Coaching for Performance
By Sir John Whitmore
John Whitmore’s Coaching for Performance takes the path of attributing the success and growth of an employee, team member, or follower to the leader as well as the individual. His theory of coaching posits that the leader has a role in shaping the outlook of the individual towards their own capabilities and potential. And to successfully coach the individual towards better performance requires the coach to have a much greater optimistic view of the individual’s potential than we generally see. Additionally, the coach must be comfortable at being at an equal level with their coachee.
He poses a convincing point for integrating performance coaching as part of an organization’s standard in lieu of more traditional styles. Though it doesn’t detract from his main points, he subtly places his thumb on the scale when criticizing traditional management approaches, eliciting negative reactions via language that paint the approaches in a bad light. By using words such ‘dictates’ & ‘abdicates’ when discussing traditional methods, John creates a more fragile opponent to knock down for his arguments. The arguments could have been more convincing & shown less self-interest should more neutral words such as ‘directs’ & ‘delegates’ be used.
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John aims to help convert the tired corporate cliches of valuing human resources, and turn them into actionable items via coaching for performance. He highlights that achieving the desired outcomes is important not just for the success of the coaching session, but also for the coachee’s recognition of their success and the reinforcement in self-belief. I think this understanding helps place the importance back onto the coachee instead of an almost KPI-like goal.
He identifies the key elements of coaching as Awareness & Responsibility, both of which go into building a mind geared toward success. With focus on these elements, the coach is not required to have direct knowledge & expertise for the field that they are coaching on, but instead must be able to ask the right questions to prompt reflection, thought & attention on the coachee’s Awareness & Responsibility. The coach should engage with the coachee according to their train of thought, and follow their lead to its endpoint. John covers a variety of techniques to asking effective questions for coaching, while highlighting that questions should be spontaneous to avoid disrupting the flow or damaging the trust in the coaching relationship.
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For the main tool in this book, he introduces the GROW (Goal, Reality, Options, Will) model for coaching, but emphasizes the foundation that makes it coaching is still Awareness & Responsibility, the absence of which will strip all meaning & intent from the model. And while the model is a good methodology to put coaching into practice, the goal for the coach is to embody it so that it becomes a way of being, not a distinct tool for management. This is a great reminder that it is possible to get too concerned with applying the tools that we forget the bigger picture.
The details and practical examples offered by the book provides a great reference point to review & refine my own coaching practice, as well as give insights on how it could be applied naturally to a corporate & business environment where the hierarchies are naturally unbalanced. The book also helped me appreciate the role a leader has in affecting the potential of their team members.
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Reviewed by: Eric Thin