Coaching for Change: Practical Strategies for Transforming Performance

Here is a summary of the key points raised in each chapter.

Chapter 1: Creating a Process of Change

So how do you support transforming performance? The answer to this can be highly complex, or surprisingly simple, depending on your approach. I have tried to adopt a simple but thorough model of Five Principles to transform performance:

1. Accurately assess the readiness to change.

2. Clearly state the overall strategic direction.

3. Identify the key stages on the journey.

4. Gain commitment to the common goal.

5. Establish a process to learn and grow.

Chapter 2: Creating a Coaching Landscape

There are key areas to focus on:

1. Identify organizational readiness for coaching.

2. Identify potential coaches.

3. The role of the coach.

4. Develop the right attitudes and behaviours.

5. Equipping the coaches with the right skills and knowledge.

6. Encourage coaching to support the change process.

7. Learn from the experience; share the wisdom.

Chapter 3: Motivation to Change

1. What is stopping me?

2. What would I do differently?

3. What could I do today to help me take the first step towards achieving my vision?

4. What help will I need?

5. Who do I know that I trust to talk to about what I want to achieve?

6. What will happen to me if I don't get started?

7. If I decide to wait what are my reasons?

8. If I am going to wait when will it be the right time?

9. What have been the best successes in my life?

10. What can I learn from these successes to help me achieve my current vision and goals?

Chapter 4: Organizational Change

How to become great - key characteristics:

1. Know where you are going; understand the big picture; develop an over-arching plan.

2. Temper this with compassion - recognize your position in the community and address your corporate social responsibility.

3. Be entrepreneurial - seize opportunities to do business and make money.

4. Have a desire and drive to succeed - be energized, committed.

5. Recognize and respect your employees ' strengths, talents and emotional intelligence; look to identify the great leaders .

6. Be positive, optimistic; overcome setbacks.

7. Be imaginative, inventive , curious ; what shall we do next ?

8. Be able to learn from the past, reinvent, regenerate, draw from what is good and discard what doesn't work.

9. Benchmark, measure and celebrate success.

10. Network and partner with others.

Chapter 5: The Role of the Coach

Coaches do the following:

• They build a positive environment.

• They ask questions to analyse needs.

• They use open questions to probe.

• They focus on the needs of the individual.

• They offer suggestions to build on the views expressed by learners.

• They listen actively.

• They seek ideas and build on them.

• They give feedback.

• They agree action plans for development.

• They monitor performance.

• They give ongoing support.

• They focus on improving performance in the current job.

• They assist in raising performance to the required standards.

• They emphasize the present.

Chapter 6: Coaching Conversations

• Where am I now?

  • What skills, competencies have I achieved?

  • What job role?

  • What about development on the job, off job?

  • Who offers me support currently?

• What would I like to do differently in the future?

  • What style and pattern of working?

  • What new responsibilities?

  • What job change?

  • Do I want to transfer to another part of the business?

  • What about location?

  • What skills, competencies, training or new learning do I need?

• What are my work- related goals?

  • In three months' time I would like to have...

  • In six months' time I would like to have...

  • In 12 months' time I would like to have...

  • How would I break these goals down into SMART objectives?

  • How could I push myself further?

• What would I like to achieve outside work?

  • What are my hopes and aspirations?

  • What is realistic to achieve in the short term ?

  • How could I break these down into bite- sized achievable goals?

  • Who will offer me support?

  • How will I measure my success?

Chapter 7: Coaching the New Learners

1. Identify the core learning need.

2. Establish the level of demand/timescales.

3. Recognize the different learning styles.

4. Look creatively at the potential of using different forms of learning, eg matching the learning need to different delivery methods and identifying the best fit.

5. Work with the current providers, internal and external, to identify the learning objectives and to ensure that the provision meets the current need.

6. Undertake an education process to illustrate the potential of different types of learning.

7. Be prepared to offer follow-up coaching support.

8. Set up a monitoring process to evaluate the effectiveness of the delivery.