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Engagement, Strengths, Teams
This time last year I was in my office assembling a coat stand. It had been hanging around in its box for weeks after the old one had collapsed under the weight of our wet winter gear. The second floor, normally home to some 80-odd people, was empty bar a few colleagues working by the glow of the festive lights and the soundtrack of crowds of bargain hunters in one of Oxford’s main shopping streets.
It’s oh so quiet… so get creative
I’ve often worked over the festive period, holding the fort while most of my colleagues were off. I’ve never really minded it, either. It’s a period to get things done that have slipped down the list, and to get them done uninterrupted and at your own pace. Any meetings that do happen tend to be interesting, because there is more time to go into detail while a slightly jolly mood does wonders for creativity too.
Apart from mucking out pedestals, digital housekeeping and racing through to do lists, the slow period is also a brilliant one for connecting with a few people around you. Some of those colleagues sitting on their team’s island on their own will be relishing the peace and quiet. Others will feel uncomfortable or frankly bored without the stimulation of others. Both are likely to enjoy a well-timed chat.
… have a natter
I recall a very enlightening one several years ago with a colleague whom I’d worked with for several months. I didn’t understand his very specialist finance role at all well and he always seemed to be on the fringes of our lively team meetings. I simply asked him the question what was on his plate as I handed him a steaming mug of tea and a mince pie. He spent the next 40 minutes taking me through a number of things I had so far understood only the broadest of terms – also because our busy team meetings at the time did not accommodate such an in-depth explanation of his priorities.
This taught me a number of things: first of all, I finally grasped some very important financial aspects of our programme which I should have understood much sooner. Second, I could have asked him months earlier to sit down with me and talk me through it all. Third, my very introverted colleague turned out to be an ace at patiently explaining complex financial issues in layman’s terms, and I wondered about what our team was missing out on. Fourth, our team meetings were clearly in need of an overhaul.
… and reap the results for months to come
My chat with my finance colleague helped me a great deal in my own role over the next year; my new insights proved invaluable on several occasions. I was also able to ask him very specific questions, and he’d be able to cut to the chase in his answers, knowing I had much of the detail already. And I was also able to refer the right kind of questions from other people to him, and make sure people shared information with him which he really needed to know about. Going out and gathering information wasn’t his strong suit, you see. And yes, the team meetings underwent a major revamp, and turned into inclusive sessions where work actually got done and not simply discussed.
Over a mug of tea and a mince pie or two, our uninterrupted, impromptu catch-up turned into a structure both of us used well over the next year and which helped our work a great deal. I reckon the slow days between Christmas and New Year are excellent coat stand assembly time.
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Engagement, Marketing
In a single week in October I received an email asking for feedback on a 2-mile bus journey into town, one from my bank asking asking feedback about the experience of paying in a check at a branch, another about the experience of booking onto a conference, and one about a £100 million commercial development being built 200 yards from my front door.
Which one do you think I spent my time on?
The value of feedback
Feedback can tell us how we are doing: it can tell us which products are going to be best sellers and which ones need development. Feedback can increase profits – personal or commercial. It can help us grow in our roles. We use it to make informed decisions.
Feedback: the word is everywhere.
The ubiquity of feedback notwithstanding, do we truly understand its value and use? For starters, learning to ask for and take feedback is not easy at all. As the examples above show, I want to be asked about things that matter to me, and I’d like to be asked precisely when those things matter to me. Getting that right is an art.
Unfortunately for the Oxford Bus Company I wasn’t overly excited about my uneventful 2-mile trip to the station because I’ve made that journey a thousand times, and could barely remember making it.
The point here is to choose the sample wisely and time the request well, so that the respondent can recall the experience clearly.
Asking for feedback sets expectations
What happens with my feedback once I click send? For me to be motivated to help make things better I need to see the difference my feedback is making. After all, I’m being asked to give some of that most valuable of commodities: my time. Show me the value of feedback, and not just to you, but to me as a customer too.
What will be different if I sent you my feedback?
Delivering on feedback
When supporting change programmes, I spend much time and energy making sure decision makers understand how important it is to ask for feedback at crucial times; to ask the right questions when they do, and above all, show plenty of evidence of where, when and how things changed as a result of getting the input from people.
Evidencing how feedback is making things better is a real motivator for people who are personally invested in the change. For you, this evidence can also help in arguing that you do listen and that everyone has a responsibility in the change process.
A golden rule here is not to ask questions about things you cannot (or will not) change. If feedback simply would not change matters, an entirely different and very honest conversation needs to be had instead.
Being on the receiving end of feedback
Receiving feedback can be synonymous to taking it on the chin. Asking for it means being committed to responding to it, including to comments you consider to be ill-informed or unfair. Other feedback might tap into vulnerabilities you already knew about, but were trying not to face up to. This can be painful, especially if it’s received in a formal way such as an appraisal or 360 degree feedback.
