Coaching for Your Managers and Supervisors

Wouldn't it be great if every member of your management team could master all the skills and start practicing all the behaviors of effective managers as a result of attending a management training seminar? Sure it would, but that's just too much too hope for. The seminar will make a difference, but if you want to maximize the effects of the training program, follow it up with a coaching program for your managers and supervisors. Our coaching programs are designed to reinforce the principles, skills, tools and techniques of the training program and give managers the personal help they need to undergo a transformation.

One-On-One Onsite, Telephone and Skype Coaching

A great way to kick off a management coaching program is with an onsite coaching session with each manager and supervisor. This can be done on the day (or days) following the management training seminar. During the initial onsite coaching session, Roger Reece will work with each manager to establish specific management-development goals for coaching. After the initial session, most of the coaching can be done via telephone or Skype.

Coaching for Difficult Managers Difficult managers: you can't live with them and you can't live without them. Some of your most capable and results-oriented managers may be very difficult to work with. So what can you do about it? Breaking Bad Habits Some difficult managers have really poor people skills. They get the job done - but at what expense? They create frustration and hard feelings, and sometimes they even cause employees to leave. You've talked to them many times about their bad habits, but nothing seems to change. Our coaching programs are all about helping managers to break bad habits: behaviors that are negatively affecting the ecology of your organization and may be sabotaging the manager's career. Changing Old Mental Models About How to Manage & Work with People Bad habits and poor people skills are supported by the manager's old mental models about what being a results-oriented manager is all about. Our management coaching programs are designed to fundamentally change the mental models of your difficult managers and give them the tools and process for changing their behavior. Accountability for Behavior Change If you send a difficult manager to a public seminar on people skills, it may just be a waste of time and money, because there is no accountability. Our coaching programs are highly personal, and engage difficult people in a program that holds them accountable for their behavior. Difficult Manager Strategies If you have tried everything to change the behavior of a difficult manager, contact us for a free telephone consultation to discuss a strategy for making a difference through a coaching program with Roger Reece.

The coaching program can be structured so that each manager has a one-hour coaching session at pre-determined intervals, such as monthly or quarterly. If you prefer more flexibility, managers can schedule coaching sessions on an as-needed basis. During the sessions, managers share specific employee problems as well as challenging situations they are dealing with. Roger Reece helps them effectively deal with each situation using skills, tools and techniques they learned in the management training seminar. In addition to specific problems and challenges, Roger helps them in general management skill-building, including - for many - their time management skills.

Coaching Workshops for Small Groups

In addition to one-on-one coaching, we offer coaching workshops for small groups of managers and supervisors. These sessions are very open and personal, and they give participants the opportunity to share problems and challenges that are difficult to discuss in the context of a large group seminar. Roger Reece provides coaching input and helps managers to develop strategies for resolving issues and in dealing with their personal development challenges. Many of our clients schedule two-hour or half-day coaching workshops with small groups of managers on the day after a management training seminar. This provides immediate reinforcement of the skills, tools and techniques.

Coaching as a Management Troubleshooting Resource

If you are trying to solve a problem with a computer or a network of computers, you need a good troubleshooter. If a manager is trying to solve employee problems, a good interpersonal-skills troubleshooter can be an invaluable resource. A telephone or Skype coaching relationship with Roger Reece gives a manager someone to work with in troubleshooting difficult problems with employees, peers or other managers. Managers can get frustrated, and can feel like they have tried everything in working with an employee - to the point where they begin believing their only course of action is terminating that employee. Working with Roger can uncover new, creative avenues and strategies that would have never have occurred to the manager.

Through coaching, managers gain new insights, solve employee problems, learn about themselves, practice new techniques and become more effective managers. Coaching is the on-the-job training that is needed to get the most out of your management training program. Over time, the members of your management team improve their own troubleshooting skills and emerge as exceptional leaders.

Transforming Reactive Behavior

Reactive behavior is the number-one problem affecting management. Managers need to respond to problems, not react to them. Reactions are fast and unpredictable, and lead to problems that are difficult to correct. A manager's reactive behavior can alienate employees; avoidance reactions can allow problems to fester and get worse. Coaching adds a new level of accountability to managing people. In his coaching sessions, Roger Reece helps managers to become aware of their reactions and focus on the outcomes they want to achieve in a situation. From the desired outcomes (the goal), Roger walks managers through the process of developing a strategy and taking action to implement the strategy. The goal-strategy-action process is the manager's "response" to the problem.

Through coaching, managers learn to convert their reactions into responses that achieve desired outcomes. Over time, managers find that they have undergone a transformation that results in new leadership behavior patterns and dramatic outcomes in the development of their team members.

Powerful Tools for Behavioral Change

In the coaching process, Roger Reece utilizes powerful tools that cause managers to rethink their management style and change their behaviors. The combination of excellent management training seminars and management coaching accomplishes results that don't happen by training alone. Roger's coaching techniques have their basis in cognitive behavioral psychology, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and sound management principles.

Much of the effectiveness of coaching lies in the goal-strategy-action process. During a coaching session, the manager relates a current problem. The manager works with Roger Reece to formulate a well-formed goal that will achieve the right outcome to effectively solve the problem. Then they define a well-formed strategy that the manager is committed to carrying out in order to achieve the goal. The strategy may include a coaching session with the employee, following a clearly-defined pattern. After the coaching session, the manager has a clear goal in mind and a clear strategy for achieving it. On the next coaching call, the manager and Roger discuss what happened during the employee coaching session, the employee's responses and the outcomes apparent from the encounter. Over time, this process brings about management-skill mastery and lasting behavioral change in your managers and supervisors.

Transforming Your Managers into Effective Coaches

A major component of our coaching programs is teaching managers and supervisors how to themselves become effective coaches for their teams. Every good manager or supervisor needs to learn, practice and master coaching skills; but most managers simply don't have the tools or the know-how. The best way to learn how to be a good coach is to be coached by one. Roger Reece is a master coach who will teach your managers techniques that work. Typically, managers keep a coaching log, for Roger to monitor their progress and their results in coaching their direct reports. Practice makes perfect, and our coaching programs ensure that your managers are using the tools and practicing the techniques that will will transform them into great coaches.

Coaching is an Investment in the Success of Your Managers

The success of your organization depends on the success of your managers. Every manager has strong skills, but every manager also has blind spots. Our coaching programs are designed to build on the strengths of your managers, and also to hone in on and diminish their blind spots. When managers really see where they can improve, and they are in a coaching program that helps them bring about those improvements, they are on a fast track to greatness.

Every member of your management team can become a great manager, leader and coach. All it takes is an investment in their future (and yours). Contact us for more information about how you can get started with a management coaching program for your team.