Coaching and Remote Working ... How’s that going?

Score yourself between 1-10 on the effectiveness of the coaching you are delivering

If you gave yourself less then 9, here is a quick reminder on;

• How, What, When and Why to bother with coaching.

• 5 Coaching Styles, yes there is more than one.

• 2 Coaching Models, there are many, I picked just two.

In an office surrounded by peers the lack of “quality” coaching can sometimes be hidden by team members sharing best practice and guiding each other. This is not so easy when working remotely, so the need for coaching is greater. For some leaders, it will be your first coaching experience in this changed remote working environment.

There are many different coaching qualifications available which would be great for anyone’s personal development, don’t worry I’m not selling anything. However, if you are going to manage a team, especially a remote one you need to have some training and coaching on how to be effective. You must also understand what you can be called upon to coach on, when to coach, how to coach, and why.

How, What, When and Why to bother with coaching.

How to coach;

• Create meaningful trust, so it’s not about what you as the coach wants.

• Listen, Listen, Listen, so important I said it three times.

• Be positively honest about abilities, don’t do the pat-kick-pat of the 80’s.

• Be consistent, when all around is erratic you as the coach must be consistent.

• A bit of preparation can be done, as a coach you shouldn’t have a pre-set agenda or outcome in mind. You can have a good idea of what tools you may need in the coaching session, and consider how to open the session up.

• Ensure the team member takes away a SMART plan on what they will be doing to help themselves going forward. The agreed review date is often missed in coaching, but it’s the follow up that makes it all work.

• More of the how to below; Two Coaching Models

What to coach on;

• Needs to be a point that the individual can ideally introduce but at least agree is something they want to improve/change.

• Don’t over complicate messages. “Your planning was exquisite but you didn’t use it, and I didn’t see any pre-closing how could doing these have helped? Focus one coaching session on one aspect at a time.

• Coaching can be used to help with a plethora of areas, yes obviously the job, the organisation, peer interaction, personal progression but also at times it’s about personal needs.

When to coach;

• When coaching is part of your everyday activity it’s easy to coach “In the moment”, when it’s the right time. “In the moment” coaching is carried out at the moment most effective, and is woven into any conversation, with anyone. It can provide insight and alternatives and it is this that differentiates “in the moment” coaching.

• Organised coaching sessions, where you and the team member know that the conversation will be for their benefit and you are giving your time to help them.

Why bother with coaching;

• Consistent coaching helps with team members on boarding and retention, performance improvement, skill improvement, and knowledge transfer. There are countless important leadership skills and competencies, coaching however is central to improving the performance of the entire team, individuals and organisation.

• A great coach can take a product or service they know little about. Inherit a failing team and make an immediate difference, imagine what you could do!

5 Coaching Styles, yes there is more than one.

We’ve all seen lists of umpteen different coaching styles over time, I have summarised 5 that are the main approaches used in the workplace.

1. Democratic or Considerate

A democratic and participative style is just like the principles of democracy, taking into account the choices, desires and worries of the person or team involved. The person/team take an active role in determining the coaching goals and the methods used to achieve them. While their input is key, you as coach may still need to make the final decisions, through funnelling thoughts with the right questions and challenges.

This style encourages the following skills and feelings:

• Empowerment

• Motivation

• Inspiration

• Collaborative competency

• Self-efficacy

• Creativity

• Commitment to objectives

• Productivity

2. Autocratic or Direct

An autocratic style is very different to the democratic approach, this style needs a firmer or directive coaching approach with little if any person or team contribution. An autocratic coach makes the decisions and this style may be seen as a negative coaching approach. But this can be used at times of high stress or urgency, when a collaborative approach is not the optimal approach.

When carried out correctly this style encourages outcomes and feeling such as:

• Reduced ambiguity

• Trust in the coach

• Stress reduction

• Efficiency

• Productivity

3. Vision or Spirited

This style is delivered assertively and with high expressiveness. It coaches by inspiring, allowing the person or team to visualize the big picture. This style empowers employees by giving them direction and strategies for achieving the objectives and encourages the right focus.

This approach feels like a partnership and draws on elements of feedback, reflection, and conversation to really motivate and influence employees. Be warned this is intensive to carry out and can be short term, but works well for reducing high stress or overwhelming workloads that need fast results.

This style encourages the following benefits and traits:

• Inspiring

• Stress reduction

• Motivation

• Confidence

• Clear direction

4. Holistic

For me this approach helps with career coaching by helping people make personal decisions, this is great for life coaching. However, this is a more in-depth coaching approach and does need training.

It works on the premise that everything is connected. And in order to encourage growth in the workplace, balance needs to be achieved in all aspects of your team members life. Hence the need for training in this area of coaching.

As well as giving a sense of their role within your team, it can give perspective on their place in the wider business, helping your team member feel more connected and showing them how much they matter. You can see how this would help those remote workers, detached from interactions that they we’re used to having.

Be warned, it can bring up personal barriers that might be negatively affecting work, and this may lead to offering solutions like stress management, and relaxation techniques.

