Coaching Staff - Part Three

Previously in this series we looked at how to provide staff members with clear instruction and an effective demonstration. In this third part of the coaching series, we’ll be looking at providing staff with opportunities to practice what they have learned. This requires that first we look briefly at the art of delegation.

Essentially, there are two reasons for delegating to staff members – firstly, to get the job done and secondly, to develop the individual. In delegating simply to get the job done you should primarily focus on ensuring the staff member is already capable of what you are asking them to do. Delegating to develop the individual is what concerns us here.

When looking to provide opportunities for the staff member to practice what they have learned, the leadership challenge is to try and create a safe environment. On occasion, there might be opportunities for safety to be created via a simulation but more often than not, safety comes by the delegation being in a non-urgent situation. This provides the coach with an opportunity to check work and provide feedback before it goes live.

Practice should also be timely. That is, it should occur shortly after the staff member has received instruction in the task or skill area (and optionally, a demonstration). If something is explained today and no opportunity for practice occurs until three weeks later, how much knowledge will have been retained?

In Brilliant Leader, I also make the point that practice should be graduated. That is, the practice should be made more complex in graduated stages until the staff member has developed completely in the task or skill area. The staff member also needs to know that support is available throughout the practice period although as we shall look at in the feedback part of this series, the coach will not always provide the answers.

Before we get to that aspect of coaching, we’ll be taking a brief look at the next stage of the coaching cycle – how to monitor and observe the staff member while they are practising. This will be our focus in part four of the series.


Simon Cooper is chief executive of the Experiential Learning Centre, author of the exciting new book, Brilliant Leader and architect of the Brilliant Leadership workshops.

The Problem With Delegation

Stop Press - managers and leaders around the world are having problems delegating - it's official!

Apart from the usual excuses such as "it's quicker to do it myself" and "if I want a job done properly I'll do it myself", the current economic climate and the inevitability of downsizing is leading to another challenge "I don't have anyone to delegate to".

As teams shrink to remain lean in tough times, managers and leaders are finding there are less people to delegate to and team members are stretched to their limit. But as you know, this column does not focus on problems, like any good leader should, we seek solutions. So what can you do about today's little delegation dilemma?

Engage your team
Involve your team in the challenge and ask them if they have any ideas or practical measures for improving efficiency. Remember, great ideas can come from anywhere and your team are a great place to start.

Improve Processes
Take time out to review your team's processes to identify where and how they can be made more efficient. The key question you and your team should be asking is "why do we do it this way?". Just because a current process has been working doesn't mean it can't be improved and now is a great time to look for efficiency gains.

Share Knowledge
Are your team still reinventing the wheel? Make sure they are sharing knowledge and best practice, not just amongst themselves but also with other teams. Can any of this shared knowledge be absorbed into standard templates for some of their work?

Automation
Now is a great time to look for opportunities to automate your team's work. Talk to other team leaders. Talk to the IT department. Talk to your team. What can or should be automated and how can we make it happen?

Elimination
Is there anything we are doing as a team that really doesn't need to be done? Perhaps it is a case of partial elimination of some tasks, maybe looking for opportunities in lower impact areas of doing a job that is 'good enough' rather than 'perfect'.

Reviewing what your team does and how it does it with a view to helping them become more efficient will not only improve your options for delegating/allocating work among team members. It will also put your team in a great position to deliver excellent results when growth returns - and growth will return, as sure as daytime follows nightime.


Simon Cooper is chief executive of the Experiential Learning Centre, author of the exciting new book Brilliant Leader and architect of the unique and powerful Brilliant Leadership workshops.