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Potential
What is your view of human potential, especially at work? If we think about McGregor's X and Y theory you might consider yourself to be a Theory X person. That is, that people dislike work and will avoid it wherever possible, and are motivated only by money or fear. Alternatively, you might subscribe to Theory Y which suggests that people work for a range of psychological as well as economic reasons, and are motivated by achievement, responsibility and so on.
It is important to recognise that neither of these views can be proven as right or wrong, they are simply beliefs about human nature based on experience. Our starting point as coaches therefore needs to be which of these views is more useful? Probably Theory Y. It seems to me that a coach is likely to be more helpful if his or her starting point is to believe that the coachee starts with the potential to achieve his or her aims. It is then the job of the coach is to play a part in realising that potential.
Interference
Traditional training and development has proven to be reasonably successful at taking potential and adding to it. Usually this is a question of imbuing the performer with new knowledge or skills. But coaching is more often required when the performance issue is not a lack of knowledge or skill but rather an unwillingness or inability to effectively deploy them. In these circumstances we need to turn our sights to removing the things that get in the way of our performers accessing their potential.
There might be a range of what we might call external sources of interference, e.g.
Lack of opportunity Ideas not accepted Blame culture Restrictive policies and procedures
Equally, there might be a number of internal sources of interference, e.g.
Fear of failure Low confidence Low self belief Previous negative experience Negative expectations Negative self talk
Where organisational coaches have the ability to remove external barriers they must do so without hesitation. However, most coaches have far more scope to work on internal barriers which, in any event, are likely to be far more important to address.
P.L.E
With the things that interfere with my potential reduced, I am likely to access far more of my potential and consequently produce high performance, but how can coaches ensure this is sustained?
Motivation theory suggests that high performance is a strong internal driver for most people so shouldn't it be enough to ask them to simply continue performing well? Unfortunately not. They will get bored and produce new sources of internal interference such as fatigue and lack of concentration.
Motivation theory also suggests that there are a further two strong internal drivers, namely learning and enjoyment. It is clear that if I'm performing well at a task, learning more about it or myself as I undertake it and enjoying the whole experience then I am more likely to sustain my high levels of performance.
Coaches need to help the people they coach find the Performance, Learning and Enjoyment (PLE) factors in their work, e.g.
Performance
Achieving success Doing the job well Pride Sense of self worth
Learning
Satisfying curiosity Improving Gaining insights Developing new skills
Enjoyment
Sense of challenge Team work Fun Social belonging
A.R.T
How then do coaches remove interference and add in learning and enjoyment? They promote Awareness, Responsibility and Trust (ART)
In raising awareness we are seeking to create high quality focus and attention on the matter at hand. As I become more aware of a situation and my feelings for it, I produce more ideas about changes and improvements that I might make. This helps me identify sources of interference as well as being an enjoyable and insightful process.
Coaches also help the people they coach to recognise that they are not victims of circumstance but in fact have a large degree of choice in how they handle situations. In other words, they are responsible. However before people move forward they must:
Believe they can Value the outcome Be willing to try
All of which requires interference to be absent and the internal motivators of performance, learning and enjoyment to be present.
Coaches also build trust. They encourage their coachees to
Trust themselves and strengthen self-belief Trust the coach in order to be more honest and thus further raise awareness Trust the coaching process
Coaching
Coaching is the process of raising awareness, generating responsibility and building trust. The skills are asking incisive questions and listening to the response.
Questions need to be asked around a structured framework, such as the Coaching ARROW described in my book, Coaching at Work.
Matt Somers is a coaching practitioner of many years' experience. He works with a host of clients in North East England where his firm is based and throughout the UK and Europe. Matt understands that people are working with their true potential locked away. He shows how coaching provides a simple yet elegant key to this lock. For a bumper load of coaching tips and tricks - including FREE resources - visit www.mattsomers.com
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