|
External coaches? No
thanks, we train our
own.
We are pleased that an
increasing number of companies we are working with have
started to train their own people in coaching skills. The
benefits that this has for their managers is huge - in terms
of their ability to develop strong, productive teams. So if a
company has trained its own staff in how to coach, surely
there is no need to employ external coaches?
There are situations in
which a highly-trained external coach can provide the edge
that can make a real difference. At times, people will open up
more to someone outside the company who is not involved. An
external coach may help an employee to take a broader
perspective and identify more alternatives for future action.
An external coach may be able to challenge a person more
effectively than another employee who may fear
repercussions.
The CIPD "Does Coaching
Work?" Report (2005) stated that 39% of respondents said that
coaching by external coaches was "very effective" compared to
only 16% for internal coaches, 13% for line managers and 10%
for HR staff.
We encourage our clients
to train their people in coaching and we provide them with
that kind of training. There are times, however, that a highly
trained external coach can be invaluable.
Click here for details of our Performance
Coaching Series.
|
|
Tel:
01865 736005
Fax:
08708 362201
From
Outside UK:
Tel:
+44 1865 736005
Fax:
+44 8708 362201
Big Difference Consulting Ltd.
8
Woodside Centre
Badger Lane
Hinksey Hill
Oxford
OX1
5BE
England
Registered in England
and Wales 4668208
Registered Office: 167 Oxford Rd Cowley Oxford OX4 2ES
England | |
| Greetings,
Welcome to the second edition of
Developing Potential. I hope
you find something useful and interesting in it. You are
receiving this as you are already one of our clients or
we have already been in contact and feel it might
be of interest to you.
In this issue we discuss the uses of external
coaches. We also ask if managers make too much use of
email. Finally we share some of our experiences taking
training and development to parts of the world
with cultures very different from our own.
If you think your colleagues might be
interested, please click on Forward
Email at the bottom of this newsletter.
If this has been forwarded to you by a colleague,
please click on Subscribe Me at the top
if you would like to receive future issues.
If you do not want to receive any further issues,
please click on Safe Unsubscribe, also
at the bottom.
If you have any comments, or would like to discuss
any needs please get in touch on 01865 736005 or email
me at mark@bigdifference.co.uk
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards
Mark Arnold
Managing Director
| |
|
Do you manage by
email?
A friend of mine
in a media publishing business sits at the other side of
a large desk from her boss. Shortly after joining the
company, she asked her boss a question and was met with
the stern reply "You could have emailed me that
question".
While that may be
an extreme example, it would seem that email is becoming
the communication channel of choice in virtually every
situation.
Using email can
be a convenient way for a manager to get things done
without having a face-to-face or telephone call with a
staff member. It's quick. And there is a written record
of the communication. So what's the
problem?
Research has
shown that about 50% of communication is through body
language. 40% is through tone of voice. Only 10% is
through the words used. As soon as you pick up the
phone, you've lost 50% of communication channels. When
you send an email, you've lost another
40%.
We all know how
emails can be very prone to misunderstanding as we don't
always know the "tone" that the sender intended. For the
manager, however, there is more at stake. For every
email sent to a member of the team, the manager loses
the opportunity for a one-to-one with that person. That
opportunity may include the chance to get some informal
feedback about what's happening in the team. It might be
the chance to build more trust and rapport with the
other person. It may provide an opening for something
else to come into the conversation that would be really
useful for the manager to know.
Next time you
email, think - could it be worth a little extra time for
a
face-to-face? |
Does this stuff
work abroad?
A
question I often get asked is how relevant are "western"
management training and development concepts in cultures
very different from our own? Do they apply, for example,
in Islamic countries in Asia? Can they be transplanted
to Africa?
Our
experience is that they can. In Bangladesh we set up a
World Bank-funded training programme for public and
private sector jute mills. Much of the programme was
technical in nature and we were able to draw on local
consultants who had the required knowledge and
expertise. But what about the leadership, communication
and performance management skills that we would be
providing at senior levels?
Would we
have to tweak our approach? Managers were used to giving
orders - not listening to their staff. How would they
react to our interactive style, practising using
real-life work scenarios?
We
needn't have worried - they almost bit our hands off in
the rush to learn about western leadership and
communication methods and wholeheartedly jumped into the
whole learning process.
We
recently enjoyed a similar experience working with
managers in a number of African countries. In
particular, our focus was on helping them to improve
their influencing skills. African managers
enthusiastically soaked up and practised a range of NLP
skills which would enable them to build rapport with
others and improve their influencing
capability.
| |
Big
Difference Consulting Ltd.
Fax: 08708
362201
info@bigdifference.co.uk
8 Woodside Centre
Badger Lane
Hinksey Hill Oxford OX1 5BE
England | | |
