Coaching within the Workplace

As I was out walking my dog on this beautiful, sunny March day.....

Nature nurtures our creative mind.

I was pondering the thought of how coaching has become a common and useful tool and skill that is used within the workplace. And as I thought about experiences I have had over the years with coaching in the workplace, one of the common themes I keep coming across is how coaching has become a title or task that is used successfully in the workplace yet often overused, misused, and misunderstood in the workplace. So what is the definition of coaching in the workplace and it's benefits and strengths?

At the core of coaching in the workplace it is about facilitating desired change and results. Coaching is an aspect of onboarding, training and development, performance management, learning, and fulfillment within the workplace. Your coach in the workplace may be your manager or supervisor who is attempting to provide a model for you to follow; to be your mentor. Coaching in the workplace provides you with an increase in awareness, expanding your skills, identifying choices, and deepening the trust in yourself which makes change possible. In the workplace the coach works with the employee to increase awareness of self and the workplace system, to achieve the desired outcomes, to identify current reality, and to confirm what's working and what's getting in your way of success. Coaching in the workplace will address your beliefs, thoughts, and emotions along with assisting you in a new form of thinking. It guides you to see the world in a new and exciting way. These are some of the benefits and strengths of coaching in the workplace. Check out this short youtube about How Coaching Works and explains more detail on the power of coaching in changing our beliefs, thoughts, and emotions. What experience have you had with this kind of approach in the workplace?

Coaching in the workplace is about assisting the coachee to identify and commit to goals that have meaning for them and to take action steps to achieve their goals which in turn are in alignment with the companies goals. In my experience of being coached and coaching people in the workplace, it can have a large variance to the approach taken and the level of success it produces. If a manager takes on the title of 'coach' however has not had proper training and lacks awareness and skills in coaching successfully, then is this productive coaching in the workplace? Does it produce the results desired?

In my coaching training and experience, one of the best frameworks of coaching to use within the workplace is the ICA Coaching Framework. This includes addressing: Issue and Insight - identifying the issue and discover new insight; Choice and Commitment - expand on your choices and commit to the choice for moving forward; Action and Accountability - design the action steps to be taken and determine your accountability.

What are your thoughts or experience with either providing or receiving coaching in the workplace? What successes (and/or failures) have you experienced with coaching in the workplace? I welcome your feedback and sharing. 

Are you ready to take your career to the next level? Then coaching from a professionally trained coach may be the key to you achieving success. What else is possible?

Yours for greater success,
Angela MacDonald
Adler Trained Coach
Human Resources Manager (in training)

For more information about Angela MacDonald
visit www.thecentretoreallylive.com  or drop an email at info@toreallylive.com