Business coaching — need or not?
Should PM be a kind of coach?
Business coaching is turned into making employees better and better. There should be also additive value for whole organization. Coaching isn’t a kind of therapy to fix something. You should remember that you as a coach are on the same level as trained person, you are in very close relation even when you don’t know each other. Coach should believe that there is possibility to improve client too. Business coaching should be aim to improve development of organization. Motivation and self-awareness are one of the most important things to work on. According to research by MetrixGlobal companies from Fortune 500 have about 529% of return in coaching. It means that every 1$ invested in coaching generated 5,29$ of profit.
Through smart questions coach can get direct information from client. It’s even better to ask that state. There are also questions (mostly Why?) that can cause person feeling blamed, but it depends. Coaching should be a kind of smart managed toolbox. Coach using proper tool, which fit to the situation and trained’s personal features. As I noticed there is a lot of vusuality tools. When somebody have to write down someting on the paper or on a board. It cause that you can feel responsibility and connection with writed things.
But how it relates to project management. In my opinion PM with coach’s competences can help during teamwork. Good questions asking may lead to better understanding of problem. Another thing can be encouragement. If you can encourage team to the product, they will develop it even better, they will love it, they will regard it as their. There’re also a lot of other coaching features PM should have, but you should find your the weakest and coach yourself!
Now you can ask why young PM should even become coach? My experience shows that it’s very hard to earn respect. Team is also older that you and you should to manage them. You have to delegate tasks, praise and penalize. Now when you can improve your team, you are a leader, YOU ARE A GOOD LEADER!
