Five skills to strengthen your coaching practice
The lean learning system happens in practice, through new leadership behaviors that develop the ability to help others solve problems and that are capable of actively engaging people to improve their own work and the work of the organization.
We have gathered five coaching tips/skills, together with the person who suggested each one in recent articles, that you can incorporate into your daily routine.
Encourage questioning and ideas different from your own (Margie Hagene)
“We can develop a conversation by defending our own ideas and opinions and what we believe are solutions to our problems (or an organizational problem), or we can start a true dialogue by allowing our own ideas and opinions to be questioned.
We prefer the second option, and we choose it when we ask questions that help us focus on the work and help the people responsible for solving the problem understand where we are in the problem-solving process. For example, below are some questions we should ask as coaches:
- What problem are you trying to solve?
- How would you describe what is happening and what should be happening?
- Where did you look or what did you hear?
- What assures you that you have the cause/effect link?
- What did you think of trying?
- What impact do you expect this countermeasure to have?”
Trade heroic leadership for problem solving (Josh Howell)
“I see this scene happen over and over. Managers and frontline employees force others to work around the problems resulting from poorly designed work systems (if it is even fair to use the words ‘design’ and ‘system’), and with such pride! We all like to be heroes, I think. I certainly did. Knowing what I know now, however... this scene breaks my heart. Because there is, for sure, a better way!”.
Respect people by giving them challenging work (Mark Reich)
“How do we support the work so that it gets done? The main motivation for most people is not money, promotion or flexibility; it is each person's ability to feel that they are doing meaningful and challenging work. That is why handing out raises and promotions is, at best, a short-term solution. Like steroids (a quick shot to boost performance), the stimulus wears off, and we need another dose to keep up the pace. Of course people want to be rewarded and recognized for their efforts, but these are not the main motivators for most people.
The management of every organization should ask the question: “how can I create strong and sustainable capability and motivation for the organization by developing the capability of each team member?”.
Ask effective questions (Tracey Richardson)
“In many cases, I may know the answer or think I know the answer to a question I am asking, or know what I want the learner to do, but what I need to do is transfer the power to them by asking them to think with me, helping them realize that I need them and their ideas.If they think I have all the answers, that is exactly the opposite of what we want to do... Good coaching is based on asking the right questions in an inviting way. The learner should feel that their expert opinion is needed, since they are the owner of the process. It is up to me to create that environment. Asking the right questions is the key to building a relationship of mutual trust and respect”.
Use A3 thinking to tell a story everyone understands (John Shook)
“The A3 process is a work aid for engaging and developing people who will solve problems... It is about teaching everyone how to tell their problem story on a single piece of paper. And, by telling that story, we will be able to engage others so that we have an aligned view of what the current situation is. And that will make it easier for me, as a coach, to ask the right questions... The piece of paper that tells a story is an overview of what is going on in the mind of the A3 owner/learner”.
