You may also be interested in 15 Tips for Self-Coaching and Professional Development on Powerhouse Chat, provided by Powerhouse Learning.
One of the best ways for an organization to sustain success far into the future is to develop its leadership “bench strength.” In a perfect world, organizations would be able to give their promising new managers all the skills and support needed to fully prepare them to take over the reins. Alas, reality has a way of compromising perfection: Limited resources prevent companies from investing as much as they should in the next generation of leaders.
The challenge is especially acute for small- and medium-sized companies. “Lean” management means longer hours, more responsibilities, and less time for the current crop of leaders to devote to grooming their successors. Given the growing constraints, how can today’s executives grow the next generation of leaders?
They can start by implementing a self-coaching program for mid-level executives and contributors, especially those with high potential. Self-coaching provides an ongoing alternative when professional coaching may be limited and there isn’t sufficient time to mentor this talent pool. Giving mid-level employees access to a sound coaching process that they can follow on their own (or with some assistance from a professional coach or colleagues) can make the difference between unmotivated underachievers and enthusiastic, skilled successors to today’s leaders.
A rigorous, disciplined self-coaching process follows these seven steps:
- Determine the individual’s coachability
- Select and commit to an intention
- Identify a mentor and stakeholders
- Solicit feedback
- Analyze and respond to feedback
- Develop and act on a game plan
- Track success and recalibrate
Starting a self-coaching program in your organization can be a fairly simple process. It provides high-potential talent with development opportunities that they might otherwise never receive, while sending the message that you believe that your employees are your greatest asset. It’s a very cost-effective way to increase employee engagement and loyalty and decrease the probability that your most promising talent will look for advancement among your competitors.
Here's are three steps to help facilitate self-coaching in your organization:
1. Partner with HR and your functional leaders to identify candidates for self-coaching. They know where the talent lies -- young managers who have demonstrated the potential to shoulder greater responsibility and possess the requisite qualities.
2. Lead a seminar. A professional coach or one of your HR professionals (who has a coaching background) leads a half-day seminar with targeted employees. This allows the employees to begin thinking about their intentions, goals, and self-coachability.
3. Identify a guide and circle of support. These individuals will help your targeted employees as they move toward their intention. Those who would like to take the self-coaching route can begin following the seven-step process (listed above), coming together periodically, every month or two, to assess progress and compare notes.
Self-coaching skills, methodologies and principles offer a radically new perspective to organizations looking for effective and innovative training and development solutions for their people, managers and executives.
The nature of self-coaching as a learning and development model enables a different and operational approach to developing traditional 'intangibles' - for example positive behavior, integrity, humanity, ethics, mentoring, culture, emotional maturity, etc. - which are so vital for successful performance of modern organizations.
For more information on how Powerhouse Learning can help your organization with a self-coaching model please visit our website at Powerhouse Learning or contact Brandie Hinen at brandie@powerhouselearning.com.