Coaching has been around for years but gained prominence in the mid-90's as a means of performance improvement. Professional business coaching is available for a wide variety of specific skill sets ranging from leadership and time mastery to business etiquette and interpersonal relationships.

External coaches can often provide an "agenda free" viewpoint that can be objective and focused on the issue(s) at hand. While the stereotypical coach is from outside of an organization, coaches can indeed come from the within its ranks. Internal coaching is a powerful leadership tool that is available but underutilized in today's business environment.

Do we need to send our supervisors to dedicated "Coaching Schools" to provide them with the skills required to coach their direct reports? Do they need to attain the qualifications typical of a professional coach? Fortunately the answer to both these questions is no. Many have the inherent skills required already; it's more of a mindset and approach that is easily developed.

In last month's article we discussed the differences between coaching and mentoring, let's now take a look at the differences between coaching and training.

Coaching is the more collaborative to the two disciplines. The coach guides and facilitates as compared to the "expert" directing the training environment`. Dr. Phil of television fame is an expert. His conversations are replete with phrases such as "You couldn't be dumber if they cut off your head," probably something we don't want to throw into our coaching toolbox. During a one hour show he can solve family dysfunction, teen age pregnancy and will take a stab at "Peace in the Middle East" as well. His approach is to "tell" people what they need to know and how to fix their problems, more of a one sided approach.

A coach's goal is not to tell an individual what they need to know but rather to direct the conversation so as to get them to figure it out and verbalize it themselves. If we really want to change people's behaviors we need to get a buy-in from them at the outset of the endeavor. So how do we start a coaching relationship with our direct reports?

An easy way to start the collaborative dialogue with our people is to utilize coaching as a means of performance improvement associated with the counseling process.

Have you ever been surprised by an end of the year evaluation, told you were lacking with no prior notice? Do you know someone that this has happened to? In either case, was it a positive experience? As leaders, it is incumbent on us to let our people know where they stand and what they need to do to improve and achieve their goals. Does your organization utilize a quarterly counseling system? That alone is a perfect opportunity to coach someone. Let them know what areas they can improve in and then offer to help. Your people will appreciate it and your organization will gain from it.

Through showing our people we care enough to invest our time in an effort to help them improve we gain their trust and motivate them at the same time. The important thing to realize is that coaching is a process and not an event. Many of the problems we face with our people have developed over the years and will not be "fixed" in a single session. Although many leaders are more inclined to jump right in and "fix" any problems we can often gain more by engaging our people in a collaborative effort to improve. Very similar to the old adage "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

The important thing to realize is that coaching is a process and not an event. Many of the problems we face with our people have developed over the years and will not be "fixed" in a single session. In his book "Developing the Leader Within You," John Maxwell says "people don't resist change, they resist being changed." By including them in the process we do much to guarantee our success.

In next quarter's article we'll discuss the 6 step process for coaching your people and how to use it to maximize their performance.