Photograph: Alamy
Bryan Parkes on how coaches can help in the quest for self-improvement
Coaching as a concept seems to ebb and flow in the business world and in construction it has not been widely adopted. Why should this be?
Coaching in the sporting arena is well embedded and understood to be the key to awakening human potential. The coach’s role is to bring out the absolute best in people and to assist them in uncovering and unleashing their full potential, whether it’s on the track, on the field or in the swimming pool.
Business has gradually accepted the similarities between improving performance in sport and business with many sporting icons now applying their skills and training to inspire and motivate managers.
The business coach aims to unlock an individual’s potential to maximise their performance, but does so in a way that helps and supports rather than teaching them how.
Depending on the issues involved, coaching can help a person to:
- Clarify goals: what does the person really want from work? Is it realistic?
- Decide the steps and timing for each goal;
- Be clear about who or what may hinder matters;
- Motivate & guide the process;
- What coaching is not is counselling or therapy.
The driver for engagement is typically a holiday or the New Year when change and fulfilment fire up motivation. But in the majority of cases the impetus becomes lost in the reality of daily challenges.
The business coach should help temper enthusiasm, set the individual’s goals and motivate them to embark on the journey to fulfilment.
Even the most successful executive needs reassurance, someone who will listen without judging and help them steer a way through continuous pressure and change. If my experience is anything to go by leaders are often in a lonely place and coaching can be a catalyst for achievement and the next level.
In my teaching of post-graduate managers we look at how project managers feel about priority allocation giving options such as “looking forward”, “looking upward” at their sponsor, or “looking back” at results and trends. The one option given short shrift by the majority is in the area of looking inwards — at personal impact and growth. As the American author Gail Sheehy once remarked: “If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow we are not really living.”
Coaching is not a one-size-fits-all and the skilled coach has to go beyond the motivational jargon and go to work one-to-one both on the sense of the possible and the steps needed to reach goals.
Finding the right coach
So what should one look for in a coach/client relationship? One consideration is whether the coach should be from the same, in this case construction, industry? Some managers appreciate an understanding of the industry and knowledge of the context.
Most important, though, is that the coach and client need to feel comfortable working together across a variety of face-to-face, telephone and other media.
The client must be prepared to change, willing to work towards the goals and contribute ideas and solutions.
Having worked with various individuals and groups over the years the aim is to support clients to tap into their wisdom and resourcefulness and this requires discipline and commitment.
Being coached often requires an open and honest appraisal of where you are now, knowing what your take is on success and setting reachable goals. Busy executives need to make time for thinking and working with the coach.
Persistence is central to supporting people. As Malcolm Forbes, publisher of Forbes magazine, reminds us: “Diamonds are nothing more than chunks of coal that stuck to their task.”
A question often asked of the manager is: “When did you last pause, take stock and map out the future?” In the hectic workplace many would regard this is a luxury. One of the world’s best-known coaches, Anthony Robbins, succinctly said: “One of the joys of being a coach is in helping people recapture their true potential.” Even if people know what they want, most become discouraged or are too busy and need someone who will stand by them, help them take the steps and be there for them.
So is coaching a worthwhile journey of personal discovery? The coach rarely has all the answers, but perhaps the right question makes the “impossible” seem more possible!
A final thought is to remind yourself of the old saying: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”
Bryan Parkes is a lecturer in construction management at Reading University and has more than 30 years’ experience with well-known UK contractors, 15 at senior operational level. Email [email protected]
