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Time and time again businesses face these same eight challenges and yet each one can be solved forever in one easy step.
So why don't more workplaces know about it? Keep reading to learn how you, with the help of some simple operational coaching skills, can revolutionise the performance, productivity and engagement levels in your organisation…
1. Jump Start Your Commercial Performance
In new and ambiguous situations, old patterns of behaviour may cause Managers and employees alike, to become stuck. This may result in missed opportunities that negatively impact on the commercial performance of the business. Operational Coaching stimulates new ways of thinking through enquiry; when an ‘Enquiry-Led Approach’ is adopted, Managers ask different questions, and new solutions become possible. These solutions are the life force of fantastic commercial results.
2. Reduce Time Shortages
When all lines of enquiry are pushed up the line, employees become dependent on their Managers, and decision making can slow to a halt. Importantly, the employee doesn’t learn how to respond when similar situations arise in the future. By resisting the temptation to provide the answers, and adopting an Operational Coaching approach, Managers can increase the independence and resourcefulness of their employees. This will result in a reduced ‘mean time to contribution’.
3. Increase Retention
The needs of today’s workforce are more diverse than ever. A one-stroke approach to managing people will fail to satisfy the needs and wants of employees. Within a coaching culture, Managers have the opportunity to respond to each employee in a bespoke way that centres on individual situations. Operational Coaching provides a way in which Managers can sustain this attention in everyday situations during short ‘on the fly’ conversations. The closer the employment experience is to meeting the desires of the employee, the longer the organisation will be able to retain them.
4. Improve Productivity
A command and control leadership style can inhibit high performance which has an unfavourable impact on productivity. Conversely, in a culture that encourages Managers to use an Operational Coaching approach, employees develop the ability to move along the spectrum between goal setting and action, more effectively and efficiently. This more agile response generates higher levels of productivity.
5. Improve Morale
In highly controlled environments, employees are often fearful of being ‘wrong’ and are far more likely to withdraw their discretionary effort; this contributes to poor morale. In coaching cultures, Managers acknowledge and leverage the unlimited potential of their employees, which changes the nature of the manager-employee exchange. Operational Coaching enables the Manager to interact with their employees in a way that helps them to sustain high levels of courage and self-esteem in the long term.
6. Generate Creativity
In transactional environments there are few opportunities to be creative. When the Manager tells rather than asks, they fail to leverage the diversity of thinking that exists within their teams. However, when a Manager is able to recognise a ‘coachable moment’, they adopt a position of ‘not knowing’ which frees them from pre-determined outcomes and encourages enquiry. By using Operational Coaching skills, the Manager is better equipped to release the creativity of others.
7. Increase Empowerment
Low levels of empowerment leads to low levels of achievement and low morale; this is often the cause of high attrition rates and disenfranchised workforces. Operational Coaching cultures provide effective conditions for organisations to engage the will of employees, in order for them to become empowered to make decisions, and enabled to act under their own volition.
8. Increase Quality of Customer Relationships
When front-line employees are disempowered they have limited control over how they respond to customers; this can result in rigid customer service and shallow customer relationships. Moreover, interactions with customers may also be damaged by low levels of confidence and morale. Managers that frequently use an Operational Coaching approach can help customer facing employees become more accountable for their customer relationships. High exposure to Operational Coaching may even inspire the employee to take an ‘Enquiry-Led Approach’ with their customers, which could have transformative results and significantly improve sales performance too.
Notion Ltd is a global expert in behaviour change. For more informational about how Operational Coaching can help you address your organisational challenges, visit us at https://www.BusinessCoaching.co.uk/services/coaching-culture--coaching-skills or call us for an informal chat on +44( 0)1926 889 885
