With so much work today being done by fewer people, it is essential that you not only hire the right people, but that you continue to invest in their development.  Managers today need to know how to get the best out of their people, which means that they need to know how to coach.

Within the framework of ‘business’, coaching simply describes a directive process, or set of skills, used to achieve optimum work performance.  As a manager we want and need results from our people.  Coaching helps to eliminate any barriers our people may experience in achieving them.

We often receive push-back, typically from time-stressed managers, on the idea of coaching.  Generally, their argument is that their people receive skills development through training programs.  Their people therefore do not require ‘coaching’ support.  As both a Trainer and a Coach, I certainly don’t want to downplay the potential benefits from a targeted Training Program.  However, it is important that we not only recognize the purpose of Training versus Coaching, but the applicability of each at the various stages of skill development.

The Training classroom model makes a great deal of sense when someone is learning a new skill.  As their proficiency level increases though, so too does their need for more specialized and individualized attention and direction.  Consider the educational model used by most colleges and universities.  As an undergrad, you are just one of many students within the program and the classroom setting.  However, you are simply there learning the basics and foundations of your subject matter.  This can therefore be taught by one person, to many.  This also then supports the economic reality of having ‘many’ to teach at this level.  The developmental model for formalized education therefore looks something like…

• Undergraduate level class           200 students : 1 professor
• Senior level class                             50 students : 1 professor
• Early graduate level class             25 students : 1 professor
• Doctorate level class                      5 students : 1 professor
• Dissertation level                            1 student : 3 professors

There is a strong recognition of the need to provide more personal direction, attention and support as the individual’s skill and proficiency increase.  This is the same need that exists within business.   Sports experts have known this for thousands of years;  that individualized attention from an expert is needed in order to aid people in unlocking their full potential.  As a Manager… that expert is you.

A training program may introduce your employees to new concepts and information.  Solid coaching from a manager will help them apply and utilize those skills.  People, fundamentally, want to contribute and do a good job.  Sometimes, simply helping them to know just what that looks like is all it takes for them to ‘do’ more of it.  The challenge, of course, is that each of your employees is different, with their own unique set of skills, attributes and approaches, which may differ significantly from your own.  Expecting that one Coaching approach or solution would work equally well with each is like expecting the one-size-fits-all shirt to truly fit everyone equally!

Instead, you need to target your coaching efforts to each employee’s specific needs.  Not only might your approach need to shift for each, but sometimes even the type, quantity and order of the information needs to be tailored.  This need not be as confusing or daunting as it sounds though.  The use of a quality tool, such as the Prevue Assessment, can provide you with a tremendous advantage, both in terms of the insights it provides and the time it saves, helping you to readily customize your approach to fit the unique needs of each employee.   Consider for a moment how advantageous it would be to your coaching efforts if you knew…

• When your preferred style is likely to work with an employee, and when it will fall short
• Each employee’s basic, underlying motivations
• Their degree of comfort with change
• The amount of detail they like (and need) to receive in your directions
• Their degree of sensitivity to your feedback
• How dependent they are upon the opinions of others in forming their decisions
• How they prefer to be rewarded
• How task versus people focused they are
• The number of balls they are capable of juggling before beginning to drop them
• The best way to capture their input and ideas
• How much they want and need to be liked by others

This is just a small indication of the wealth of information available to you through the insights that Prevue provides.  Armed with this, it is a much simpler process to tailor your coaching efforts to each employee, ensuring that your coaching is targeted, specific and truly drives results.  Frankly, we don’t enter any coaching process without a Prevue Assessment.  Why would you?

Throughout 2010 we intend to develop Prevue online training modules to help users learn about our products when it’s convenient for them.  We welcome your feed back as the modules are released and in the meantime we would like to share with you what we discovered about the field of e-Learning.

There is a vast body of literature that confirms e-learning has not only seen a phenomenal growth in the past few years, but will continue to transform training and development for today’s profit and non-profit organizations in all sectors.  It isn’t just the promise of impressive technology that is driving people to e-learning.  Rather, organizations have urgent needs to convey rapidly changing information to large numbers of widely dispersed individuals faster, better and more cost effectively than ever before.

What is e-Learning?

E-learning is an innovative approach to distance education in which computer based training (CBT) is transformed by the technologies and methodologies of the World Wide Web, the Internet, and Intranets.  E-Learning presents live content, which can be modified at will, in a structure allowing the self-directed, self-paced instruction in any topic.

What is driving e-Learning?

Learning is a continual process which can take place anywhere and anytime and does not necessarily take place in a scheduled event.  There is a demand for just-in-time training that can be used to train globally distributed workforces.  There is also a growing population of Generation Nexters who are independent, mobile, multi-taskers who engage in self-learning using mediums such as Google and You Tube or other programs of edu-tainment.

Internet is becoming a standard at work and at home.  There is a growing selection of e-learning products and services available to develop media-rich content that can be delivered off better delivery platforms than were previously available.

e-Learning in the Workplace

The article “Building a Case for eLearning” by geo Learning (http://www.e-learningguru.com/wpapers/building_case.pdf ), highlights the key benefits of e-learning:

• The convenience of availability
• Just-in-time training opportunities and accessibility to refresher training
• Cost savings
• Reduced time away from the job
• Centralized knowledge management
• Built in student enrollment and course management through the use of Learning Management Systems (LMS).

Prevue Training Modules:

Training modules will be developed on the following topics:

1. Prevue Online training videos and help materials
2. Psychometric Testing:
   1. Validity
   2. Reliability
   3. Fairness/Discrimination
   4. Personality Tests
3. Understanding Prevue:
   1. Scales
   2. Report Families
   3. Benchmarks
4. Prevue Distributor Training

If you would like to provide feedback on the list above or offer suggestions, please write to info@prevueonline.com.  Please provide your company name, contact details and your authorized Prevue Distributor’s name and email address in your correspondence.

Sharing knowledge is a powerful thing, but making it easily accessible is even more powerful!