Category: Coaching

Focus on Strengths

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man in front of blackboard showing strong arms clenching muscles

So you’ve done a SWOT analysis and you’ve got a snapshot of where you are now – your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. And that should be giving you ideas of where you want to go and how to get there.

But beware!  We know that the brain has a negativity bias.  I’ve already explained that the brain’s threat response is stronger than the reward response.  We tend to focus on the bad and overlook the good.  (That’s why bad news dominates TV and newspapers – we’re drawn to focus on the negative.)

So when we’re thinking about our own personal development, or we get feedback from others, we often pay more attention to our weaknesses or the gaps in our knowledge, and focus all our energy on fixing them.  (I’m sure you’ve experienced this when doing tests.  When you get the result, you soon forget that you got an amazing 90%, and you focus on the few bits you got wrong.)

But rather than using a deficit approach and trying to fix your weaknesses, you may gain more from discovering and focussing on your strengths. 

Our strengths energise us

Gallup has done a lot of research into this and developed its own character strengths assessment.  They have found that you’ll grow more and be more productive and engaged by focussing on your strengths than by improving your weaknesses.

It’s important to say that a strength is not necessarily the same thing as something you’re good at.  A strength energises you.  You might be good at something (admin, for example) but feel totally drained doing it, so that it is not really a strength for you.

So focussing on strengths with this definition makes sense – you’ll be more positive and energised if you get more opportunity to use your strengths in work and life. 

Marcus Buckingham explains this idea in this video:

That’s not to say if there’s a glaring gap in your knowledge or skills that is holding you back, you shouldn’t do something about it. This is not about ignoring your weaknesses completely. But you will be more inspired to do the work to get to where you want to go if you’re able to use your strengths.

So don’t rush past the ‘strengths’ section of your SWOT analysis. Take the time to dig deep and consider how you can build on your unique strengths.

Resources:

Try a free online questionnaire to discover your strengths:

What a SWOT!

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woman sitting at a train station looking at a map

I mentioned previously that a lot of traditional change management models seem to boil down to how to move from A (where we are now) to B (where we want to be).

diagram showing current state transitioning to new state

In order to know where we want to go, we first have to understand where we are now. What’s our current situation, and how then might we need to change to have a better future?

A well-known tool for getting a better understanding of where you, your team, or your organisation is now, is a SWOT analysis. You’ve probably already heard of this, or completed one in your workplace.  This is where you brainstorm your current Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Your strengths and weaknesses are internal factors A useful starting point is to ask yourself questions for each section.  For example, if you were doing this for your own personal development you could ask:

Strengths – What am I good at?  What do I find easy? What knowledge do I have?  What do people praise me for?

Weaknesses – What do I struggle with? What do I hate doing? Where are gaps in my knowledge?

SWOT questions

Opportunities and threats are external factors I’ve already talked about using PEST to analyse your current environment, and the outcome of your PEST analysis can help you complete the Opportunities and Threats sections of your SWOT analysis.

Beware subjectivity!

We are often unaware of our real strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps because we find something easy, we don’t realise that it’s a strength.  Or we have blind spots and we don’t realise the things we are doing that may be holding us back.

So it’s important to gather data for your SWOT to become more aware of what’s really going on.  What evidence do you already have, and where might you need more data? 

If you’re brave, you can ask friends, family and/or colleagues for feedback to discover how other people view your strengths and weaknesses.  You can also take diagnostic tests or complete questionnaires (eg a personality test) to discover more about what you are like.  This is where a coach can help, and a programme of coaching or personal development often starts with diagnostic tools or exercises to help you discover more about yourself. 

So what?

Like any tool, just completing a SWOT doesn’t give you the answers. But taking the time to think through each of these areas should not only give you a better understanding of your current position (A), it should also start to give you ideas about where you need to go (B).  How you can capitalise on your strengths, overcome some of your weaknesses, make the most of any opportunities, and try and minimise the threats?

Further resources:

CIPD (2020) SWOT Analysis
Mind Tools – SWOT Analysis

References

Bassot, B. (2016) The Reflective Practice Guide: an interdisciplinary approach to critical reflection, London: Routledge

Easy vs Hard Change

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sandcastle next to pile of sand

I’ve talked about change being hard and the brain being hardwired against change, but humans cope with change all the time – we are pretty good at adapting to change and learning new things.

