The word ‘Coaching’ has taken on a number of meanings over the last few years, showing up in different places on the directive/questioning scale. Some people use it as a phrase to describe how they impart their solutions to others, (otherwise known as ‘guess my list’ or training) some use it as a performance verb (i.e. to give someone a good coaching) and some use it as a development tool, where people work out the answers for themselves. Part of the reason for this lies in the confusion behind the role of a coach – most sports coaches for example are incredibly directive when advising how an athlete can improve their performance.
The one thing that most people agree on is that you need to get a person to own their performance, to enable them to want to improve and find ways to make this happen. If they don’t own it, the best you can hope for is Willing Compliance. Often they will do as they are told while you are there telling them – as soon as you aren’t there they revert back. So the question is how do you get people to own performance? If Coaching has many meanings, Empowerment is running close behind. It is often used to describe the act of passing responsibility to others, in order to blame them if it doesn’t go as planned – it is also used to abdicate responsibility and sometimes ‘psuedo empowerent’ results in the power being given away and taken back at the first sign of trouble.
I believe the answer lies in linking the art of non-directive Coaching with the genuine desire to Empower. By being clear on the ‘What’ and then coaching (questioning with no solution in mind) on the ‘How’, you allow individuals to come up with their own way of achieving things, whilst being clear on the outcome required. By asking questions you allow individuals to think things through for themselves and make their own mistakes, which is how most of us have learnt over the years. Only by using these techniques will you get people to own their performance, care about the performance of the department/business they work for and feel that they can make a difference. This is the key to getting better performance today and growing leaders for tomorrow.
If you want to know more about how you can empower your people to deliver superior performance, why not come on our award-winning Coaching for Empowerment programme being held in London 26th and 27th June 2012? Contact becky.hedley@andpartnership.com for more details.