Be prepared for the unexpected and the painful, and perhaps consider when the best time is for you to ask for feedback, if you feel that you’re not in the most robust of mental shapes.
The good stuff
Let’s not forget positive feedback… and the fact that even disgruntled customers can share some constructively, simply because they want to help make things better and consider you to be approachable and receptive.
Finally: you don’t have to take all feedback to heart. You may be developing a product which isn’t actually aimed at the respondent. Or perhaps you received some feedback about your performance knowing it’s about an incident which has since been addressed. A respondent’s taste in logos could simply not match that of an important majority – and that’s OK too.
While feedback is crucial to minimising blind spots and making things better, you’re certainly allowed to exercise judgment. The feedback information you elicited is yours to conscientiously use as you need to.
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Coaching, Emotions, Marketing, Social media
Emotions colour the world as we perceive it, driving our behaviour and shaping decisions we make – we are human, after all. Advertisers and marketers know this, and tap into it to increase sales.
Everybody knows it, and we knowingly buy into it: it’s part of the deal, as it were.
Emotions at work in advertising
Take for example the annual anticipation around the John Lewis Christmas advert (and yes, ‘anticipation’ is an emotion in itself). See what they did there? We haven’t even seen it, and already we’re getting emotional.
Last year’s was about two friends, a bear and a hare, preparing for Christmas cheer and finding love. This year’s is about two fiends, a boy and a penguin, preparing for Christmas cheer and finding love. The whole thing couldn’t be more formulaic if they tried, but it doesn’t matter, because we love a bit of love in our Christmas ads:
The ad, launched a good six weeks before Christmas, helps us get into the mood by appealing to values many of us share, such as family values, friendship and loyalty, and of course, generosity. John Lewis is especially interested in that one.
Emotions at work – at work
The funny thing about emotions is that while we’re all quite happily crowding around Steve’s PC at work to coo over the cute John Lewis penguin, many of us would feel uncomfortable if Steve then opened the team meeting by asking each of us how we feel about our important project being delayed by three months.
Collectively melting over penguins and hares is acceptable because we are taking a break from work and are having a social moment where we let our colleagues into our personal lives for the length of a YouTube video. We feel connected to each other, and this makes us happy. Then we sigh a final ‘aah, that was cute’, shake it all off and switch back into our emotionally detached professional personas. Work, according to many of us, is a purely rational place requiring us to fire on all cognitive cylinders but few of our emotional ones, if possible none.
Coaching and emotions
Of course, the above is black-and-white and most of us will see more nuance than that, if only because emotions are a personal and subjective experience. Perhaps this is more about emotional literacy than anything.
Take for example ‘Fred’, who is a manager in a large non-profit organisation. Last week he remarked that he never knew what to say when a certain colleague asked how he felt about the meeting. Fred had noticed this colleague always asked everyone this question towards the end of meetings, and wondered about it.
When I asked him why the question was a difficult one, he replied that it made him uncomfortable to be invited into the emotive domain at work. Fred’s personal preference was to keep things rational so he knew where things were, and decisions could be made on well-understood arguments that could be reasoned dispassionately. And when I asked him what was important about that to him, he replied:
‘It’s likely to be harmonious that way, and that makes me happy. And above all else, I want to be happy at work, or I’d have to leave’.
As he spoke the very words, a glint appeared in his eyes and a big grin spread across his face.
We spent a good 20 minutes conversing about emotions at work while creating an ’emotive landscape’ on the table using cards. Fred had no trouble whatsoever picking out the emotions he draws on at work and recognises in others, and talked me through the gradations he saw between helpful and obstructive emotions at work. When the landscape was complete, he took a picture on his iPad to show his wife.
Making emotions work
While talking and exploring Fred realised that he is very driven to check his colleagues too are happy at work and feels responsible for making sure they can be, if it is in his power to make a difference. His colleague’s motivation for asking how people feel about the meeting suddenly became much clearer to Fred. He decided to try the approach himself and find out if and how this changes the way he can positively influence his colleagues.
I’m curious and excited to find out how he’s getting on at our next session.
For more about the eMotive Cards I use in my practice, visit www.westwoodcoaching.co.uk
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Coaching, Facilitation
Team coaching and facilitation are closely related disciplines. Are there any real differences between the two, and if so, what is helpful to bear in mind when deciding on one or the other?
A question of definition
The meaning of the term facilitation is often assumed to be understood. A look on the Association of Facilitators site for example leads to excellent content including a Code of Practice, but no definition is given. Elsewhere subject matter experts such as John Heron are quoted to describe the dimensions of facilitation or the styles of facilitation.
This is what I mean by facilitation:
Facilitation is aimed at helping participants to explore and develop with the help of a neutral outsider – the facilitator – who brings a structured approach to the process.
Team coaching is defined by Hawkins and Smith in their excellent book Coaching, Mentoring and Organizational Consultancy as:
“enabling a team to function at more than the sum of its parts, by clarifying its mission and improving its external and internal relationships.”
