Coaches Corner – Part II

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTIONER

Title: A Trio of Booklets from CCL

Competency: coaching

Who benefits: managers

Consultant Usage: professional coaches

What’s it about? I once took a course in fiction writing.  The one lasting piece of advice I took from the instructor/writer was that when writing you don’t have to see the destination, you only need to see as far down the road as your headlights highlight.

I began this posting with the notion of helping managers and supervisors with their part of employee development.  It has always been a pet peeve of mine that managers and supervisors “send” people to training without considering their own role in the process.  A superior manager or supervisor is actively involved in the pre and post training process.  Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen with the degree of involvement necessary to guarantee that the learning from training programs or assignments will become a part of the participant’s body of knowledge and/or skills. 

As I was reviewing the literature on this topic I realized that nothing I write in this posting is likely to change the normal patterns of any manager or supervisor.  So, to continue my road metaphor (I’m into metaphors these days), I rounded a curve and my headlights spotted something a little different.  If the manager or supervisor isn’t going to sit down and have multiple pre and post discussions with the program participant, what could be done to at least get the participant to carry out his or her role?

The answer to that came in the form of three booklets from the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) – an organization I have respected for many years.

So, manager or supervisor, if you are “too busy” to coach, how about providing your employee with these two booklets before they go off to training:  Setting Your Development Goals: Start with Your Values and Preparing for Development: Making the Most of Formal Leadership Programs. Despite the title of the second booklet, I find the material applicable to any formal coursework.  

Then manager/supervisor, invest a little of your time reading an “oldie-but –goodie”:  Eighty-eight Assignments for Development in Place.  Use some of these valuable suggestions for a follow-up with your training participant.  Don’t waste this opportunity to turn the participant’s new knowledge and learning into application and higher productivity.  You both win in this scenario. 

I will close with a little wisdom of my own which CCl may not agree with, but I do feel strongly that the two pre booklets listed above are written primarily for first level managers and supervisors and their non-management employees.  The “Eighty-Eight Assignments”, despite its age (1989) is still excellent for managers at any level.

Catch you later.

 

[tags]coaching, development, career development, performance management, performance review, performance appraisal, developmental assignments,Center for Creative Leadership, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley[/tags]

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.