Skip to content

Is your coaching program really working?

Coaching has gone mainstream, embraced by organizations, executives and managers around the world. But here’s a disturbing trend. A recent survey suggested that less than 25% of managers felt that coaching was making any significant difference to their effectiveness and impact.

Coaching for Great Work is a simple, practical approach for the time-stretched manager. It solves the challenge of why coaching in organizations isn’t working as well as it should. This comprehensive coaching program gives managers, executives and leaders the skills and capacity to provide focused, results-based coaching in 10 minutes or less. It builds focus, expands possibilities and creates accountability, all to help drive engagement and increase impact.

Coaching for Great Work cuts through the hype and unnecessary complexity of coaching, overcomes the key points of resistance managers have to coaching and makes it easy for them to best engage the people around them quickly, simply and easily.

The program is above all a strategic tool to help managers do more Great Work. Great Work is the work that matters – the work that drives and supports an organization’s goals, increases the impact of both individuals and teams, and builds engagement throughout the organization.

So why do so many managers struggle to help their teams do more Great Work?

egg timer

The Coaching for Great Work program covers:

  • Why Great Work matters – for managers, teams and organizations
  • Two reasons why external coaches can be poor role models for executives and managers
  • How to make coaching not just important – but urgent too
  • How to find time to coach – and how to coach in 10 minutes or less
  • The three key “coaching moments”, and what to do when you spot them
  • The two words that can help make a challenge come alive
  • The secret to doubling the likelihood you’ll do what you want to do

A Manager’s Reality

Life buoy Your managers are overwhelmed. Rather than doing Great Work, most managers are struggling to stay on top of their everyday workload, consumed by the busywork and the weight of their responsibilities. At some point, just getting through the work becomes the goal.

Here are the three most persistent challenges facing managers and their teams today:

1. Everyone is working far harder than they should.

There’s more of everything. More projects to do, more email to answer, more meetings to attend. People are overwhelmed, constantly busy and working at an unsustainable pace. Work 40 hours a week? Not likely.

2. There’s no time to focus on the work that matters.

Managers and their teams are just so busy trying to get through the work, coming up for air (and perspective) just doesn’t seem possible most of the time.

3. The team is less than its parts.

Too often teams aren’t clear on what they’re focusing upon. And there’s often a dysfunctional leader/employee dynamic where the manager is responsible for everything – advice, guidance and permission.

Knowing how to effectively coach can help. But to do that, managers need to have access to simple, practical coaching tools that work in reality, not just theory.

Why Coaching for Great Work

Most organizations invest in coaching. But it's proved to be a flawed model, often disconnected from real-world organizational challenges and certainly not having the strategic impact it could or should.

Coaching for Great Work is different

It’s rooted in real-world managerial challenges and tied to strategic objectives, so it has context and relevance. Its focus on simple processes and three key coaching moments makes it doable by all managers, not just those who are more people-oriented. And it understands that all managers are too busy, and shows how they can coach in ten minutes or less.

Coaching for Great Work enables managers in your organization to increase their impact, quickly and effectively. They’re able to:

  • Focus themselves and their team on the stuff that really matters.
  • Get (and keep) people excited, motivated and engaged.
  • Have the difficult conversations.
  • Create bigger thinking and fresh ideas.
  • Manage the overwhelm.
  • Develop a more self-sufficient team.

"Drip irrigation"

You know that “flash flood” of training rarely creates behaviour change. As well as the program materials (specifically designed to avoid the fate of “filed & forgotten”), participants get comprehensive post-program support to provide “drip irrigation” after the workshop. It includes a 26-week e-course, facilitated group conference calls, and an accountability system to ensure the learning sticks.

“This course is at the cutting edge of coaching methodology. It has simplified the complex aspects of coaching to provide tools that managers can use to stimulate development instantaneously.”

Mark Peters, Head of Training, Nestle Canada 

Getting Started

It’s easy for you to continue this conversation and learn more about the program. You can schedule a complimentary Great Work Strategy Session with one of our Program Leaders. Just contact us to register your interest.

In that session you’ll explore the challenges you and your managers face, what kind of results you’d like to see instead and whether this coaching program is a good fit for you and your organization.

Whatever the outcome, you’ll leave the conversation clear about the issues you’re facing and excited about what’s possible.

The conversation will take about an hour and can be done in person or by phone. We’d love to speak with you. Contact us for more information.

Michael

Michael Bungay Stanier
Founder, Coaching for Great Work