Coaching for Improved

Performance
Checklist 089

Introduction
Coaching has attracted much attention in recent years as a method of developing senior leaders and
executives. Coaching is also a popular tool for developing employee potential and work performance.
Coaching is now seen as a key ingredient in improving employee engagement in organisations.

When used appropriately, coaching can be a cost-effective approach to development, focusing on specific
individuals and their identified development needs. The need to recruit new employees can be reduced by
developing the skills of existing employees. Coaching can also improve motivation, leading to a reduction in
staff turnover. It sends a positive message to employees that the organisation values its staff, and creates a
sense of achievement for both those acting as coaches and those receiving support from a coach. Coaching
is most effective when conducted in an atmosphere of trust and respect.

Coaching is best used as one of a range of learning and training activities. It can be a good way to reinforce
learning and help employees to apply theoretical knowledge-based learning acquired from formal training. It
may be carried out by external, professional coaches but increasingly internal coaches, normally line
managers, are undertaking coaching within organisations.

Those providing coaching will themselves need training, supervision and support. This checklist is designed
for internal coaches, and provides guidance on conducting a coaching session.

Definition
Coaching is a method of helping people to develop their self-awareness and their skills and knowledge to
improve their job performance or personal growth. Coaching may be undertaken informally by managers as
part of their day-today responsibility to develop their team, or under the guidance of a professional coach.
Coaching is about questioning and enabling the individual to identify gaps in their skills or knowledge and to
plan and support them in addressing these through a range of work-based activities. It is essentially non-
directive, with the emphasis on helping the individual being coached to learn, rather than teaching or training
them, and on encouraging them to try things out for themselves.

Coaching differs from mentoring in that it deals with specific tasks and skills that can be mastered and
measured; mentoring focuses on longer-term development or progress within an organisation. A further
distinction between coaching and mentoring is that coaching is usually a line management function, whereas
mentoring is almost always out of the line. (See Related Checklists below)

Coaches need excellent interpersonal skills including:

 a caring, patient and supportive approach

 an awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses
 good verbal and non-verbal communication
 good listening and questioning skills.

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Action checklist
1. Gain support and recognition from the organisation and recognise barriers to coaching

Firstly, gain the support from senior management to ensure that all coaching activity is recognised as being
an important part of the working day. Acknowledgment of additional time and resources is essential if the
coaching activity is to be a success. If the coach feels that the organisation does not give priority to coaching
activities when compared to other tasks, they may postpone, cut short or fail to put their best efforts and
concentration into the coaching sessions. Coaching stands a far better chance of success if the coach is
motivated and focused on the task at hand, and feels that their performance is being monitored, and
supported, by senior managers.

Be aware of barriers to effective coaching: the most common is a lack of acceptance of the role of coach
both by the person undertaking the coaching and by the person being coached. Consider also any relevant
gender or cultural factors and take these into account when deciding where and when the sessions should
take place and how they should be managed.

2. Plan your approach before starting the session

Hold a preliminary meeting with the learner to establish ground rules:

 identify the learning needs which the coaching sessions will aim to address, and agree on priorities
 set learning objectives - these should be clearly set out (for example 'By X date you will be able to
explain/demonstrate how to do Y and Z')
 agree and define success criteria, or task objectives, between the coach and the learner, specifying
the standard against which success will be judged
 review the options and make a detailed plan
 decide on the practicalities - the number and length of sessions to be carried out, location and
preferred times of day
 ensure the person wants, or at least understands the need, to be coached, e.g. for performance
reasons.

It is important to make coaching specific in terms of skills or aspects of work. Open-ended and non-specific
coaching can result in the sessions veering off course and limiting the creativity and potential of the learner.

3. Establish the most appropriate approach to learning

We all learn in different ways. For coaching to be effective, it is essential to understand what will best meet
the needs of the learner. Explore and test a mixture of methods, including watching, listening, thinking,
reading, observing, reflecting or trying things out, to find the approach which gives the best results for your
learners, or the blend of approaches which seems most suitable. To help to identify an individual’s learning
style, the model Honey and Mumford’s Learning Styles could be a useful aid here. In addition, Kolb’s
Learning Cycle can provide insights into how to learn more effectively. (See Related Models below)

4. Identify potential opportunities for coaching

In coaching it can be useful for the learner to try out practical skills in an actual work setting and reflect on
how successful they have been. Consider whether a suitable opportunity for coaching can be identified, and,
taking into consideration the priorities that have been set, arrange a suitable time for the first session.

5. Carry out the coaching session using your chosen coaching model

The most appropriate method of coaching is to invite learners to explain or demonstrate what they actually
do. In the case of a practical task, ask them what happened and why and get them to consider whether there
was an alternative approach they might have tried and whether this might have been more successful.

It is helpful to provide a clear structure for coaching sessions. There are a number of coaching models which
can be used. The OSCAR Model, for example, is an enhancement of the widely used GROW model:

Outcome - help the team member to clarify their outcomes

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Situation- gain clarity around where the team member is right now
Choices and consequences- generating alternative choices and raising awareness of the consequences
Actions- clarify the next steps forward and taking responsibility
Review- ongoing process of review and evaluation

This introduces a choices and consequences component and a review section which is particularly relevant
to managers. The structure includes relevant questions, explores risk and encourages ownership and
responsibility. (See Related models below).

