Coaching to better performance

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Demonstrating initial and ongoing competency of our employees is one key part of regulation. Now our training and competence schemes are fully operative we may have identified areas where individuals may need additional training in order to help them demonstrate their competency in a particular work area.

Training and developing our staff is not a new concept to us. Many organisations have recognised the benefits of developing their employees and all these still apply. So whilst we are all more mindful of the need to ensure our staff are able to competently perform their job functions we shouldn’t forget the actual benefits of investing in the people who are representing our businesses. These being the potential for increased productivity; efficiency; enhanced level of customer service; improving or developing staff and manager relations; and of course making staff feel they are valued by investing time and money in their development.

Conducting training sessions does not necessarily need to be left to a ‘trainer’. You may identify an individual, or individuals, within your business who are able to share their knowledge, experience and the practical application of such to the role.

Training and coaching

There are two key parts to helping an individual become competent in a particular work area. Training is the more obvious one. However, training alone may only do half the job.

Training is when one party imparts knowledge and/or a skill and another party acquires it. For example, teaching someone the features and benefits of a particular product (knowledge), or how to close a sale (skill).

However, the danger is that we stop the learning process at that point. As a result of the training the individual may have acquired sufficient knowledge to pass a competency test. However, they may not necessarily be able to apply that knowledge to their actual day to day role. For example, they understand how they should close a sale but when it comes to doing it they find it is much harder to put into practise.

This is where the second part comes in; coaching.

The aim of coaching is to assist with the transfer of knowledge. It will help the individual to apply their knowledge and/or skill practically to the job and will also develop these further in order to be more effective.

Before you start any ‘training’ exercise don’t, therefore, assume it is training the individual needs. It is easy to make such an assumption and then be surprised when the individual has not improved as a result. Identify whether the individual knows what they need to know and how they need to do it. If they do you may find coaching is what is needed to help them to improve and not more training. Also remember that, whether they have a need for training or coaching (or both), could well vary for different parts of their role.

Coaching

There are two forms of coaching, directive and non directive.

Directive coaching is where the coach will reach their own conclusions about how the knowledge and skills should be applied to the role. Using their insight and own experience they will direct the individual in the way they feel is best. This can be an appropriate method of coaching in situations where the individual has no ideas or suggestions on how to apply the knowledge to the job; either through lack of experience or even lack of confidence.

However, there are some potential disadvantages to this approach.

• If the coach’s suggestion does not work, the individual may be reluctant to ask again.
• The coach has taken responsibility for ‘sorting the matter’ rather than the individual taking ownership.
• It is an easy option for the individual in the way they do not need to think about the matter themselves and consider what may work for them.

If this approach is adopted, the coach should try to encourage the individual to participate by sharing their experiences whilst at the same time asking for input and alternative suggestions in order to find a way that may work for them.

Non directive coaching is where the coach encourages the individual to do the thinking so they identify their own solutions. The advantage of this approach is that there is more chance the individual will find something that they are comfortable with and that works for them. It is much easier to practice a style or approach that you have thought of yourself, rather than apply somebody else’s.

Non directive coaching is a subject in itself and one I will cover in a future article.

Whilst there is a regulatory need to ensure your employees can demonstrate competency there are many other benefits to your business of investing in your people.

Give your employees responsibility for their own learning and development and make them accountable for it.. People work much harder to make their own ideas work so encourage them to drive their own learning and in return support them wherever the business can.

This article was written by Elizabeth Mills, Director, Broker Network
An edited version of this article was published in Insurance Times