High-Performance Coaching Is a Win-Win for Employees, Organizations
We usually think about “managing” people rather than coaching them. Coaching requires a different mindset and a different heart-set. The focus is less on getting tasks accomplished and more on setting people on their best path toward success and fulfillment.
Every leader succeeds because of the efforts and contributions of their teams – so coaching those teams for high performance is a critical management skill.
Researchers in the field of management studies have developed more than 220 definitions of leadership during the past few decades. Invariably, these definitions include attributes relating to integrity, courage, vision, and good communications skills. They also include a leader’s ability to be an effective coach to the individual professionals who constitute the leader’s organization.
Establishing goals, providing context, and using the organization’s mission to motivate people are the hallmarks of high-performance coaching and being a great leader-coach.
Leader-coaches don’t want people simply to succeed; they also want them to feel fulfilled in their work and in their lives.
High-performance coaching involves techniques used in the worlds of sports and the military – areas where optimal performance is essential. It begins by identifying peoples’ “starting points” – their career and life ambitions. Then, it explores the directions in which people need to move to achieve those visions, and the action steps they need to take to do so.
Good coaches help people develop in two critical ways – by cultivating qualities and competencies. Qualities are lifelong attributes, such as courage, humility, and integrity. These can be applied in every aspect of life. Competencies may be specifically job-related, such as attention to detail or negotiating skills.
Good leader-coaches, however, will emphasize those competencies that are transferrable, such as project management skills, because the coachee’s total personal and professional development is foremost in the coaches’ minds.
Leader-coaching is the focus of the upcoming one-day workshop, “Coaching for High Performance” hosted live virtually from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. on Thursday, December 15, 2022.
In this program, participants learn:
- How to apply the 6-step coaching sequence to maximize team member success.
- Utilize the 4 C's of coaching conversations to promote effective performance assessment.
- Evaluate trust levels in working relationships.
Who should attend?
- Middle managers, team leads, supervisors, and directors who are responsible for coaching employees to achieve objectives.
- Human Resources professionals who act as internal consultants to their organizations.
Join us on December 15 for “Coaching for High Performance,” and discover proven techniques to help your team realize its ambitions.
This workshop can count toward the KU Professional Leadership Certificate.
About the Author
Lee C. Stuart, D.B.A., is the leadership instructor at the KU Edwards Campus. He develops and delivers training on a variety of leadership, management, and communications topics for working professionals. He combines years of experience as an executive in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors with the latest in scholarly thought on leadership.
