I just got done giving a presentation to a large number of project managers in HP, titled “Coaching Employees on Tough Issues.” How incredibly cool!
The primary purpose was to clearly describe the role of manager-as-coach, how that’s different than other things the manager might be doing, and to explain how the coaching process works. I didn’t really spend a lot of time walking through steps of a coaching conversation, but instead tried to inspire the attendees to internalize why good coaching conversations will help employees to be more inspired, more focused, and more productive.
The audience was somewhere over 440 people worldwide, which means that most of the time was spent walking people through my slides. Despite that, there was a high level of engagement because there were a lot of interesting – and tough! – questions. Here are some great ones:
- How is the coaching/leadership comparison different from the coaching/management comparison?
- What happens when an employee coaches their manager? Can that work?
- What’s the difference between engagement and inspiration?
I can deliver the most value when I’m working with a smaller group, on issues which are specific to an organization. But this kind of presentation helps to build awareness and points people to resources that they have available to them.
And it was great to reconnect with a bunch of my HP buddies!
This is so interesting Carl – these are great questions being posed here. Here’s my take on it – forgive me for this lengthy reply –
The Leadership/Management question :
You’ll know that our distinction around leadership (The Forton Group) is about being personally successful AND enabling success in others – for the benefit of the individuals, the team, the organisation AND society. My personal belief is that ‘Managers’ manage systems and processes – the ‘how’ and the ‘what’ of their mission; when they try to ‘manage’ people, that’s when they come unstuck! Leaders take people to a new place, by speaking their vision and inspiring them into action – putting the right skills and expertise needed to deliver on the mission and trusting that their people will achieve their goals.
The ‘Coaching my Boss’ question:
In my experience it tends not to work very well on a formal “hour coaching session” way, but it does work extremely well on an informal, listening intently and asking open questions, way.
I LOVE the third question:
Inspiration comes from a latin word ‘inspirare’ – which means to breathe in (inhale) – and when we get excited by great ideas or emotions we take that breath and it lights us up! Inspiration is personal/individual. Engagement comes from an engineering metaphor of cogs linking into each other such that the output is far greater than the input so is more about a synergy in action and is a shared thing.
It’s late over here in the UK and so i’m sure that I haven’t expressed myself well – and I’m sure your audience will be able to build on my foundations… I look forward to reading their views!