But some things do seem to be more difficult.  Losing weight, perhaps.  Or getting up early.

I’ve recently read Michael Bungay-Stanier’s book “The Advice Trap” where he distinguishes between Easy Change and Hard Change.  I love his flow diagrams for these so I’ll share them here.

Easy Change is straightforward.  You start out not knowing something, understand what you need to learn, practise it, and improve.  All you need is access to some knowledge (a book, a teacher, a YouTube video) and then you try it.

flow diagram for easy change
© 2020 Michael Bungay-Stanier

Hard change is much more of an effort.  You think you know what you have to do, but you fail, try again, fail again, and keep coming back to it.  Knowing how to do something is not enough. You need to shift your mindset and behaviour, but something’s stopping you from making progress.

flow diagram for hard change
© 2020 Michael Bungay-Stanier

What’s easy or hard depends on the individual and their previous experience.  What is easy for you might be hard for me.  Some people have no trouble losing weight or getting up early.

This idea of hard and easy change is actually based on what Heifetz and Linsky (2002) refer to as adaptive change vs technical change in organisations. 

Technical problems, while challenging, can be solved by applying existing know-how.

Adaptive problems, however, require transformational change, with all individuals within the organisation shifting their behaviour.  This is uncomfortable and will likely be met with resistance and difficulty.

The danger is that people may try to respond to an adaptive (hard) problem with a technical (easy) solution – doing what they’ve done before.  Alternatively, you can waste a lot of time, money and effort thinking something is an adaptive challenge, when really it just requires a technical solution.

Knowing whether you’re dealing with a hard or easy change is an important step in making the change.

References: 

Bungay-Stanier, M. (2020) The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious and Change the Way you Lead Forever” Toronto: Box of Crayons Press

Heifetz, R.  and Linsky, M. (2002) “A Survival Guide for Leaders”, Harvard Business Review, June 2002

Types of Change

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goldfish jumping out of a glass of water

We all experience change all the time.  Just think about all the change you’ve experienced in the last 12 months.  Write everything down in a list.  What kind of changes are on your list?

I’ve said before that not all changes are created equal.  There could be major changes in your life that have a dramatic effect, like marriage, childbirth, or bereavement.  Or there could be small changes, like buying a new pair of shoes.  Things might change slowly, like losing weight; or they might be sudden, like the introduction of Covid 19 restrictions.  The same change might be viewed positively or negatively, depending on whether you wanted it or not.

When we’re talking about organisational change, Ackerman (1997) divided change into 3 types:

diagrams of the 3 types of change
  • Developmental – this is incremental change, where there is steady improvement made to the current organisation.  This is either planned or emergent.
  • Transitional – this is where you want to achieve a desired new state that is different to the existing one.  The change is planned and the transition is managed over time.  It’s a fairly radical change.
  • Transformational – this is the emergence of a new state, which is unknown, following a crisis

For the purposes of the module I teach on Managing Change, we focus on transitional change, as this is what a lot of traditional change management literature refers to.  In later posts I will outline some of the models used in planned, transitional change.

But it’s interesting to note we also use these terms and ideas when coaching individuals.  We talk about having goals for improvement and we steadily work on improving skills (developmental).  Or we ask people to think about their vision of a ‘future you’ to aim towards and we plan the best way to get there (transitional).  We also talk about ‘transformational coaching’ where there is a shift in thinking and a different ‘new you’ emerges through the coaching.

Looking back, what types of change have you experienced?

References:

Ackerman, L. (1997) Development, transition or transformation: the question of change in organisations In: Van Eynde, D., Hoy, J. and Van Eynde, D. (eds) Organisation Development Classics. San Francisco:Jossey Bass

Image from:

Balogun, J. and Hope-Hailey, V. (2008) Exploring Strategic Change. Harlow, Essex: Pearson Education Ltd, 3rd ed.

Invest in Time to Think

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'The Conversation' a statue in Havana Cuba of two people sitting and talking

Working people are stressed.  The modern workplace seems to be a place of long hours, with an ‘always on’ culture and an addiction to busyness, reacting and just ‘doing’ stuff.  So it’s more important than ever to take time out to reflect on what you’re doing, in order to take control, make adjustments, learn and improve, re-focus and plan ahead.