6. Review progress

Help the learner to reflect on what has gone well and where there is room for further development. Any
feedback given by the coach should be honest but sensitive, critical but constructive, and must always focus
on improvements for the future.

7. Plan interim developments

Plan development activities for the learner to undertake between coaching sessions. Coaching should not be
a spoon-feeding process; it is essential for the learner to be sufficiently motivated to develop the skills they
have learned.

Encourage the learner to identify opportunities to practise new skills. Improvement targets for practice
sessions should be agreed before the close of the coaching session.

8. Monitor performance and progress

At the close of each session, discuss and review:

 the learner's success against the criteria and standards for performance agreed at the start
 how well the learner handles the learning process.

Plan the next steps. This may involve more coaching on the current task, if either the task or the learning
objectives have not been met in full or moving on to a further area for development. Devise a checklist as a
means of objectively assessing long-term performance and improvement. Consider:

 including key milestones/dates to be achieved

 recording each coaching session and monthly/quarterly review dates
 gaining feedback from both the learner and their line manager
 making recommendations for next steps in the development cycle.

This provides a means of tracking performance for future reference, and helps to ensure the clarity and
transparency of the whole process.

Managers should avoid:

 making assumptions about the learner’s prior level of knowledge and skill
 confusing coaching with assessment or performance review
 telling the learner what to do, or taking over if they experience difficulties
 enforcing a particular way of doing things.

National Occupational Standards for Management and Leadership

This checklist has relevance to the following standards:
Unit DC2 Support individuals’ learning and development
Unit DC4 Coach individuals
Unit DC5 Help individuals address problems affecting their performance.

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any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior permission of the publisher.
Additional resources
Books

Internal coaching: the inside story, Katharine St John-Brooks,

London: Karmac Books, 2014

How to coach: Coaching yourself and your team to success, Jo Owen,

Harlow: Pearson Education, 2013

Challenging coaching: going beyond traditional coaching to face the facts, John Blakey and Ian Day,
London: Nicholas Brealey, 2012

Coaching and mentoring: a critical text, Simon Western,

London: Sage, 2012

Manager as coach: the new way to get results, Jenny Rogers, Andrew Gilbert and Karen Whittleworth,
Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill, 2012
This book is available as an ebook.

The five-minute coach: improve performance rapidly, Lynne Cooper and Melina Castellino,
Bancyfelin: Crown House, 2012

Leading and coaching teams to success: the secret life of teams, Philip Hayes,
Open University Press, 2011
This book is available as an ebook

Managing coaching at work: developing, managing and sustaining coaching in organizations, Jackie
Keddy and Clive Johnson,
London: Kogan Page, 2011
This book is available as an ebook
nd
Excellence in coaching: the industry guide, 2 ed, Jonathan Passmore, ed,
London: Kogan Page, 2010
This book is available as an ebook

The coaching kaleidoscope: insights from the inside, Manfred Kets de Vries, and others
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010

This is a selection of books available for loan to members from CMI’s library. More information at:
www.managers.org.uk/library

Journal Articles

Making it count, Erik De Haan and Nadine Page

Training Journal, August 2013, pp 66-69

Questions not advice, Alison Hartley

Training Journal, August 2010, pp 68-70

This is a selection of articles available for members to download from CMI’s library. More information at
www.managers.org.uk/library.

Related checklists
Giving feedback as a coach (222)
Giving criticism as a coach (223)
Devising a coaching programme (224)
Mentoring in practice (083)

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any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior permission of the publisher.
Related models
ACHIEVE Coaching Model
CLEAR Model for Coaching
The GROW Model
Heron’s Six Categories of Intervention
Honey and Mumford’s Learning Styles
Kolb’s Learning Cycle
OSCAR Model of Coaching
STEPPPA Model for Coaching

Organisations
Association for Coaching
Golden Cross House, 8 Duncannon Street, London WC2N 4JF
Tel: 0845 653 1050 Web: www.associationforcoaching.com

The International Coach Federation (ICF)

59 Birmingham Road, Lichfield, Staffordshire, WS13 6PG
Tel: 01922 660 088 Web: www.coachfederation.org.uk

European Mentoring and Coaching Council:

PO Box 3154, Marlborough, Wiltshire, SN8 3WD
Tel: 0121 222 8808 Web: www.emccouncil.org

This is one of many checklists available to all CMI members. For more information please contact

t: 01536 204222 e: enquiries@managers.org.uk www.managers.org.uk

Chartered Management Institute

Management House, Cottingham Road, Corby NN17 1TT.

This publication is for general guidance only. The publisher and expert contributors disclaim all liability for
any errors or omissions. You should make appropriate inquiries and seek appropriate advice before making
any business, legal or other decisions. Where legal or regulatory frameworks or references are mentioned
these relate to the UK only.

Revised February 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior permission of the publisher.