‘Coaching focuses on helping another person learn in ways that let him or her keep growing afterward. It is based on asking rather than telling, on provoking thought rather than giving directions and on holding a person accountable for his or her goals’ (Forbes, 2010).
Hence, I question myself if I am even providing coaching, let alone being competent to provide coaching to improve performance! Many of us sit down mainly three times a year for formal work review sessions with our job holders: start of the year to kickstart the much dreaded Enhanced Performance Management System (EPMS) Work Review Form, middle of the year to review performance of targets set and finalising the form before the annual ranking exercise. What happens to the other
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I believe that by making a conscious effort to employ these skills coupled with giving timely constructive feedback, I will be able to hone my coaching skills to improve not only the performance of others but also my …show more content…
‘A coach also gives a learner genuine and constructive feedback and allows the learner to see that which resides in his blind spot. The coach gives the feedback in a manner that is accurate but not harsh, honest but not discouraging’ (Ng, 2005, p. 36). I feel that people will be more willing to go the extra mile when they feel recognised and appreciated. They will undertake the task from the start with a more optimistic attitude and thus, handling it with more accountability and lessening the need of me having to constantly check on them. On the other hand, when feedback is not handled well, it can result to a potential source of friction and conflict. This strains the working environment, making both work and play very superficial with little or no buy-in. When feedback is handled well, many will experience the positive effects and performance is strengthened. Improving coaching to improve performance takes time. People are heterogeneous and dynamic, hence the same mix of skills may not yearn the same results at the same time. I have to adjust to a more conservative expectation for I may not see desired results as quickly as I hope since the learning curve is unique to each learner. Thus, there is a need to adopt a patient manner whereby I have to persevere conscientiously to check and adjust by comparison with a standard, which is the four key skills mentioned earlier, to