Learn to lead for change
by Alan Sieler, Newsfield Institute (Australia) & Petra Loho, Active Communication (Hong Kong)
In a global economy, a company’s people are their greatest asset and taking the time to focus on employee motivation and employee development will reap great benefits. To achieve this it must start with better people management at its very core, i.e. every individual, every manager!
Coaching contributes to this by offering an opportunity to improve the skills of self-awareness, managing employees and enhancing their performance. Coaching can deliver this by:
- Providing deeper self awareness of “what” and “how” you react and communicate
- Engaging employees’ with their work, making them feel valued and fostering commitment to the organisation
- Promoting self-responsibility and initiative, and facilitating adaptation to new challenges and change
- Accommodating and supporting employees’ obligations to their home lives so that they are productive and effective while they are at work.
By improving the performance of individuals, coaching enables the organisation to achieve superior performance in terms of labour productivity, cost-effective investment in HR, quality and innovation and customer satisfaction.
What is coaching in an executive context?
Coaching is a collaborative solution-focused, results-orientated and systematic process in which the coach facilitates the enhancement of work performance, life experience, self-directed learning and personal growth of the coachee.
Professional coaching is a partnership between a coach and an individual that supports the achievement of results, based on goals set by the individual. Through the process of coaching, individuals focus on the skills and actions needed to successfully produce their personally relevant results.
In essence, coaching has two primary facets. First, it is behaviour and performance focused, which means it is concerned with helping individuals perform tasks to the best of their ability.
Second, it is person-centred, which means that the individuals being coached are seen to have the important insights.
A powerful, professional discipline in coaching
“Ontology” is the study of being and Ontological Coaching is about coaching a way of being, as a means of producing major shifts in perception and behaviour throughout all aspects of an individual’s communication.
An individual’s way of being can be thought of as the internal reality they live in, which especially includes the relationship they have with themselves. It is from this internal reality that we form a reality about the external world and how we participate in it. Way of being is a dynamic interplay between three spheres of human existence – language, emotions and physiology (body posture).
An individual’s performance and effectiveness is shaped by their way of being.
Language
The methodology is based on a new understanding of language and communication developed in the latter part of the twentieth century. The essence of this new understanding is that language consists of listening and speaking and that language is fundamental in creating reality. Language is used to produce outcomes and generate realities. People act from what comprises reality for them.
Effective leadership, management, coaching, and team behaviour depends heavily on how people use language. What is done, and how well it is done, is shaped by how people do and do not use language.
Listening
Included in the methodology is a new interpretation and detailed model of the process of listening.
Listening is an ever-present part of human interaction in the workplace. The model provides a deeper and more effective way of listening that enhances communication and relationships. Listening is regarded as the crucial factor in communication and is essential for establishing trust and rapport. Listening is a core business process.
Research has shown that senior organisational personnel spend much of their time engaged in listening. One important question to be considered is: “Does the listening of organisational personnel facilitate new ideas and change, as well as enhance performance and productivity?”
Speaking
Of course, speaking is also a key business process. The methodology contains six precise linguistic tools (called basic linguistic acts) that humans use in everyday conversations to create reality and get things done. Typically, people are not aware of how they use, and misuse, these linguistic tools. Awareness of how to intentionally use them produces more effective ways of conversing, relating and performing in workplace settings.
The power of stories and narratives
Stories and narratives are often silent, invisible and in the background of everyday conversations. They reflect the deep culture of organisations and can be major barriers to change. They provide powerful contexts of meaning, shaping what people see as possible and not possible for individual, team and organisational improvement. An essential aspect of using this tool is how to uncover narratives that are destructive and in their place develop powerful and empowering narratives.
Moods and emotions
People are always in some mood or emotion. Moods and emotions permeate everything people do, and constitute a core business process.
The methodology contains tools for recognising, managing and shifting moods and emotions. The power of moods and emotions is that they always predispose people towards certain behaviours and not others. Speaking and listening, and engaging in conversations, are indispensable forms of human behaviour. How effectively people speak and listen cannot be separated from moods and emotions.
Unfortunately, moods and emotions have not been seen as a crucial area of learning for performance improvement. They are an integral part of the effective use of language for effective communication in leadership, management, coaching and team building. In short, they form a crucial dimension of morale and organisational performance.
Precise distinctions and tools in the methodology include:
- Distinguishing between moods and emotions.
- Recognising and utilising SIX basic moods of life as a deeper level of emotional intelligence, and how they impact on morale and performance.
- Shifting from negative to positive moods.
- Using moods and emotions to have more effective and influential communication that builds relationships and long-term collaboration.
- Engaging in constructive emotional leadership.
- Physiology and body posture
This would seem to be an unlikely area of attention in the context of organisational performance and improvement. Like moods and emotions, the body has largely been ignored as a key area of learning that impacts on individual and organisational performance. The importance of the body can be expressed in the following way: our way of being is embodied. The body is always present in how people listen to each other and speak with each other. Speaking is not limited to the vocal chords - it occurs from the body. (This is well known for actors and singers.) An individual’s posture consists of the subtle configurations of muscles and skeleton that have been learned throughout life. In many subtle and powerful ways, posture can keep people trapped in negative moods, and negatively impact listening and speaking. Specific tools that are part of this aspect of the methodology are:
- How to use the body to get into more constructive and productive mood
- How small shifts in body posture can generate a more positive outlook and produce more effective communication.
Benefits of ontological coaching
Organisations and individuals who engage in a coaching relationship can expect to experience fresh perspectives on personal challenges and opportunities, enhanced thinking and decision-making skills, improved interpersonal effectiveness, and increased confidence in carrying out their chosen work or life roles.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
