NEW ARTICLES  HOT ARTICLES  TOP RATED  ADD AN ARTICLE  UPDATE AN ARTICLE  GET RATED 
  HOME     MY ACCOUNT     POWER SEARCH     REGISTER     SUPPORT     SUGGEST CATEGORY  

The Power of Coaching
7650 Self Improvement > Coaching Mar 1, 2007 Paul Duxbury The Power of Coaching When you hear the word ?coach?, what comes first into your mind? Do you picture the 46 Seater Coach packed with tourists or do you picture a basketball team with person shouting out instructions? Or maybe the image of a football team with someone in a tracksuit pacing back and to calling out the names of the players comes to mind?

Coaching does indeed have it?s origins in the world of transportation when servants conveyed a person of worth from place to place in a Coach! Coaching initially became more familiar as a profession with the images of the Coach working with a sports team. Before I move on to look at how Coaching works now I just want to share with you my favourite definition of Coaching which is that it is about enabling an individual to move from where they are now to where they want to be. I especially like that definition because of it?s succinct explanation of Coaching the links back to the original meaning of the word ?Coach.?

Coaching is now one of the key concepts in leadership and management and increasing numbers of people who truly want to be successful are receiving Coaching.. Why has coaching become so popular?

Coaching creates a level playing field

As a leadership style, coaching is used when the members of a group or team are competent and motivated, but do not have an idea of the long-term goals of an organization. This involves two different levels of coaching: team and individual. Team coaching enables team members work together.

In a group of individuals, not everyone may have the same level of competence and commitment to a goal. A group may be a mix of highly competent and moderately competent individuals with varying degrees of commitment to the team goals. These differences can become a cause of friction among the members of the team with resentment about differing levels of contribution appearing.

The leader who coaches helps the team members level their expectations. In addition the coaching leader is able to manage differing perspectives so that the common goal succeeds over personal goals and interests. In a large organization, leaders need to work to align the personal values and goals of the individuals within the organization with those of the organization so that long-term or strategic directions can be pursued.

Coaching builds up confidence and competence.

Individual coaching is an example of situational leadership at work. The leader who coaches works one-on-one with individuals building up their confidence by affirming good performance during regular feedbacks. They also increase individual competence by helping people assess their strengths and weaknesses to facilitate career planning and professional development.

Depending on the individual?s level of competence and commitment, a leader may exercise more coaching behaviour for the less-experienced members. Usually, this happens in the case of new team members. The individual?s direct manager gives more defined tasks and holds regular feedback sessions with the new member of staff. Over time they will gradually lessen the amount of directive coaching and move along the coaching continuum towards consultative coaching as the individual?s competence and confidence increase.

Coaching promotes individual and team excellence.

Excellence is a product of habitual good practice. Holding regular coaching oriented meetings and providing constructive feedback is incredibly important in helping to establish good habits. In a coached team individuals will develop the habit of constantly assessing themselves for their strengths and areas for improvement that they themselves perceive what knowledge, skills, and attitudes they need to acquire to attain team goals. In the process, not only do they find themselves empowered to examine their behaviours but they attain individual excellence as well. An excellent analogy or example is the Orchestra: in which each member plays a different instrument. In order to achieve harmony of music from the different instruments, individuals will ensure that they play their part in the piece to the very best of their ability, aside from practicing as an Orchestra. Consequently, as well as performing in a team they improve individually as an instrument player.

Coaching develops high commitment to common goals.

A leader who coaches works to balance the attainment of immediate targets with long-term goals towards the vision of the organization. As I mentioned earlier, with the alignment of personal goals with organizational or team goals, the personal interests are also kept in balance so that they do not distract from the team purpose and goals. By constantly communicating the vision through formal and informal conversations, the team members are inspired and motivated. Setting short-term team goals aligned with organizational goals and making an action plan to attain these goals can help sustain the increased motivation and commitment to common goals of the members.

Coaching produces valuable leaders.

Leadership by example is important in coaching. A leader who professes to follow a coaching approach will soon lose credibility if they do not practice what they preach. This means that they should be well organized, highly competent is their field, communicate openly and encourage feedback, and have a clear idea of the organization?s vision-mission-goals. By working with leaders who coach individuals can acquire the same good practices and attitudes they see modelled by their leader/manager. This in turn will enable them to become coaches themselves. If an individual experiences good coaching, they are most likely to do the same things when entrusted with formal leadership roles.

In conclusion as I commented at the outset coaching enables an individual to move from where they are now to where they want to be! Those who experience coaching really do see change in their lives and by applying the skills they observe and acquire through being coached they make a difference to those they work with.

