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Issue 30
trends in automation
Compass
22
–
23
similar goods and services cheaper. We
had to become a consultative sales
organisation and this required a total shift
in the culture, attitude and behaviour of
our sales team.
To do that, the sales team needed to
experience coaching first hand. Coaching
is not something that can be learnt by
reading books. It cannot be taught
standing up in front of a classroom. There
is no definitive manual about how to be a
great coach, although there’s plenty of
inspiration about how to refine your
coaching practice.
We also have to recognise that coaching
does not come naturally to most people,
especially those who are new to a
management position. Here the overriding
urge is to fix things, to tell people what to
do, to continue to be the technical expert,
to have all the answers.
Instead of bandying around the coaching
word we need to break it down into its
component parts. At Festo we link
coaching to leadership, communication,
team working, tolerance, role model,
leadership motivation and employee
development. Coaching is a required
competency of every leader. Perhaps it’s
because we are a firm of engineers, that
our people have to understand the
process. They’ve got to see the benefit to
help realise their own potential as
coaches.
Know who you are
Every coaching interaction is different and
indeed every coach is different. To be an
effective coach you have to recognise and
understand who you are and how you
engage most effectively with your team.
Self-reflection helps individuals recognise
that to be effective as coaches they must
also ‘live’ the coaching culture.
Leadership
Positive
Culture
Coaching
Management
Inspire
Guide
Reinforce
Engage
Empathy
Redirection
Success
Motivate
Effective
Plan
Follow-up
Sustained
Mentor
Help
Recognise
Reward
Coach
Support
Performance
Consultative
Personality
Review
Attitude
Ask
Listen
Redirect