Many people think they don’t have enough time in their calendar to stop and reflect.  However, investing time and effort in reflecting can be time well spent and can actually save time in the long run. It can:

  • help you feel a sense of achievement as you remember and celebrate what you’ve accomplished
  • help you question your activities and behaviour and see if you can learn new or better ways to do things
  • allow you to think longer-term and plan or focus on how to spend your time best.
  • help you learn and improve over time

Self-reflection is good, but you need to be disciplined.  It’s easy to be pulled back into doing something ‘urgent’ again.  Reflecting alone might also keep you stuck in a certain way of thinking.

This is where having a coach can be helpful.  Coaching can be seen as reflecting with a partner – a thought partner.  This brings a number of benefits:

Scheduling in time

My coachees have commented that the logistics alone can be helpful in making progress.  Having a coaching session scheduled in the calendar commits you to taking the time and space you need to think.

Accountability partner

Having a coach means there is someone who will hold you accountable for any actions you decide to take forward.  Because you know your coach will ask you about the actions you’ve promised to do, you’ve committed to a deadline and this gives the impetus to move forward, and keeps you on track. 

So the discipline of putting time in the diary, and having someone to hold you accountable, can be helpful in itself.

The power of speaking your thoughts out loud

In addition, coachees have remarked on how powerful it is when you speak your thoughts out loud.  Somehow, the thoughts that have been mulling around in your mind suddenly become real when they are spoken to another person.  You hear yourself saying the words and consider how they sound.

This is where the skills of a coach can really add value.  The coach will listen intently and reflect back the words you’re saying.  They may also reflect what they notice from your emotions, body language, tone etc.  You know your coach will not judge you but rather may ask you questions to deepen your thinking.  And your coach won’t offer their own ‘solution’ or rush to give advice.

So however you decide to do it, if you want to make progress, invest in time to reflect.

“The quality of everything we do depends on the quality of the thinking we do first.” Nancy Kline

Training + coaching

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I was reminded recently of an advertising campaign I saw when I was a student in Edinburgh.  As you descended the steps into Waverley station, there was a huge banner that read “TRAINING BEATS COACHING” – a succinct way to persuade you that trains were a better way to get you from A to B than taking the coach. 

I’ve been thinking recently about the two elements of my work – training and coaching – and how they might work best together.

Attending the workshop is just the beginning…

How often have you been on a training course, been really enthusiastic and come back with best of intentions to use your new-found knowledge in your work, only to put away your notes and never look at them again.  Or more recently I’ve been on several workshops where I’ve been assured that “you don’t need to take notes; we’ll send you the slides” and after 3 weeks without receiving anything I’ve given up and moved on.

I don’t think I’ve ever been to a training session or workshop and had someone follow up 3 or 6 months later to find out if/how I was using the knowledge to improve my performance.  It amazes me that companies invest in sending their people on training courses and think that’s the end of it.  It takes a great deal of personal discipline, and often the support of other colleagues, to put that new knowledge into practise and change your way of working.

(One study found that managers who had been on ‘Manager as Coach’ training took on average three days to revert ‘back to normal’ after the training.)

Having someone who will check in with you, support you to make changes, and hold you accountable for doing something, will help you maintain motivation and embed the learning. 

Of course, ideally the person who checks in with you and ensures the company’s investment is bearing fruit would be your line manager.  But unfortunately we know that, at least currently, it rarely happens. 

This is where coaching can help.  Coaching or mentoring can help employees embed the learning in their work and improve their performance.  That’s why coaching is often part of a leadership development programme – because including coaching has been shown to be more effective than just the training alone.  Otherwise the learning is soon forgotten. 

So if you’ve had some learning (you’ve attended a workshop, enrolled on a MOOC, read a book etc.) and want to make changes to help your performance at work, make sure you schedule in review, reflection, and/or coaching or check-ins with a study buddy, to give yourself the best chance of success.

So no, training doesn’t beat coaching.  But perhaps the two in combination is the answer.

Experience Coaching in International Coaching Week 2019

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“Professional coaching has the power to transform individuals and organizations. The best way to discover this is to experience coaching firsthand.”

International Coaching Federation

In honour of International Coaching Week, I will be offering free coaching taster sessions during the week 29th April to 5th May 2019.

If you’ve been wondering what coaching is about and would like to try, get in touch to book your place.  One free place per day: first-come, first-served.

Sessions will last between 30 and 60 minutes. Come with an issue in mind that you’d like to talk about.

Experience coaching with Jo Can Do 29 April to 5th May

To make this offer open to as many people as possible, these coaching conversations can be virtual (eg on Skype/Google Hangouts or via telephone).  But if you’re in the Canterbury area, it would be great to meet up face-to-face.

Unlock your potential: experience coaching during International Coaching week.

How my EFL experience helps me as a coach

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Handshake with words over: learning, experience, ability, growth, training, competence, knowledge, skills

When I talk to people about business or executive coaching, many people seem to expect me to have one of two backgrounds:

  • The ‘business’ expert – either ex-leaders or ex-HR&OD professionals who’ve turned their attention to executive coaching 
  • The psychologist – those who know about how people tick

And of course, ideally you’d want a mix of both skills – knowledge of both business issues and human behaviour.  More recently I’ve met another coach with a similar background to me – in education, in particular EFL teaching – and it struck me how valuable it’s been as a training ground for core coaching skills and behaviours.

Development and Learning

At its heart, performance coaching is about helping people learn and develop new skills and behaviours, and that’s exactly what EFL teaching is about.  I taught many one-to-one or small groups sessions and learned this is where I worked best.  I didn’t ‘teach’ as such, I would demonstrate or show and give the students the space to practice those skills in a safe space – the classroom. 

Listening…Patience…Silence

As an EFL teacher, particularly with lower-levels, you need to be patient, stay silent, and allow the other person plenty of time to gather their thoughts and speak out loud in another language.  These are exactly the skills that my coachees value – it gives them the space and time to really think.

I was also living and working in Japan for many years – a culture where they’re far more comfortable with silence than we are!

Non-judgemental

One of my first students was a 72-year old high court judge in Japan – highly experienced, skilled and respected. But in the classroom he was an intermediate English speaker.  Other learners were housewives, office workers, students.  Whatever their status outside the classroom, in the classroom everyone was treated equally – they were all learning.  I learned not to judge people by their language ability.  We’ve all got to start somewhere and everyone is capable of improving.

Feedback and Encouragement

In training, I was taught how and when it’s best to give feedback.  You don’t correct someone as they’re warming up, for example.  But if they’re practising a new structure, you carefully offer feedback, or reflect back their mistake and ask them to self-correct.

And it’s important to give praise and encouragement.  It takes a long time to learn a language and it’s easy to get demotivated.  People needed to know they were doing well.  Supporting and encouraging others to develop and improve comes naturally to me.

Playfulness

My students were mainly adults, and we had fun!  They loved the fact that they could discard their professional persona, talk about themselves, use their imagination, roleplay and experiment.  They could laugh at their mistakes.

Japanese masks

Empathy

When you teach EFL, you tend to work overseas.  I started in a new country (Japan) and had to learn the language from scratch.  This puts you in the shoes of your students, and you are regularly reminded of what they are going through.  The best teachers remember what it’s like not to know something.

Awareness and Openness

When you live in a different culture, it’s a swift lesson that others do things differently.  What you thought of as ‘normal’ (eg eating with a fork) is not their ‘normal’ (eating with chopsticks).  There are different ways to look at things, do things, think about things and they may be different to yours.  There’s no one ‘best’ or ‘right’ way.

So here I am

And yes, I have a business degree and business experience, and I’ve learned about organisational behaviour and psychology too.  But I’d say my EFL background gave me the ideal training ground for the core skills I need to coach.

Coaching for all – not just for the higher-ups

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A crowd of lego workers

Coaching is gaining in popularity, as more organisations recognise the benefits they can gain from improved employee performance through coaching.

However, it seems to me that there is still a perception that coaching is for ‘higher-ups’. The assumption is that coaching is expensive, both in terms of money and time.  So, the argument goes, investment in coaching to help develop people should be aimed at those where the results will have most impact, usually assumed to be those in senior positions.

I think we need to challenge some of those assumptions.  Let’s start with cost.

