April 7, 2009

Letter from the Editor

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Coaching for Talent Development and Employee Engagement, a newsletter devoted to – well – developing and engaging employees.

We’re sending this inaugural issue to all current subscribers of The Key, Entelechy’s flagship newsletter that focuses on employee performance. However, if you want to subscribe to Coaching for Talent Development and Employee Engagement, you must do so by providing your name and email address at http://www.coachyouremployees.com/resources/newsletter.htm.

Why should you sign up for Coaching for TD&EE if you already subscribe to The Key? There are a number of reasons, but here are the top three:

1. Coaching for TD&EE will focus on coaching employees – how managers and supervisors (and those supporting them) can develop and engage their employees. The Key will refocus on general performance and training issues and challenges.

2. Next to the employees themselves, managers and supervisors are the primary determinant of performance – effective managers and supervisors providing direction, support, encouragement, insight, feedback, and discipline can significantly enhance employee performance.

3. It’s free!

Why another newsletter? As readers of The Key you know that Entelechy provides customized training and has always focused on employee performance – designing training that helps employees sell more, manage their time, provide better customer service, set and achieve goals, and train others. Over the past 17 years we’ve bumped into one obvious truth over and over again: managers and supervisors can make or break performance in an organization. Yet, surprisingly, there are relatively few opportunities for managers and supervisors to learn how to develop and engage their employees. Most management training covers leadership, teamwork, and general communication skills. Most management training results in GOOD managers. GREAT managers know the key to significant and sustained performance improvement: employee development and engagement happens one employee at a time in ways that are unique from employee to employee. GREAT managers know who to coach and develop and how to do it effectively and efficiently. GREAT managers know how to engage employees, regardless of their individual traits and characteristics. 

Employees who receive coaching from their managers: 

• Are more productive 

• Are more engaged in their work 

• Contribute more and in more significant ways 

• Advance more quickly 

• Stay with the company longer (reducing turnover) 

Coaching for TD&EE is for managers or managers and supervisors who want to be GREAT. Coaching for TD&EE is also for those who support managers and supervisors in their organizations.

Coaching for TD&EE is NOT about life coaching or executive coaching although you may find some of the techniques here useful. Coaching for TD&EE is about developing and engaging people who report to you either directly or indirectly. 

So, welcome aboard. If you like what you read, tell your friends. If you don’t like what you see, tell me and I’ll accommodate your requests if possible.

Terry

Say Hello to Our New Coaching Website

Coaching for TD&EE is also the name of Entelechy’s new website found at the url www.coachyouremployees.com. We created the website to focus on Entelechy’s coaching and coaching-related training.

The website features our Coaching Solution Packages, three versions of Entelechy’s comprehensive coaching program designed to meet your specific organization’s needs:

Gold Solution (Cultural Change) — designed for the company looking to realize the benefits of implementing a coaching culture throughout the organization.

Silver Solution (Competency Development) — designed for the company looking to develop coaching as a management competency throughout the organization.

Bronze Solution (Skill Enhancement) — designed for the company looking to initiate coaching into the managerial skill set.

We created three versions of the Coaching for TD&EE solution because our clients asked for them. Some clients simply want to enhance the skills of their managers and supervisors (the Bronze Solution), whereas other clients wish to make coaching a key cultural element (Gold Solution). Still other clients wanted something in the middle.

You can review case studies of other organizations that have initiated coaching programs to learn of their challenges and how they used coaching – and Entelechy – to address them. 

We’ll continue adding features and tools that will help you, the manager and supervisor (and those who support them), develop and engage your employees.

Coaching Defined

Coaching – as defined by Entelechy – is a purposeful ongoing one-to-one dialogue between a manager/supervisor coach and employee for the purpose of developing job skills and performance. Coaching is distinguished from:

Coaching is but one skill in a manager’s toolbox. However, it’s one of the tools that is typically underutilized because of the misperception that coaching takes time or that coaching is for every employee.

How do YOU measure up as a coach? Take Entelechy’s Coaching Self-Assessment at http://www.coachyouremployees.com/cgi-bin/self_assessment.cgi to determine where YOU should focus to increase your effectiveness as coach. And see how you compare to other coaches!

For more information on coaching, visit Entelechy’s new website, www.coachyouremployees.com.

Coaching is THE Silver Bullet in Economically Challenging Times

We all know that we’re facing troubling times. All businesses are tightening belts and hunkering down. However, according to Bersin & Associates in their report, TalentWatch: Winter 2009, unlike past downturns, many companies today are restructuring in a strategic way – downsizing or reorganizing with a focus on building new products and services that need to meet the changing market needs. 

Organizations that don’t restructure strategically often institute “across-the-board cost-reductions [that] often result in the loss of top people, reduction in engagement, and a general slowdown in business agility.”

Bersin & Associates have surveyed global talent challenges throughout the world for many years. Throughout the years, they clearly saw that HR leaders viewed gaps in their leadership pipelines as their most critical talent challenges. However, “this quarter, for the first time in more than three years, the focus has shifted. The top talent challenge cited by organizations is the need to rebuild or build a performance-driven culture.”

Of all the roles in an organization – from top executives to employees, and in functions from engineering to sales – Bersin finds that the line managers are least equipped to execute to meet the needs of the organization:

In our own experience, Entelechy has found that the front-line manager is the key to organizational performance. When organizations are restructuring, revising strategy, and generally in a state of chaos, the role of the front-line manager becomes increasingly pivotal – and challenging.

Equipping front-line managers with the skills and tools they need to manage performance – while always important – becomes critical in challenging times. Entelechy’s Coaching for Talent Development and Employee Engagement program provides the critical skills front-line managers need to refocus their employees on performance and to engage them to deliver all-important discretionary effort.

Now is the time to equip your front-line managers with the tools they need to succeed – and help your organization survive today’s economic challenges. Contact Entelechy at 603-424-1237 or info@unlockit.com for more information on Coaching for Talent Development and Employee Engagement and give your managers the tools they need to pull your organization through today’s tumultuous times.