Coaching to Solutions A Manager's Tool Kit for Performance Delivery

The book provides a tool kit for managers tasked with raising performance and sustaining motivation. Organisations are being judged by the way in which they accommodate the needs of the individual in work and life-style terms. In this context, the smart employer will not only be looking to develop policies that retain talent through recognising their work-life issues, they will be equipping their managers to manage that talent in ways which maximise the contribution that individual can make. It places coaching as a performance raising tool and a means of building motivation. Taking a coaching approach prevents the manager wasting energy through going round in circles on the same issues with no outcome. It allows the manager to get closer to understanding what motivates the individual, so that they can better access those motivations. The purpose of this book would be to introduce managers to techniques largely drawn from Brief Therapy (De Shazer & Berg) which can be applied in organisational settings without requiring the manager to act as therapist. Brief Therapy is used in the UK, but primarily by social workers, psychologists and counsellors. It's application to work settings is now growing. The attraction of a Solution Focussed approach to coaching is that it offers pragmatic tools that help managers structure helping conversations. Tools such as: Scaling. Establishing exceptions to internal rules the individual has constructed about the situation. Identifying assumptions Unearthing how they 'do' the problem they keep repeating. Breaking big issues into bite size chunks Giving recognition for what they are succeeding at Focussing on doing one thing differently Recognising the deals the individual has set up for themselves The book presents the principles of solution focussed thinking in a language that is readily understandable by managers, and shows how those principles can be applied to a range of issues which managers may find themselves facing as willing or enforced coaches. The focus is on showing that applying these principles will enable managers to help employees understand their own models for resolving difficulties, so that they can transfer the learning to future situations. The book places coaching as an activity which can be done as part of the daily process of exchange, rather than asking for a long term commitment between one individual and another.Pemberton, Carole is the author of 'Coaching to Solutions A Manager's Tool Kit for Performance Delivery', published 2006 under ISBN 9780750657426 and ISBN 0750657421.