224: How to Leverage Coaching Competencies if You Aren't a Certified Coach
The reason I’m doing this episode today is because of the horror stories I have heard about bosses who are supposed to be “coaching” their employees but are doing something else entirely. As a Certified Executive and Leadership Development Coach (CELDC), I wanted to talk about a few of the coaching competencies as laid out by the International Coaching Federation or ICF. ICF is considered the premier coaching credential organization in the world. Many people in leadership positions have gotten a coaching certification, but it may not be appropriate for everyone. So here’s a crash course on eight coaching competencies you can put to use today without a coaching certification. A reminder that I offer a monthly job search Masterclass, held on the third Thursday of the month at 4:00 p.m. Eastern. The topic is different each month, and I jam-pack them full of content. To learn about the next webinar: https://mastercoachwebinars.carrd.com (https://mastercoachwebinars.carrd.com/) 1. Cultivates Trust and Safety. The first competency I want to talk about is cultivating trust and safety. As a manager of people, you want to create safe and supportive environments that will facilitate your employees’ opening up and sharing freely. There needs to be mutual respect and trust to develop this trust. 2. Maintains Presence. It is so important to be present with your employees at all times – and especially when you are coaching them. Minimize or eliminate the potential for disruption, and make sure you can eliminate mental distractions before you coach an employee. Here are some of the tools for maintaining presence in the coaching relationship: -Be flexible with your agenda (but do have an agenda) -Trust your intuition -Be open to not knowing and taking risks -Use humor to lighten the mood when necessary -Avoid being overwhelmed by your employees’ emotions 3. Listens Actively. You want to hear what your employee is saying and not saying to fully understand what is going on with your employee. A great coach will do far less talking and far more listening. 4. Powerful Questioning to Evoke Awareness. This is where many “coaches” go wrong – they tell their employee what to do and how to do it, rather than creating an environment where the employee accesses her own wisdom and knowledge. Powerful questions are ones that encourage your employee to investigate new insights about themselves. These questions also focus on the future rather than the past. Tools you can use to evoke awareness include silence (allowing for quiet as the employee processes their thoughts or questions) and metaphor or analogy (utilizing different ways of communicating concepts). 5. Facilitates Growth. The purpose of coaching should be to promote your employees’ autonomy and ability to transform their book knowledge, experience, and insights into actions. 6. Goal-Setting It is important to enter into a coaching relationship with specific goals, which should be revisited and revised periodically throughout coaching. The goals set should: -Be SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic,