MANAGERS: COACHING YOUR TEAMS FOR GREAT OUTCOMES

What is coaching?
Coaching is about personal & professional development - increasing self-awareness (relationship with self) and how you want to operate in external world (relationship with the world) – has an independent, objective perspective.
It’s about learning self-management, self-responsibility in order to live & work to your potential, maximise performance, maintain momentum & motivation to achieve the results you want.

Everyone has had a coach at some stage in their lives – either for sport, drama, music or even maths.
Let’s take the area of ‘sport’ to learn about the role of the coach.

In a sports team we have a Captain, Coach and or course, the Players.

With a sports team, whether you are playing cricket, tennis or netball – certain skills and attitudes, exercises and training systems have been developed for any player to achieve success – whatever the game.

The game of life (including work) is no different. You must not only expand your emotional, mental and physical fitness to perform optimally as a player, but also learn how to work optimally with your team to attain the ultimate outcomes.
Whatever the game – it is never a solo effort.
There are proven communication strategies, leadership skills and character traits that can give you the edge you need to elicit the cooperation of others in the creation of your vision or ‘end result’.

What we need to know answers to the following questions:

What are the rules / parameters of the game? (responsibility of the Captain to know and communicate to the team)

What is the purpose of the game? (responsibility of the Coach use to direct focus and inspire)

What are your internal filters – your own unique, internal systems of perceiving the external world that governs your life
(your own personal ‘hidden rule book’)? ie: learned behaviours and personal experience that has affected your perspective on life – of what’s possible and achievable.

If we don’t know all the rules – how can we play the game, let alone win (ie: achieve what we want)?

So, what are you focussing on?
How you play the game, is a reflection of your internal world.
So use this awareness to create your external world.

Are you committed?
Believe that you can achieve the ‘end result’ and take responsibility for the rules by which you play to ‘win’.

The role of ‘coach’ is different to ‘manager’.
Captain’s role: Provides direction, knows and communicates the ‘business rules’, leader, expert knowledge of rules & skills of the ‘game’ – to communicate, role-model, demonstrate to team to ensure they can efficiently and effectively ‘play the game’, implements the ‘strategy’.

Coach’s role: Tuned into the ‘heart’ of the players to bring out their best – maximise performance and bring out the potential of each individual player, keeps the focus on the ‘end result’, encourages, supports, ‘champions’ the players and the game, provides ‘strategy’ (how to play the game), inspire & motivate, alignment (to ‘end result’).

Team: Imagine what’s going to be on the front page of the local Newspaper tomorrow (your ‘end result’)?
What are your ‘ground rules’ – what you expect to experience?

Players: Importance of self-management (from awareness of self and knowing / focussing on the ‘end result’).
Choose an internal process that is empowering – this way you can produce the result you want (taking charge of an otherwise unconscious process).
Look to ‘captain’ for leadership and inspiration / motivation to ‘coach’.

Self-awareness is the first step to taking charge of results.
Internal playing field – value & beliefs
External playing field – rules of the game, purpose, ‘end results’

Your motivation filters
Do you tend to move toward what you want to create / achieve or
away from what you don’t want?
What motivates you?

Leadership (Managers) – managing process & systems, leading people - keeping the focus / re-focussing on vision & end results

What are your performance filters? How / when do you enjoy performing best? (independent player, team player or management player)

“We do not see things as THEY are, we see things as WE are.” The Talmud

Your experience will become more in line with what you desire.
Fear not failure – the satisfaction of stepping over your supposed limit is enormous!

Glenda Frances – Business, Executive & Life Coach
www.appliedvision.conm.au
m 0417 653 089