who elicits commitment, creativity and flexibility from people and a transformational partner who has a powerful impact on a person’s ability to be and to perform. Coaching is a discipline that uses all of one’s knowledge and experience to enable the coachee to create and develop their own best practices, connections and resources.
Characteristics of high performing coaches
Successful coaches are characterised by the systematic approach they adopt to their craft. Critical elements include:
- Embodying values and beliefs - Successful coaches share empowering values and beliefs about themselves, the coachee and about the coaching process.
- Exhibiting differentiating characteristics - Successful coaches exhibit characteristics and qualities that differentiate their coaching craft. Such characteristics include a capacity to build a strong ownership, responsibility and accountability for performance and results.
- Mastery of pivotal skills - Successful coaches demonstrate a mastery of core coaching skills. These skills include:
- Attending
- Highly developed listening skills
- Strategic questioning
- Conveying support and confidence
- Making unreasonable requests that facilitate the achievement of exceptional results
- Ability to create an environment for change
- Demonstrating a passion for results
- Being comfortable to ask the tough questions and to straight talk
- Demonstrating a high level of interpersonal awareness and psychological insight
- Effectively structuring each coaching conversation – Coaching occurs within the context of a conversation. Therefore it is critical that the coach can effectively facilitate a structured conversation. The coaching conversation is well structured and has four distinct phases:
- Clarify the goal of the coaching conversation
- Explore the current reality
- Generate forwarding options
- Wrap-up/facilitate action
High performing coaches progress through the coaching conversation, guiding the coachee to explore what it is that they want to achieve, define the context of their situation, create possible courses of action and commit to the chosen course of action.
Summary
As one can clearly see, coaching is a complex activity requiring solid skills, commitment and an appropriate disposition in order to be successful. However, taking the time to develop the capacity to use a coaching methodology within your organisation will yield dividends that cannot be achieved through traditional management approaches.
