Start. Scale. Sell. by Nick Suckley

Author:Nick Suckley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Practical Inspiration Publishing
Published: 2020-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

Lesson 35: How building a coaching culture can help you avoid problems before they become critical

Shouty command and control has never been my leadership style. It might work for some but I have always thought you get the best out of people by supporting them. I always try to hire for attitude and train for skills. A culture based on fear means that people are more likely to hide problems and, with inexperienced people, there is the added issue of just not seeing ahead.

At Agenda21, I instigated a coaching programme with all the team heads, eight people in all. I undertook to spend an hour per week with each person, on a one-to-one basis. For 20 minutes, we would cover current work; a second 20 minutes would be about future work, and the last 20 minutes was for anything else they wanted to discuss. There are a range of coaching techniques that work, but I like and use CIGAR:

C – Context. Talk to me about what the problem is.

I – Ideal outcome. If you could wave a magic wand, what would happen?

G – Gap. What is preventing this from happening?

A – Action. What are you going to do in that case?

R – Review. When do we relook at this?

It was quite a commitment for me, but it yielded far more than I expected. People opened up and often personal issues were raised too. I think people appreciated someone who would listen. More important was something I did not expect – it flushed out challenges when I asked one of my favourite questions: “What’s keeping you awake at night?”

The response was frequently a background problem with the potential to flare up. Often, the person didn’t really want to admit to it or didn’t realize it was serious. From there we could work through a remedy and, voila, problem averted. It meant, for example, that the few years of Agenda21 leading up to the sale were far smoother than they might have been. Taking a coaching approach made a real difference to company outcomes as well as improving our culture.

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