Article Source: http://www.articlerich.com

Paul Duxbury is an experienced management trainer and Coach. Do you want to achieve your goals and live the lifestyle you really want? Read more at www.fulfilling-your-dreams.com


Write a Review   Add to My Favorite   Refer it to Friend   Report Article  

Average Visitor Rating: 0.00 (out of 5)
Number of ratings: 0 Votes

Visitor Rating


Other links owned by this user
The monter in Doctor Who are legendary for their frightening nature and their rubbery, comical appearance. Whether it i the darkly efficient Mater, the menacing Dalek, the fearome Auton or the chilling Cybermen the baddie were bound to end you
Category:

Family vacaions can be one of he bes ways o make memories ha will las you and your kids a lifeime. Bu no maer how long you are saying a your chosen desinaion, when ravelling wih children he longes par of he rip can be your journey
Category:

When it comes to choosing the all-time champion of migraine triggers, it all boils down to two contenders and all the others are mere pretenders. Much research has been done into the various triggers of migraine and basically the verdicts have come down
Category:

rt--> The Goldmine known as Private Label Rights! There are three basic rights you should know about when it comes to resale rights marketing.

These are:

resale rights
master resale rights
private label rights
Category:

It is important that you don?t go into the craft business for the wrong reasons. If you are hoping to make a quick buck, then you?ve chosen the wrong industry! It usually takes months to see a return on your investment and years to start to see major
Category:

I am sure that at some stage in your life you have dreamed of being someone special, someone important or successful. It can seem so hard at times to take that first step and step outside where we are right now to where we want to be. Today and
Category:

Computer software can make your family tree research a breeze, relatively speaking ? pun intended, of course. Using family tree software allows the creation of online data bases to sort records; the storage of digital photos with other documents,
Category:

If you want to build an attractive landscape, but do not where to begin, there are plenty of common landscape gn ideas and features available for you to gain inspiration. You can use the ideas yourself or add a little twist to make the landscape
Category:

When you hear the word ?coach?, what comes first into your mind? Do you picture the 46 Seater Coach packed with tourists or do you picture a basketball team with person shouting out insuctions? Or maybe the image of a football team with someone in a
Category:

Is your computer running a bit slower than usual? Have you recently installed a few programs and now everything seems a little slowed? If this sounds like the problems that you are currently experiencing, then your computer probably just needs a tune
Category:

rt--> Learn to walk before you start to run! It is said that before we learn how to run, we must first learn how to walk. And in the process of learning how to walk, we stumble from time to time. No big deal, though. It?s part of the learning process.
Category:

Suduko first appeared as a game in the 18th century. It took almost 200 years before it made it into the media. In 1979 the first Suduko puzzle as published in an American puzzle magazine called Dell Pencil Puzzles and Word Games here it
Category:

rt--> Creating a Member based Website Since the dawn of the Internet, many online businessmen have tried to capitalize on a variety of aspects that they hoped would become profitable. They have tried diversity in the form of purchasing resale rights;
Category:

rt--> Keep therm coming back! If you have been focusing on new and unique visitors alone, then you?ve been missing out on a big opportunity to boost the volume of traffic that would pass through your website.

There is only so much new traffic
Category:

Niche ting, generally speaking, is about marketing to markets with highly specialized needs. Many people running online businesses have made their money in seeking out obscure markets and determining ways to serve them. The Niche
Category:

rt--> Make your Mark by building your reputation If you have to part with your hard-earned money for some goods or services, who would you rather trust: a novice provider or an expert one? The answer to that question is what makes branding so much
Category:

I bet I know the nswer to wht those who re ctively involved in discovering their fmily tree, which is otherwise known s genelogy, find most frustrting! I m sure tht they will tell you tht there is nothing more frustrting thn spending hours
Category:

How long have migraines been around? Contrary to the beliefs of many, migraines are not a new disease, only a newly-named. In fact, based on the symptoms, it appears that migraines are among the oldest diseases known to mankind. Conditions
Category:

Other links at Self Improvement > Coaching
Why get a coach? The answer was obvious to me after my eight years as a self employed creator of wearable art. I learned in those years that it was nearly impossible to simultaneously hold a vision, map out a path, walk that path and measure my own
Category:

Great site i like
Category:

hello! http://wwwareaseocom/contacts/ google pr Professional SEO, pagerank algorithm, Web Site Analysis From google pr
Category:

Welcome! http://www.areaseo.com/improvepr/ improve k default. PageRank 11: Professional SEO, k algorithm, Web Site Analysis. Also [url]http://www.areaseo.com/linksale/[/url] and [link=http://www.areaseo.com]google rank 20[/link] from
Category:

Years ago, I decided I wanted to play the guitar. Keen and eager, I rushed t and bght a guitar, amplifier, effects pedals and a few books. I got it all home, plugged it all in and then made a noise that snded like a herd of cats all caterwauling
Category:




Site Sponsor
Directory Statistics

Articles: 68222
Categories: 501

Yahoo Entertainment
Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional   Valid CSS