Defining Coaching Needs

In our last Progress Matters we discussed the first step in breaking through the barriers to coaching.

This month I would like to share a simple process and reminder to help you define coaching needs within your team and prepare the appropriate coaching schedule.

I have found that many managers don’t take the time to analyse performance data to help determine coaching needs.  If you don’t ‘Do it with Data’ your coaching session can become subjective and skewed by your judgment about the staff member (not a pleasant experience for both parties).

What do I mean by ‘Do it with Data’? Perhaps you have performance reports that provide you with KPI/target results. You may have customer feedback, quality results, or your personal observations that provide you with objective data that can form the basis of your coaching discussions. 

Once you have the data for all your team members you can analyse all aspects and then decide:

What -  after reviewing the data, what did I uncover as an area for  
            discussion and possible coaching focus for my team

Who -   which of the team members are my coaching priorities this  
            week/month

When - taking our business peaks and troughs into account, when  
             will I schedule our coaching session so that it is a    
            worthwhile experience for all concerned?

How -   taking the communication and learning needs of my team  
            members into consideration, how will I build their  
            confidence, skills, knowledge and belief during our coaching
            sessions? What are the quality questions I will need to     
            ask each staff member, what resources do I need to bring
            along etc.

It is imperative that as a coach you help each of your staff members understand the ‘levers’ that make up these data results. For example, let’s say a staff member’s sales conversion rate was not meeting target and you see this as a discussion point and possible coaching topic.  Together, make a list of the skills, knowledge and behaviours (that are totally in their control) that impact the conversion rate results. 

Next, ask your staff member to give themselves a score for each of the levers (where they feel they are currently at in terms of their performance in each of these areas). You could use a 1-5 scale where 1 = needs help and 5 = brilliant. You then add your scores for each of these levers (based on your observations of the staff member and reporting data).  This then helps to create a discussion and an agreement on the staff member’s strengths and areas of development which of course then starts the coaching focus.

If you would like to learn more about our Coaching with Style and BEST Performance Coaching program and how they can help you Progress further in 2014 go to www.progress.com.au , email janelle@progress.com.au or call 0411 358 333

You can’t stop Progress!

Janelle Nisbet
Managing Director