Coaching the Coach - Coaching Managers as Coaches
Many organisations are now asking their managers to adopt a coaching style of management and develop coaching skills to use in their day-to-day work. In many such cases formal coaching supervision would be overly rigorous and time-consuming, yet without some sort of ongoing support and development most managers will simply revert to their old ways of doing things and the positive intentions of creating a coaching culture of management will be lost.
You've trained your managers as coaches - now what?
It is now well recognised that the benefits of training are measurably enhanced by subsequent coaching support. As with dedicated internal coaches, managers who have been trained in coaching skills benefit enormously from professional support to develop their coaching practice and contribute to their continuous professional development.
Our experience is that there are two primary areas where managers find coaching support extremely helpful in transitioning coaching skills back into the workplace:
- Confidence - it can feel awkward and 'clunky' to change to a coaching style of management; coaching support helps people to develop the confidence to start to use their coaching skills in a way that feels appropriate and comfortable for them and the people around them.
- Competence - working with experienced coaches not only enables managers to clarify and raise their own understanding of coaching skills and approaches; they also experience expert coaching first-hand, which is a powerful learning tool for their own practice.
Coaching the coach - flexible coaching support package
This package is typically structured around six on-demand telephone coaching sessions over 6 months (a total of 3 hours) and can be with the same coach or with a variety of coaches, as preferred by the individual. The focus of the coaching is on the coachee's own coaching practice, style and progress and is delivered by experienced professional coaches. We are happy to discuss different ways of structuring coaching the coach packages, to suit you and your organisation.