Transformation via coaching

Many organisations have already started transforming to go with Malaysia's Economic Transformation Programme, that aims to turn the country into high-income economy for global competitiveness. In our coaching work, we that find most organisations who take this route want two outcomes: an empowered work culture for "self-starting" practices among its people and a thinking workforce that is willing to get out of their comfort zones.

There are many good reasons why organisations take the "coaching" route to support them in their journey to become a transformed organisation.

What is a transformed organisation?

Think of a caterpillar that does not bear any resemblance to a beautiful multicoloured butterfly that it turns out to become at a later stage of its growth. A transformed organisation is something like this too. It is something totally new, with little resemblance to its past. It has a new direction, new philosophy, new core values and new practices, etc.

Why does an organisation want to be transformed?

This is simply because the old ways of doing business no longer bring in the quantum results from this fast-changing or totally different marketplace. More so, when competitors are already transformed and we continue using the old traditional ways. In short, if an organisation does not transform itself to suit the times, it will be sidelined, and even perish.

What prevents organisations from|making dramatic changes to their ways?

Old habits die hard. Most people are very comfortable and laid back in their comfort zones with "this is the way we do things all the while" syndrome. Why take a new route to work when the old route is easier, requires no thinking, no effort and no anxiety etc? The same applies to organisations too. People generally hate change, unless they can see a compelling reason to do so.

Why is coaching the best driver for transformation?

Somehow coaching fits into this dynamics of change and transformation. Coaching essentially is a mind game where it supports people to take on new and fresh perspectives in order to attain better results in accelerated ways. People will attempt new perspectives because they are empowered to find new ways in boosting performance many times over. They begin to realise a continuing "losing battle" with old ways, which get them nowhere. Thus, they are more willing to identify and remove their blind spots that have been hampering them from attaining higher levels of performance.

So how exactly does coaching fit into the organisation's transformational game plan?

Coaching transforms task-oriented technical managers into transformational agents for their organisations. They become deep thinkers, powerful communicators, servant leaders and role models who can lead, inspire and challenge their down-liners to think in new ways of seeing and doing things. In turn, these down-liners who get the full-blown effects of coaching will inevitably do the same for their direct reports. This same chain effect will cascade down to others. With a coaching sustainability programme, the entire landscape of the organisation gets transformed.

At the ground level, how does a coach-manager operate?

Coach-managers are partners to their people. They shed their "command-and-control" style of an expert who "barks" out orders and advice, and replace this with a collaborative style where they elicit views and solutions from their people.

Coach-managers are visionary, holistic people who have their mindsets and behaviours aligned to their big purpose. They constantly challenge the status quo with questions such as: "What is a better way? What else can be done? What is missing?" etc. All in all they are powerful facilitators whose strengths and powers come from their facilitative skills, which can persuasively draw out answers from people and hold them accountable to convert their answers into needed actions.

So what will all this lead to?

When an organisation's core team believes and adopts the coaching way of leading its people, it becomes a thinking organisation with an empowered work environment. Talents grow, people become bolder, innovation takes place and the organisation grows from strength to strength. Like the caterpillar to a butterfly, the organisation will transform itself to become a more powerful force in the marketplace.

Note: Corporate Coach Academy certifies leaders from all backgrounds to become manager-coaches or professional certified coaches in the Asia region. Log in www.corporate-coachacademy.com or contact@corporate-coachacademy.com for details.