Coaching for Great Work Public Workshop
Location: Washington D.C-Metro Area
Date: Thursday, October 7, 2010
Time: 9:00 am-4:00 pm
Venue: American Institute of Architects, 1735 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C.
Near Metro and public parking available
Fee: $399
This workshop is for “internals” only - I’m sorry, but no independent coaches & consultants at this time
What is the state of coaching in organizations today?
My partner in the Coaching for Great Work Program, Michael Bungay Stanier, and I were at the ASTD conference in Chicago IL in May. We spoke to a lot of people about whether they used coaching in their organization – and if so, what difference it was making.
Most confirmed they were continuing to use external coaches, but it was clear that the general trend is to focus on equipping managers and leaders with core coaching competencies so they can bring the power of coaching in-house.
We were curious, and asked them how this was going.
Some said they weren’t doing it at all. A very few said it was working well. But from most people, this is what we heard:
“We tried to introduce something and then, well…” and then they trailed off, looking a little embarrassed, a little frustrated or both.
When we pressed them a little to tell us more, they confirmed what we already knew about just why coaching doesn’t seem to stick.
The four reasons why coaching doesn’t stick for managers and leaders
Research, experience – and our conversations in the marketplace – confirms that there are four core reasons why managers and leaders don’t fully incorporate coaching into their leadership toolkit.
Here’s what managers tell us:
- “I don’t know why I’m doing it.” (In other words, it’s not relevant to my business goals.)
- “I don’t know how to do it.” (In other words, I don’t know how to translate the skills I’ve been taught back to “real life.”)
- “I don’t know if I want to be a coach.” (In other words, I’m just a regular person – and “Coaching” can come with expectations and baggage.) and the biggest reason of all…
- “I don’t have time to coach.” (In other words, I’m already working way too hard. Where and how exactly do I add coaching to that?)
“This course is at the cutting edge of coaching methodology. Box of Crayons has simplified the complex aspects of coaching to provide tools that managers can use to stimulate development instantaneously.” -Mark Peters, Head of Training, Nestle Canada
The Coaching for Great Work approach: our four mantras
1. If coaching’s not relevant, you can’t coach.
Coaching for Great Work makes strong connections to the manager’s personal, team and organizational goals. Coaching is positioned not as an end in itself, but rather as the means to an end. Managers get to see how coaching can (and should) make their lives easier, their work more meaningful and the impact of what they do greater – rather than just being the latest HR initiative.
2. If you can’t remember it, you can’t coach.
Coaching doesn’t have to be a “black-art,” require years of training, the perfect personality type or as much time as you think. Coaching for Great Work focuses on the essence of powerful coaching: three simple, accessible and flexible processes to address the three key coaching moments managers and leaders face most often.
3. If you want to be an excellent coach, you can’t coach.
OK that’s not exactly true. But our goal for the participants of Coaching for Great Work is to equip them to be adequate coaches. Adequate does the job more than 9 times out of 10. And adequate is a standard that people feel they can reach, rather than feeling they have to have a PhD in psychology or having reached Zen enlightenment. (or both)
4. If you can’t coach in 10 minutes or less, you can’t coach.
Coaching for Great Work is built around three key coaching moments, with a focus of doing each in 10 minutes or less. This is perhaps the most radical and most liberating part of Coaching for Great Work. The insight that you can quickly move someone from A to B is powerful and exciting for managers and leaders.
“I was concerned that we could not deliver coaching skills training to our group effectively. We have a truly global group and a very senior group, many of whom have held C-level positions in major corporations. They are analytical and critical by nature and training. And finally they had been subjected to less than optimal professional development opportunities in the past, to say the least. What the program delivered not only turned their skepticism into enthusiasm but I heard back from participants almost immediately that they were using what they learned and, most importantly, that it was working for them and making a difference.” - Michael Leckie, VP HR, Gartner
The impact of using Coaching for Great Work
Coaching for Great Work allows managers and leaders to bring greater focus, courage and impact to the work they do. It allows them to:
- Create the time and space to focus on what is most important, so that being busy isn’t confused with having an impact.
- Get clearer on the real challenges, so they don’t waste time working on the wrong issues.
- Generate a wider range of options, so they have richer choices about what to do.
- Build the right type of relationships with the right people at the right time, rather than being hampered by silos and hierarchy.
- Have the right people working on the right tasks, so that people are doing their best possible work.
Curious? Come and test it out in Washington D.C. on October 7th.
On October 7th we’ll be running an open course for training, HR and organizational leaders so they can experience the power of Coaching for Great Work. If you’re looking for new insights and “war stories” on how to help coaching flourish in your organization and looking to enhance your own coaching skills, this will be a useful day.
Among other things you’ll learn:
- Why Great Work matters – for you, your team and your organization
- Two reasons why external coaches can be poor role models for executives and managers
- How to make coaching not just important – but urgent too
- How to find time to coach – and how to coach in 10 minutes or less
- The three key “coaching moments,” and what to do when you spot them
- The two words that can help make a challenge come alive
- The secret to doubling the likelihood you’ll do what you want to do
When you leave, you’ll have coached and been coached using the Coaching for Great Work approach. You’ll also have greater clarity about how coaching might better flourish in your organization.
You’ll be working directly with me and Michael Bungay Stanier, Senior Partner of Box of Crayons and creator of the Coaching for Great Work program.
You’ll also have the pleasure of working with peers from diverse organizations, a great lunch and you’ll leave with a full set of Coaching for Great Work materials, including Michael’s latest book Do More Great Work. If you register before September 15, you’ll receive a free copy of the book Today Is Your Day: 51 Top Coaches Share Their Secrets to Life and Professional Success, to which I contributed a chapter.
Coaching for Great Work has been run with blue chip clients in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia, including British Gas, Gartner, GlaxoSmithKline, Nestle Canada and the TD Bank. You can learn more about Coaching for Great Work here.
Already got a coaching program?
No problem. Coaching for Great Work has been designed and used to “amp up” existing coaching programs. That means rather than throwing out one program and starting afresh, Coaching for Great Work takes what is already there and makes it more powerful, more applicable and more relevant. Clients have talked about the experience of introducing Coaching for Great Work to their organization as being like a software upgrade, rather than needing to learn a whole new operating system.
for the Washington D.C Metro Area Coaching for Great Work session
Cancellation Policy: Up to 30 days before the event, full refund minus a 10% admin fee. No refunds less than 30 days before the day of the workshop.
