Bearing in mind the fast pace of business today and the 
need to stay competitive, it's essential that managers 
should be effective.  They need to be especially 
effective with their people and this requires learning 
to coach.  For most managers, coaching has been added 
to their role anyway, but the majority haven't received 
any training in coaching skills.  More than 80% of 
organisations use coaching to develop their staff, but 
only a fifth train their managers in coaching, 
according to a survey by the Work Foundation. 
This lack of training can be costly and damaging.  It's 
like putting a complete beginner in a car, telling them 
to drive and just saying "Good luck".  They may have 
some idea of what to do, but they won't have sound 
training in the skills required.  Coaching is a 
specific set of core competencies and skills, not just 
a new label to add to what a manager has always done.  
Managers need training so that they develop those 
specific skills, know when and how to use them, and 
have confidence in themselves to coach people.  With 
the right training, your company will benefit 
dramatically from this coaching.  Benefits such as:

.  Improving employee performance to an optimum level
.  Being a stronger, more productive company
.  Handling change easily and encouraging growth
.  Bringing out the very best in people and unlocking 
   potential.

You don't want your company to miss out on these benefits, 
do you?  

I invite you to start the process of ensuring that your 
managers have been adequately trained in coaching 
skills.  And not only trained, but most important, they 
need the opportunity to learn, experience and evaluate 
coaching.

First, they need to understand what coaching is and 
isn't, and how it's distinct from mentoring, training, 
counselling or teaching.    Without this understanding, 
they'll be caught in the trap of not knowing whether 
they're coaching or not.  They'll need to know at least 
one coaching model to give them a process and a 
structure to work with.  This gives the coaching focus 
and clarity, and reaches a conclusion with agreed 
actions.  To start with, they'll need a thorough 
grounding in basic coaching skills such as listening, 
questioning, evoking, clarifying, requesting, trust and 
rapport building, challenging, acknowledging, 
collaborating and action planning.  As these are 
learned, practised and refined, they can be built on 
more.    

Being trained in coaching skills is the first step and 
the real learning comes from experiencing coaching for 
yourself personally and coaching others.  Therefore, 
it's important that you don't just get trained in the 
basic coaching skills and leave it there.  There needs 
to be a supportive structure and environment for you to 
continue with your coaching.  How often have you 
learned something new, only to find when you're back in 
the workplace that you've only retained a little of it?  
Or that you're facing obstacles you don't know how to 
overcome?  Managers need their own fully experienced 
coach to continue working with them after their initial 
training.  This is where they'll dramatically improve 
their ability to coach and have confidence in 
themselves as coaches.

Training your managers in coaching skills doesn't have 
to be done all at once and overnight.  You can choose 
to start in a small way perhaps with only a couple of 
managers and as you experience the results, build on 
this.  As you start thinking about training for your 
managers, I suggest you first find out what your 
managers really need to be effective; what they already 
know about coaching; what more they need to know and 
which of them already has a keen interest in learning 
to coach.  Asking these questions of your managers will 
give you a clearer picture of what's needed.  This may 
involve some time and commitment now, but it will 
ensure they get the training they most need.  Knowing 
your company as you do, what's the most important 
action you can take today that will move your managers 
closer to being coaches?