To find out more about Performance Coaching with Lightbeam, email Robert Brook, or phone 0115 950 2151.

Often people are so concentrated on battling interferences in their life that they lose sight of their potential, and as a result their performance is below what they are capable of.

Interferences may come in many shapes and forms. Within the workplace employees may not have the appropriate skills or competencies. They may lack self-confidence. They may feel inhibited by other people, or by daunting challenges. A line manager may be willing to help, but doesn’t always have the right experience, or sufficient quality time. Outside the workplace an employee may suffer difficulties which have an impact on workplace performance – for example, poor diet, or lack of exercise, leading to health problems – and

 

yet these are beyond the normal remit of a line manager. For an organisation to achieve sustainable growth it needs excellent products and processes to stay in the ‘game’. To win the ‘game’, however, it needs highly talented employees who are engaged and productive. Products and processes can easily be copied. A highly talented and productive workforce is not so easy to reproduce.

The opportunity for an organisation, therefore, is to exploit the latent potential within each employee, to drive down negativity, to drive up performance, and to increase employee engagement with the organisation.

 

Coaching is an established management technique, which is widely accepted as an excellent way of improving employee performance. It’s about growing an individual so they achieve their full potential. It’s a two-way process which requires a competent and time-free coach on the one hand, and an employee who is receptive to self-improvement on the other.

Typically line managers do a good job of providing feedback to an employee as they notice areas for improvement in their day-to-day interactions. An experienced, independent Business Coach can then provide that something extra which leads an employee to another level of performance - taking them out of their day-to-day job for a short space of time, and giving them time for objective reflection. For example is there too much emphasis on fighting today’s fires; no clear and compelling

 

vision of the future; over or under-confidence in their own abilities; unable to create lasting impact; health problems; relationship issues – the list of possibilities is endless.

Together with a Business Coach, an employee can work through their difficulties, and agree actions to overcome them. They can then explore ways to strike out in new directions to discover how much more they can achieve for themselves and their organisation.

This whole process is very forward-looking and doesn’t dwell on the past. It encourages employees to learn, rather than waiting for others to teach them, and as a result can achieve improvements in performance in a very short space of time.

 

Performance Coaching with Lightbeam aims to improve employee performance through positive choices for change. This leads to higher levels of motivation, and an environment where employees are more aligned with the organisation and more likely to want to stay with it.

The benefits of Performance Coaching can be seen in many ways. For the employee it may mean a healthier lifestyle, better relationships with fellow

employees, a better understanding of their career aspirations and potential, etc - but at the end of the day it's about ensuring the right balance of work and non-work priorities, and happiness and success in both. For the organisation it's about maximising the potential of each employee within a self-learning environment, which requires less management effort spent on resolving problems, and more time spent on improving business performance.

 

Coaching sessions last up to sixty minutes each - these can be face-to-face, or via the phone. In preparation for the first session the employee fills out a wide ranging analysis of different aspects of their life, identifying areas where they would like to bring about a change. These areas for change are then explored jointly in the coaching sessions. Typically there would be one or two weeks between each coaching session, to allow time for significant change to occur. During each session, the employee is encouraged to find their own

 

solutions for improvement, in order to inspire a self-learning approach to change, and to increase commitment to action.

It will normally take a minimum of six sessions for the majority of improvements to be explored, and actions identified and initiated. During this time other courses of action may be recommended, eg a course to improve a skill. Confidentiality is always guaranteed to the employee, no detailed feedback will be provided to their manager, unless agreed in advance.

 

Robert Brook is a Business Performance Coach with over twenty years' experience as a senior manager in a worldwide corporation, coaching individuals from a variety of backgrounds, and in a variety of situations.

In addition Robert has trained as a Life Coach, working with the renowned, international Life Coach, Curly Martin.

Sue Jennings also has many years management experience in a large corporation, with a particular emphasis on understanding the personality differences which can lead to misunderstanding and difficulties. Using the MBTI tool (see our Exploiting Diversity programme) Sue is able to help individuals understand how to improve relationships with others, and make the most out of difference.

Robert and Sue are also business mentors for the Prince's Trust, giving a few hours each month to support the development of young people and their businesses, offering guidance, motivation and support.

More information can be found about their work at www.princes-trust.org.uk.

 

This combination of Coaching experiences makes us uniquely able to explore all aspects of an employee’s performance, and provides a valuable supplement to an organisation’s line management function.

We believe our clients' feedback speaks for itself, on the lasting value of performance coaching. Some testimonials from our clients:

 “It made me look in more detail at my strengths, and at the different ways that I can tackle what I perceived as my areas of concern. It also made me look at my achievements in a different perspective, and how I can manage my own development.”

 “I now have a strategy in place to deal with communicating with senior management. I now assume a management position on ensuring others are delivering to plan – offering guidance where necessary. This programme… has helped me in my adoption of ‘situational leadership’ techniques.”

“It forced me to act on areas of my life that I know I needed to address. Having to justify why I wasn’t able to improve these areas to somebody else, provided the catalyst for me to improve in these areas.”

 “It made me think about things from a different perspective and offered invaluable insight into how to overcome certain challenges in the workplace.”

“I liked the MBTI analysis and personal development programme plan, as it broke down the different parts of my personality and helped me to identify people with different personality traits, to assist me when communication with them.”

And on recommending the programme to others:

 “Definitely. Everybody should at least attend an initial meeting to explore the benefits they may be able to get from the programme”

“Yes absolutely, as an excellent way of self-development”