What is Performance Coaching?
Performance Coaching is a partnership between a senior leader, a performance coach and the sponsoring organisation with the aim of enhancing individual learning and development while achieving agreed-upon business goals.
To be effective, performance coaching must be strategic and individualised. A balance must be struck between the needs of the individual and the needs of the organisation. To engage and motivate individuals, performance coaching must be tailored to their needs and aspirations. To deliver business results, the coaching must also be tailored to the strategy, vision and values of the organisation.
The prime objective of a performance coaching program is always to improve the business results of the company. It will help coaches identify their most characteristic, reflexive managerial behavioral responses and determine when these are and are not conducive to the task at hand or aligned with corporate vision, values and strategy.
The coaching process is generally tailor-made and varies according to the need of the organisation, for this moment- in –time given their particular intentions and reality: Each organisation is unique, as is each individual within that organisation. In the design of the coaching the phases are blended with relevant approaches, research, assessment tools and expertise with coaching techniques that are proven to help organisations to shift performance.
Program Contents:
- The Diagnostic: We hold one-to-one conversations with the CEO, Board Members and with individuals from all layers of the organisation to collect data; we observe life in the work place, attitudes in people and prominent behaviors. While the primary purpose of this phase is diagnostic, we often see changes beginning this early in the project. This phase lasts from 1 to 2 months depending on the size of the business.
- The Plan: We derive insights through a discerning review of the reality of people and performance. We identify attitudes, behaviors and underlying values that will deliver a shift in performance. We then consolidate and give feedback to the top leadership team. Based on that we help the leadership team to decide who to engage in the process of designing a transformation plan and to take charge of its delivery. The plan covers commitments, responsible leaders for each action, dates and success criteria. This phase typically lasts around 2 months.
Given the plan that is generated by the leadership team, we agree our various roles to support the business. Also at this stage, our coaches make performance-coaching contracts with the leaders/teams who ask for coaching support. These contracts target specific results to be reached within the following 3-4 months.
- Ø The Implementation: During the implementation of the plan, our roles vary from designing interventions, training, advising and sharing experience to performance-coaching for key leaders/teams. The aim is to build into the business a capacity to move with speed and commitment to reach the businesses goals. The length of this phase depends on the extent to which the business wants to go on building capacity to sustain self-challenge, transformation and to face changing environment and goals.