Coaching Your Staff to Success

By Cathy Abraham

Free powerpoints at http://www.worldofteaching.com

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.

~ William Butler Yeats

5 Coaching Strategies:
Forge a Partnership
Inspire Commitment

Grow Skills
Promote Persistence Shape the Environment

1. Forge a Partnership
Build Trust and Understanding so people want to work with you.

Forging a Partnership
To Strengthen your partnership: Most Important when: Listen carefully to understand The person does not know the persons interests, much about you opinions, and concerns You dont know what motivates Clarify your expectations of them or what they really care each other about Provide candid, yet tactful The person is skeptical or feedback cynical about your leadership Show the person how you have The person risks losing their best interests in mind something they value because and that those coincide with of change the centers best interest

2. Inspire Commitment
Build insight and motivation so people focus their energy on goals that matter.

Inspiring Commitment
Most important when: People seem content with current level of skill and expertise People lose focus or get stuck in just getting through the day To inspire commitment: Make sure people get specific, relevant information about performance Help people clarify their goals and values

3. Grow Skills
Build new competencies to ensure people know how to do what is required.

Growing Skills
Most important when people: Have never had the chance to acquire a needed skill Need to upgrade their skills Are motivated but performance is still below expectations To Grow skills: Let them observe the skill being used effectively Connect people with training and resources Create opportunities that stretch people to learn something new

4. Promote Persistence

Build stamina and discipline to make sure learning lasts on the job.

Promoting Persistence:
Most important when people: Stay stuck in old habits Make initial changes but slip back into old behaviors Are reluctant to take risks or try something new To promote persistence: Review peoples goals and ask about progress Set realistic expectations for progress Provide ongoing feedback that recognizes and rewards progress and efforts

5. Shape the Environment

Build organizational support to reward learning and remove barriers.

Shaping the Environment:

Most important when people: Complain that management does not support them Do not share learning or resources with others Express frustration about how difficult it is to learn Complain about lack of incentives to learn To shape the environment: Publicly recognize and reward those who learn Demonstrate your personal involvement in their growth Establish processes or activities that promote learning from each other Provide rewards and incentives for learning and teamwork

Leadership is not so much the exercise of power itself as the empowerment of others.
Successful leaders lead by pulling rather than pushing; by inspiring rather than ordering; by creating achievable expectations though challenging and rewarding progress toward them.
by Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus