My Blog

The New Beginning

The summer of 2018 was overwhelming as I took up a new role, completed my coaching assignments, and handled a toddler/family and domestic stuff at home. Transitioning to a new role held the utmost priority item on the list. I was replacing Mary, who handled the current position for 3-4 years. Towards the end of the transition to the new role, I was a part of a year-end review of Patty with Mary. Feedback from Mary seemed like Patty was good for nothing. I could sense that it was the first feedback session between them. I wondered why anybody would have to wait until the end of the year to give feedback. Is it Patty's responsibility also to ask for feedback? This incident worried me greatly as I was gearing up to start my new role. I was afraid to have an irresponsible and inefficient individual like Patty on my team. The most significant burden was the inefficiency of Patty’s would reflect on my performance. 

Looking back as a mentor

Over the past decade, I mentored over 40-50 individuals. Mentoring is critical in a growing organization, where we used to hire hundreds of fresh graduates every year. I was very successful as a mentor as I closely noticed mentees transforming themselves, achieving their goals, and moving up their career ladder. Mentors go the extra mile to invest significant time and effort to identify each team member's strengths and areas of improvement and enable them to perform well in their specific work areas. Acting as a mentor and watching someone else grow is incredibly fulfilling. Some of them did acknowledge my effort in shaping their career. As it was a growing organization, we used to have many responsibilities when teams were not set for value to add work that we would do ourselves. There was reverse mentoring also in some cases. One of my mentees suggested that weekends are for relaxing and finishing personal stuff, which would energize and recharge us for the following week. I took this as great advice and stopped working on weekends until it affected business and needed attention immediately. I invested my weekends in family/hobbies/learning/domestic work. This success of mentoring led me to explore the world of coaching. Mentoring involves sharing experiences, advising, and guiding, whereas coaching involves asking instead of telling, enhancing self-awareness, etc. The difference between coaching and mentoring could be as simple as this - "A coach has some great questions for your answers; a mentor has some great answers for your questions”. “Coaching is transformative and brings a change in the workplace”. 

The art of getting used to the new role

I balanced my daily duties as a manager and built my team. I put a few protocols in place to ensure that deliverables do not affect. I had my eyes on achieving targets and zero escalations from the stakeholders. I set up daily connections with all my reports. It helped to get hands-on experience with various processes handled by the team, track the progress, and identify their issues and challenges. Stakeholder management was as important as a team. I was trying to build trust and confidence in them. As humans, we experience fears; like feeling that we do not belong and are valued, and similar desires; such as being heard and being part of a team, being accepted and appreciated. I had to connect with my peers to understand the best practices and listen to their views on my challenges. Mailbox flooded with hundreds of emails, and back-to-back meetings were the new norm. It was a learning phase; I would go to my team members to understand the background and the best reply to some of the emails. I had to prioritize the meetings of all invites that I received. 

"You cannot teach anybody anything; only make them realize the answers are already inside them." Galileo Galilei

Continued struggle 

It was evident that Patty struggled more after the feedback session with her previous manager. She skipped many team meetings and online get together. It looked unprofessional to join late for the calls often. She responded to some of the emails at midnight. This role demanded something at midnight seldom. She had to work on time management and prioritize her work during the day. I started painting a vivid picture of how I see her positively affecting the team. I strongly desired to use my coaching skills for her transformation as an efficient resource. Coaching is necessary for the workplace, as many employees would have the deepest motivation and aspirations. How do they strive to achieve them? They could be having deepest fears and how they avoid them. 

"All personal breakthroughs begin with a change in beliefs." - Tony Robbins

The way forward

Bit by bit, I started to appreciate her work and thank her for helping me with my request and all her hard work. It looked like she wanted to be valued and admired for her work and gain some confidence. You do not have to be best friends with your reports for coaching to work, but you must build a relationship of trust. A solid relationship with your team will allow you to coach, lead, and bring out the best in your reports. Initially, I helped her with best practices to organize her work better by using online tools, time management, and tweaking how she communicated over emails.

Over a period, I started coaching Patty. Coaching is not a one-size-fits-all process. Tailoring your focus to the person you are interacting with is essential. Coaching is a personal advancement and objective-focused process. We had regular connections to help her identify issues/challenges/concerns. The list was long. We started focusing on the highest-impact areas for her. 

We would break down the overarching goal statements with a structured coaching conversation into bite-sized pieces. I helped Patty to prioritize the items to discuss in every session. Every discussion of ours was goal oriented. Open-ended questions play a significant role in individuals exploring themselves with the coach. I could sense the profound thoughts she had to succeed in life. She responded to my questions by thinking deeply and being open. She had psychological safety, as it was a non-judgemental zone. I was surprised that she had umpteen ideas to put the process in place, achieve targets quickly, and dedicate time for high business impact work. 

The wins

The stakeholders appreciated Patty for her excellent work. He always admired how organized she was with any data requested at the last minute during their proposal submission or just before orals. Her work reflected her transformation. She was being more confident, organized, and managed deliverables carefully. Coaching challenged her thinking, improved her morale, and offered new options to achieve harmony between work, life, and relaxation.

Coaching sessions got her to think more critically about her professional growth. Also, encouraged her to become more mindful of her actions and interaction with others. One of the skills anybody usually picks up in coaching sessions and then – consciously or unconsciously – applies to their day-to-day interactions with others is the ability to ask thoughtful questions. Knowing how to ask the right questions and work towards a mutually beneficial solution can help build an organization with an empathetic team and promotes collaboration across departments. I witnessed Patty being part of volunteering and enjoying the work that she did for the social cause. Volunteering was one of her essential desires, which she had not explored due to lack of time. 

Benefits of coaching skills at work

· Consistent coaching helps individuals to stay relevant means adapting work styles and leadership styles much faster than what is comfortable.

· Coaching encourages communication, reflection, and self-correction.

· Coaching also, positively affects team effectiveness and productivity as the individuals feel valued and cared for with coaching sessions.

Essential coaching skills

· Listen to Learn – Listening patiently to understand the issue/challenge is one of the basic skills managers have to possess. This makes the individuals feel valued and leads to trust between us. In the coaching process, one must be aware of the intentions and aims of the session. 

· Inquire for Insight – While the coaching conversation is on, managers have to look for a clue in the statements made by individuals to ask powerful questions back and draw insights out of them. 

· Empathizing - Helps the client to think more deeply about their wishes, motivations, and feelings and share them with the coach.

Challenges in Coaching

· We are investing time in coaching around the margins of our busy schedules.

· It takes time to develop trust between the coach and the client

· There could be a lack of accountability by the client

Conclusion

One of the most important things you can teach your team is the proper perspective on failure. When you believe that failure is just a hurdle to cross, something that makes you better every time you fall and picks yourself back up, anything is possible. Coaching is compelling as it allows individuals to tap their resources and think of solutions. It is a continuous improvement process. I habitually asked my reports for feedback/ideas/suggestions regarding their work. This act led them to feel more inclusive. By every measure, workplace coaching significantly improves outcomes for employees. Allow sufficient time for changes to stick. 

With this success, I truly feel #IamRemarkable.