How to Find a Business Coach
Traditionally, when choosing a training provider for training, most HR managers go two ways. The first way, which seems to me most successful is that training managers ask their more competent colleagues to recommend a company provider, based on the successful experience of joint work. The second way is the training Manager organizes the tender, which choose the best company by the criteria “price”, “experience” and “quality”.
If a choice based on pricing, is not normally difficulty, the clarification of the experience and quality of work training company able to puzzle even the most experienced training Manager. In this regard, I will try to give some recommendations to training managers who. Hopefully will allow for a more critical approach to assessing the quality of the training providers.
Ask questions that will allow you to see whether representatives of the training company the specifics of your industry. When choosing a training company, the training Manager is always important to check trainers and consultants on understanding of the business conducted by the company or the specifics of the work that participants do. Make sure you speak the same language already then to agree on concepts and set learning goals.
Mentally imagine a coach as an employee of your company. You need to protect yourself from mistakes. One of the ways insurance is to figure out what will happen here if this particular coach to put in place of one of the managers of the company. Would it be good? Will he find a common language with the staff? Will they listen to him? Clarify the degree of responsibility that is willing to take on a business coach. Training provider only brings learning, and in order to make it all work, should be involved and all the rest: motivation, organization of work, the way people interacts with the user, etc. the Task of the coach is to provide the participants with information. Any coach who promises to deliver skill for 2-days training is disingenuous. It does not happen! In order for a skill has been. Formed, you need much more time. And it is only in the case that the participants will have the opportunity to use this skill in their practice.
Ask whether the business coach of his own technology
Business training and adult learning is impossible without two things: first, an honest story of a coach about their experience in dealing with such situations and, secondly, a variety of technologies. If not or there is one thing, training is no different from kitchen conversations. Please note the education and experience business coach. At one time in business training people rushed from personal growth and psychology. It immediately flooded the market by borrowing from the psychological groups. These people are. Called business group “T-groups,” talked about the need to respect the rules here and now, gladly walked away from the business content in the discussion of the personal problems of the participants and almost tried to solve them. A good business coach will adhere to the position: “the participants who come to me for business training, have personal problems”. It will not diagnose and output members in other genres of type “work through themselves or their emotions”, “stay with it”, “over the years you will understand” or “accept yourself and the other.” Business requires technology and support the business paradigm, and “elaboration” you need to recommend elsewhere.
Ask the coach to meet with you briefly to talk about his training
That says that coach lived a certain training topic, and not invented. Such a coach can in your own words, no looking at slides or notebook, for three minutes to explain the essence of the training, which he says for 2 days.
Ask the proposed business coach methodology
Remember your last visited business training. Rather, its methodological diversity was not very rich. For example, traditional introduction of participants. No matter who the participants are – all-female group, a group of men category “former military”, serious managers with an MBA or a group familiar with each other fun and relaxing professionals, the vast majority of business coaches strongly suggests a) remember your childhood nickname or b) talk about your strong as starting on the first letter of own name. Two years ago for these purposes were still empty circle of absurd child’s toy, they say, carry a stuffed rabbit and tell. I think that a good business coach will always offer their own development of games, warm-ups’, team discussions, case studies, business jobs, which will take into account the company’s corporate culture, current situation, assigned task, features of the participants.
After the “pilot” training, try to weigh the information coming to you from the participants and post-training reporting:
Stay on top of details. Negative feedback from the participants is not always possible to understand what happened at the training. Look at any post-training report. It is written: “coach told me not very clear”, “I want the coach brought more” or “show more movies”. It may seem that the coach’s potboiler, though this is often a problem an individual member. For example, he was absent the entire second day of the training or constantly out in the hallway to the phone to talk with subordinates and aims to put them. There are times when the feedback form the participants to write in the spirit of “it would be nice if there was another topic so-and-so and so-and-so”. Most coaches receiving such feedback, incredibly proud of – still, the participants saw that the coach might disclose the topic. In fact, it means only one thing: the coach was so impressed with his work at the flip chart; he did not even feel the interest of the group left. Coach theme was “delicious”, and the group missed you.
Consider that the person in training can show itself not as it manifests itself in the workplace and Vice versa. Moreover, some participants understand that after the training the coach about something ask, so begin to “play the role”. Man begins to show mad activity, asks, comments, assents. Funny may happen: the coach will tell you what your current and potential hero, and the customer Screven: that is one of the worst people in our team.
If the reviews are negative, try with a business coach to understand the possible causes. For example, in one company we worked a couple of years ago for training came three head, sat separately, absorbed in his paper and vaguely listened to what is happening in the group. It was like working meeting of members of the Communist party. It is not trying to coach to let the leaders in the group or put them out the door, nothing happened. The training was horrible: participants were desperately trying to demonstrate something, not raising his eyes from the papers, heads of anger clinked languages, listening to their mistakes, the conversation was not. Glued, because everyone was afraid to say too much. Subsequently, examining the situation with the training Manager, we agreed that this situation will not be repeated – and the quality of education increased.
Communicating with colleagues, I often see a very common problem when the coach as a hired employee tries more to please the owner of a training company in which, not to make a quality product for the client. The coach thinks: “I must appeal to participants, they should give good reviews”. I think a true professional should always act in the interests of the client, not his boss. Choose such professionals is a strong, independent, ready to tell you the truth, defend your interests, to invest themselves in the development of your staff – and in this case, your business will receive strong support.