What's changing in the Workplace?

Organizations are functioning differently. You have only to look at the success of Zappos or Google to see that new models are in place. AmEx and MTV are just two of thousands of companies with in-house coaches. Command and control is a thing of the past. Best practices in leadership continue to evolve and change as the workplace becomes increasingly diverse and complex. Work teams, collaboration and cooperation are becoming the norm. Communication is more open. Facilitating learning and development are more and more often essential management skills. One model for leadership that is gaining favor in many workplaces is a coaching approach.

The link between good management and coaching is not new, but it's growing exponentially. Leader as Coach by David Petersen appeared in 1996. Sir John Whitmore wrote Coaching for Performance in 2002; Robert Hargrove's Masterful Coaching appeared in 2008. Today, there are more than 4,000 books related to management and coaching on Amazon's site, with over 400 published in the last year.

As Susan Scott, author of Fierce Leadership says, managers need a "fast-acting anti-venom to the business-as-usual mode of high task/low relationship, self-serving agendas, directing and telling, anonymous feedback, holding people accountable, excessive use of jargon, and mandating initiatives that cause people to weep on too many fine days."

To me, this means working with managers to develop clean communication and a supportive style that enables everyone to do their best work. There are many frameworks or toolkits out there. I see the IAC Masteries™ as the ideal toolkit to serve that purpose. This is a quote from an article written by Executive Coach Aileen Gibb: "My coach helps me practice new ways of interpreting, accepting, judging, perceiving, responding to and behaving in the world around me." TheMasteries™ facilitate these practices.

Why teach managers the IAC Masteries™as a framework?

Coaching is as much of a mindset as it is a process and related set of skills. As we become more skilled, we think like a coach - we begin to process information differently and to engage in conversations and behave differently based on this coaching mindset.

The IAC Masteries™ provide a framework for both developing a coaching mindset and utilizing specific skills to develop productive workplace relationships. They represent as much a way to think and act as an interrelated set of skills.

"The IAC Coaching Masteries™ provide a framework that directly translates into a style of leadership which organizations need for the future - a style which inspires innovation, collaboration, engagement and true leadership," says Gibb. The Masteries™ are an easy-to-understand set of concepts that any manager can incorporate into their existing skill sets. Despite this apparent simplicity, though, once managers start to incorporate the Masteries™, their lives will never be the same.

What are the Masteries™?

These nine interdependent skills, created in a two-year multi-national process by the International Association of Coaching, have their roots in the Competencies introduced by the International Federation of Coaches and later expanded by Thomas Leonard into fifteen Proficiencies.

The Masteries™ are:

1. Establishing and maintaining a relationship of trust

Ensuring a safe space and supportive relationship for personal growth, discovery and transformation

2. Perceiving and affirming the client's potential

The coach recognizes and helps the client to acknowledge and appreciate his or her strengths and potential.

3. Engaged listening

Give full attention to the words, nuances, and the unspoken meaning of the client's communication; the coach is more deeply aware of the client by listening beyond what the client is able to articulate.

4. Processing in the present

The coach is attentive to the client, processing information at the level of the mind, body, heart and/or spirit, as appropriate. The coach expands the client's awareness of how to experience thoughts and issues on these various levels, when and as appropriate.

5. Expressing

Expressing is the manner in which the coach communicates commitment, direction, intent, and ideas.

6.Clarifying

Reduce/eliminate confusion or uncertainty; increase understanding and the confidence of the client.

7. Helping the client set and keep clear intentions

Keeps the client focused and working towards intended goals.

8. Inviting possibility

Creating an environment that allows ideas, options and opportunities to emerge.

9. Helping the client create and use supportive systems and structures.

Helping the client identify and build the relationships, tools, systems and structures he or she needs to advance and sustain progress

The payoff

Managers who learn to use these Masteries™ separately and collectively can expect a perceptible culture change to one of openness and clear communication. They can expect - and will create - a happier, more cohesive, more productive workforce. Not ready to dive in alone? There are many excellent coaches out there willing to partner with you!