This approach can take time to achieve results, and there is the possibility that deeper, emotional problems may be triggered. But it’s better to get it all out in the open, right?

This style encourages the following benefits and traits:

• Feeling understood

• Enhanced wellbeing across many areas (e.g. mind, feelings, family, work, home, health)

• Trust in the coach-client relationship

• Uncovering of deeply held feelings and drives

• Identification of solutions

5. Laissez-Faire

Done poorly, this style can create havoc. As you might imagine this is mostly hands-off based on the idea that the person or the team possess the ability to achieve their own goals and priorities with minimal leadership. This approach can be amazing in some circumstances; however, it may be regarded as a lack of taking responsibility as the leader or coach. In my view coaching does need a level of guidance and leadership. Therefore, a flexible, open minded coaching approach can add fluidity and speed up the process. Also, positive laissez-faire coaching outcomes are far more likely when the you provide regular performance monitoring and feedback.

Done well this style encourages the following feelings and skills:

• Freedom

• Self-empowerment

• Self-efficacy

• Self-confidence

• Autonomy

• Self-management

• Decision-making ability

Two Coaching Models, there are many, I picked just two

The reality is to maximise your coaching, it takes training and practice no matter what style you adopt.

Ideally you will understand what style to adopt and then coaching models can help you stay on track.

Here are two similar examples that are regularly used in the workplace.

1. FUEL Model

The fuel model is about asking open questions to guide the conversation, but no direction, no advice given etc. This approach is specifically to try to get the team member to determine their own outcomes, you as the coach only facilitates.

Frame the conversation, in the introduction of the session, you and the team member agree on the reason or focus for the conversation and be open about the process for the discussion.

Typical questions might be;

• With all the needs you can think of that can be influenced, is this the priority?

• If we first understand the current situation then explore what we want the outcome to look like. With this information it makes sense that we can plan any changes needed, can we agree this is the best process to tackle things?

Understand the current situation, lots of open questions, steer away from leading questions as you want the team member to be self-aware of the current situation and ensure their own perspective of the situation, not yours, because you are the coach.

Typical questions might be;

• Tell me about the current situation?

• How does this impact you, the business, our clients and how does that make you feel?

Explore the desired outcome, getting the team member to share what they want to be different in terms of outcomes. Again, it has to be their own desired outcome, which may be different to yours as a coach or as their manager or leader.

Typical questions might be;

• What would be the ideal outcomes and why?

• What other outcomes could we consider?

• What options have we got to achieve the desired outcome?

Lay out the plan to make it happen, this is where you still facilitate to ensure this is not a brief plan but that it has details that have been questioned and challenged. Will this be the path that will achieve the outcomes, what will stop success and how will the team member deal with this?

Typical questions might be;

• What would need to be done, and what else?

• Who would need to do it, is this something that person is able to do?

• When would it need doing, is there a time line to create?

• What does success look like, should we break down the stages of success?

2. GROW Model

This model also requires the coach to be a facilitator, helping the team member select the best options, and not offering advice or direction.

However, when leaders coach their team members, as mentors this need not apply. While its more meaningful for the team member to come to their own conclusions, as their leader you have valuable knowledge and experience to offer.

Goal is the first stage, you and your team member need to look at the behaviour that requires change, and then structure this change as a goal that they want to achieve.

Typical questions might be;

• Why is this your goal?

• What do you think would make the biggest difference to your, job success, performance, or job satisfaction etc.

• Does this goal fit with your overall career objective?

• Does this fit with the team's objectives?

Reality meaning, ask your team member to describe their current reality, this is an important step. Too often, people try to solve a problem or reach a goal without fully considering current reality, potentially missing information needed to reach their goal effectively.

Typical questions might be;

• What’s happening now, be specific i.e. what, who, when, and how often?

• What’s the effect of this?

• So, if that’s the effect what’s the cause?

• Have you taken any steps towards this goal already?

• Is this a current reality for others in a similar position?

Options or as some call it obstacles, this is the time to determine what is actually possible. Meaning, through questioning you have to pull out all of the possible options to be able for them to reach their objective. Help your team member think of different options and when you have exhausted the list then discuss each one to allow them to decide which is best for them.

Typical questions might be;

• Let’s list out all the different options available to achieve this goal.

• What else could you do?

• Are there advantages and disadvantages for the options?

• What obstacles stand in your way?

• How will you weigh up your options?

• What do you need to stop and to start doing to achieve this goal?

• What if constraints we’re removed and would that change things?

Will to succeed is the final step, as they have their objective and an understanding of how to achieve it, fantastic news. However, on its own this often will not be enough. Now you need to coach your team member to commit to specific actions in order to move forward towards their goal and boost motivation. You can also question their will to succeed by asking what they will do to remove obstacles that have been discussed.

Typical questions might be;

• So, what will you do now, and when do need to do it?

• What else will you do? (Dig down for detail)

• What could stop you moving forward? (List them)

• How will you overcome this? (Challenge this kindly but clearly)

• How can you keep yourself motivated to achieve this goal?

• When do you need to review progress? Daily, weekly, monthly?

Carry on coaching especially, with your team members working remotely.