Team coaching or facilitation?
First let’s deal with the obvious difference: team coaching always concerns a team, whereas facilitation doesn’t necessarily – it can also be a group of people coming together for the purpose of the session alone. Examples are conferences or workshops.
Let’s consider a team to be a collective of people who not only share a common goal, but are co-dependent on each other to achieve it, and (are expected to) behave accordingly.
It’s true that it isn’t clear where team coaching ends and facilitation begins. Let’s start with some similarities:
Team coaching
- takes a structured approach to the session
- may use tools
- works to agreed objectives and desired outcomes
- requires a coach to participate
Facilitation
- takes a structured approach to the session
- may use tools in session
- works to agreed objectives and desired outcomes
- requires a facilitator to participate
The clue is in the role of the outsider guiding the session along: coach and facilitator. Let’s look at those a bit more.
A coach is a professional who is skilled at eliciting helpful and focused conversation with individuals or groups, including teams. Coaches may use different approaches and techniques to stimulate this conversation, including tools which are also used in facilitation. They may work as a one-off with a coachee or group, but usually have a relationship lasting over two or more sessions.
A facilitator is skilled in guiding group processes to allow helpful collaboration, such as meaningful conversations to take place. As with team coaching, sessions are designed and prepared in advance, to allow the effective use of tools and group activities in the available time. It is not uncommon for facilitators to deliver one-off sessions focused on a specific goal or objective.
The difference: frequency, focus and relationships
As the above implies, a key difference between team coaching and facilitation is in the frequency of sessions: team coaching usually involves more than one session.
A second difference is in the the aims of team coaching compared to facilitation: team coaching focuses on the team itself: its effectiveness, the barriers to success, how it functions and where it can use its strengths to maximise performance. It requires a different kind of participation from team members, who will be invited to evaluate their own part in the team’s success in various ways.
Facilitation very often focuses on specific aspects of a team’s role and responsibilities: the annual strategic review; target-setting or planning for the year ahead. Sessions can have a clear theme as well, such as leading change, and fit in seamlessly with a training or development programme.
A third difference is in the nature of the relationship between coach/facilitator and participants. The latter can more easily bring expertise into the session without undermining their relationship with the group, while a coach will try to avoid being seen as the expert so as to remain on an equal footing with the team.
One-off vs ongoing: a caveat
I don’t consider this to be a hard and fast rule, as I have both delivered one-off team coaching and ongoing facilitation. I always try to find out from clients whether the topics they need external support with are of an ongoing or unique or ‘seasonal’ nature. The way I will go about supporting a team will be quite different depending on the answer.
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Coaching, Development, Mentoring
Telemachus and Mentor
It appears that the terms coach and mentor are becoming increasingly interchangeable. Attend any business network and you’ll meet a business coach, who on closer inspection turns out to be a mentor instead. They define their practice by their business experience and work with clients who are specifically interested in benefiting from their industry expertise.
Let me clarify how I distinguish the two in my own practice, so it’s clear where I stand on this.
Mentors…
…are centered on the needs and interests of the mentee, who seeks out the mentor for their expertise and knowledge in a specific area.
The mentor’s role is to convey advice and knowledge, and offer encouragement and support in a safe, confidential manner to the mentee. Conversations are focused on specific questions and can be quite task oriented at times. The relationship can continue over long periods of time, sometimes with long pauses.
Coaches…
…help clients through focused conversations aimed at working with the coachee’s question(s) to achieve an objective they set themselves. The contribution of the coach is to bring deep knowledge of the processes that help and hinder individuals (and groups) get clarity on their objectives and the obstacles to overcome along the way.
Coaches rarely give advice of any kind. In fact, more often than not coaches do not even share the professional background of their coachee. Even so, the coach might suggest some reading or using a tool; this type of guidance is always focused on the process of development itself.
Coaching relationships tend to be time-limited with the number and frequency of sessions decided up front in the majority of cases. This does not mean that coachees never return to their coach for a new series, though!
Does it matter which is which?
Mentors are advisors, who contrary to a consultant, are not going to deliver solutions themselves or implement anything on behalf of the client. It only gets confusing when a prospective client is clear about not needing consultancy but just the advice, and overlooks the option of specifically searching for one or more mentors.
For coaches such as me it can be a little frustrating to see our profession assumed in a way which we do not practise it ourselves, but to be truthful, that situation offers me an opportunity to explain in more detail what it is I do do when I am coaching. And since there are huge differences between coaches and the focus of their practice too, there is a lot to explore with a prospective client anyway.
It matters to understand the differences
Personally, I do wish to explain what makes mentors different from coaches, especially since I am both. But even if I secretly prefer the distinctions to be clear to everyone, being able to explain my practice and finding out what a prospective client is interested in as a result is always a good thing.
What do you think?
