Use the tried and tested methodology to advance your employees in the dynamic world of dynaxen. The other day in the car, my wife asked me, "Why do you turn on the GPS when we're driving to your parents' house?" That's the power of habit, and it's because these intelligent systems with current traffic updates almost always help us find the best way.
What helps us as leaders to find the best way for the development of our employees and our team?
Organizational development expert Hans-Werner Bormann advocates in his book 'Change through Co-Creation: How to Double the Success of Your Transformation Projects' that in this joint creation, all team members affected should be involved in finding solutions. The extent to which a team is involved and in what exactly can be determined using Jurgen Appelo's Delegation Poker: in a playful manner, leaders and employees together define the appropriate delegation level for everyone on a 7-point scale - each for a situation, such as office design or candidate selection. Google, in its "Oxygen" project, surveyed its nearly 100,000 employees twice to determine the core competencies of a good leader. They found that coaching by the leader is the most important factor for success. Employees value the coaching abilities of their leader far more than their technical skills. To underline this, in the words of Netapp's CEO Tom Mendoza: "Employees don't care about what you know as a leader, as long as they know that you care about them as a leader." Can a leader actually be a good coach or replace an internal or external coach? There is still debate about whether employees accept a leader as a coach and can truly benefit from it. Yes, there are limitations based on the leader's personality. However, generally and especially through the application of a professional coaching method, coaching by the leader almost always proves successful.
A proven coaching methodology is the GROW model by former race car driver Sir John Whitmore:
G for the goal of coaching, R for the current reality, O for the options, and W for the way forward, including concrete agreements on actions & to-dos. In my opinion, this method falls short because agreeing on to-dos alone is not enough to ensure that the employee effectively implements the specific measures in their daily work. Additional, more detailed steps in coaching are needed to successfully implement the change: in line with a navigation system, these specially developed and field-tested 7 Steps of Navigation Coaching help:
- Specific goal setting Similar to the GROW model, the specific goal for coaching should be set first; it is important to detail which skills, ways of thinking, and behaviors will be needed in the future.
- Analysis of the current situation Only then should the current situation be analyzed based on self and external assessments, e.g., using a competence analysis with the online Ampeltool®.
- Travel method Just as with many navigation systems where we can choose between driving or walking, we should consciously choose different coaching options: dialogue, role-playing, or shadow coaching.
- Individually considered settings Similar to good navigation systems where we can choose to avoid ferries or other options, in coaching, we should discuss whether, for example, video feedback is desired or not.
- Start driving Only after clarifying the first 4 steps should we start driving and begin the coaching journey, which should span several months. Concrete situations, ways of thinking, and behaviors are discussed here, and individual improvement measures are defined.
- Avoiding roadblocks and obstacles Often we encounter traffic jams and obstacles on the way: the coach should then continue to support in transfer coaching, i.e., transferring the defined measures into everyday work: either by resolving blockages or by finding alternative solutions.
- Ongoing monitoring of measure implementation A coaching is only as good as the concrete changes implemented and integrated into daily work. These improvements should also be measured and demonstrated. This could include a new competence survey of coaching participants after about 6-9 months - just as a good navigation system dynamically calculates the arrival time.
These detailed seven steps help the modern leader find and take the most beneficial path together with their unique employees. Of course, this pragmatic model does not replace a solid coaching education, which I highly recommend to every leader. What is your feedback? How do you approach coaching? And what are your successes and failures in coaching?