A ‘good’ coach is expensive

I talked to an HR person recently.  She gave me a lot of information about how her company worked with external coaches.  But without asking me any questions, she assumed that the company could not afford me as a coach for ‘ordinary’ employees.  She assumed that she’d have to pay £300 for an hour of coaching.  This fee was based on what her company was paying for the executive coaches, but also on other assumptions – that there were no coaches close by, that you’d have to hire someone from London, pay their expenses, bring them down to the company for half a day etc. 

It didn’t cross this HR person’s mind that they could invest in a whole course of coaching – say, 6 sessions, plus introductory session and evaluation session – for the same price.  Yet they had internal coaches who were doing just that for a similar cost.  And at that same company, they’d think nothing of signing off £300 to send someone to a training event or conference, regardless of level.  But although the employee might get a few hours of valuable ‘input’, it’s unlikely there’d be any follow-up to see if the investment in training had made any real difference to the employee or company. 

It has to be face-to-face

The assumption is that the coach or coachee has to travel to be at a coaching session in person.  But this takes time and has an opportunity cost – you could be working instead of travelling.  I’ve mentioned before that I do a lot of work online – training and coaching online via telephone and video calls.  This has significantly reduced the costs I need to charge to clients.  In addition, both parties can choose a comfortable environment for themselves.  Don’t get me wrong – coaching in person is the ideal solution for many. But many clients find a session can be just as effective online.

And not only does technology mean you don’t have to travel, it also opens up the range of coaches you have access to, meaning you can find one that suits your needs, rather than having one that’s conveniently close-by.

We have too many employees

Employees won’t need a coach all the time.  But it may be appropriate for specific times or challenges in their career, for example when:

  • you’ve been newly promoted
  • you are going through a transition or period of change
  • you are looking to develop skills and behaviours to get you to the next level or take you in a new direction

So let’s start challenging this idea that coaches are just for the C-suite and open it up to all.

Seeing the world of work from the comfort of home

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About half of my work at the moment involves training and coaching in Business English.  My initial career was in teaching EFL, so this is something I’m familiar with and trained in, but technology has enabled me to do this now from the comfort of my own home and on a much wider scale.

The focus is on using English for business purposes.  Multinational companies are increasingly requiring their employees to work across borders and see that their employees need to communicate on a daily basis with colleagues and customers in other countries.  English is usually the common language, so companies are investing in raising the levels of English in their workforce. 

These employees are located around the world, and are working in a variety of companies, departments and specialisms.  I’ve got learners in sales, HR, IT, engineering, marketing, legal etc.  They are also at all levels in the hierarchy: directors, managers, and individual contributors.

man looking at computer and taking notes with pen and paper

The sessions are mainly one-to-one, with some in small groups. The classroom is ‘flipped’ and I’m not teaching the language as such – this means I get to use my facilitating, coaching and mentoring skills more.  Sessions often involve discussions and practise around current business topics, such as leadership and management skills, culture, engagement, AI, time management, stress and self-care, and so on, and learners get to discuss business issues while at the same time using and developing their English skills.

This makes for some fascinating conversations and a real insight into the current state of work around the world.  For example, one learner is a HR Director for a Chinese company that has been bought by an international company with headquarters in the Netherlands.  She now regularly visits the Netherlands and has weekly virtual meetings, in English, with the Senior Management team dotted around the world.

I have another learner in Germany, who not only has to manage his own team in Germany, but also has to coordinate a team in Pakistan and Taiwan.  We talk a lot about cross-cultural management!  It’s also interesting to see and contrast the Chinese employee in an American company (P&G) based in America, and the Chinese employee in an American firm (IBM) based in China.  I talked recently to an employee in the legal department of a Spanish company, which is in the process of setting up another company with colleagues in Ireland and the Netherlands, and the frustrations that was bringing her.

I’ve talked with a multitude of employees, some going through layoffs and cutbacks, one going into her first management role,  another who’s just decided to quit, another who’s got a side hustle and is about to go solo.  I’ve had learners taking sessions while in the car, in hotels on wi-fi, on mobile phones while walking, and today from an old folks’ home – basically anywhere and everywhere.

The world is shrinking.  Technology allows us to talk with people globally at little cost.  The only difficulty is the time-zone difference.  And despite the conversations about cultural differences, it’s surprising how similar and human the employee experiences are.