THE MOST significant skill people gain from executive coaching is the ability to conduct effective workplace conversations, such as giving feedback to colleagues and staff, brainstorming for innovation and conducting candid conversations around performance and engagement
THE MOST significant skill people gain from executive coaching is the ability to conduct effective workplace conversations, such as giving feedback to colleagues and staff, brainstorming for innovation and conducting candid conversations around performance and engagement.
Recent research commissioned by the Institute of Executive Coaching Australia has found the importance of effective communication in the workplace is misunderstood.
“We have learnt from necessity to squeeze our messages into a quick email, a two paragraph executive summary, or a fifteen second sound bite,”said Hilary Armstrong, director of research and training at the Institute of Executive Coaching.
“Along the way we have lost the ability to engage in purposeful, and therefore effective, conversations. Conversational behaviours and the values underpinning them shape organisational culture and in times of crisis the culture of an organisation drives individual behaviour,” she said.
Improving a manager’s skills in relation to conversation practices appropriate to different situations, such as role expectations, coaching, confronting conversations, debriefing, development planning and retrenchment, is one thing that makes a major and immediate impact on engagement and performance, according to Armstrong.
“And we are talking here of a manager’s performance, as well as the performance of teams both individually and at the team level itself. When people feel the confidence that comes from the free flow of meaning in the workplace, then they can say the things that need to be said and maintain relationships,” she said.
“If, however, there is a control structure or an undermining structure where the meaning flows only one way or is blocked and sent underground, then engagement and performance are likely to be low.”
A 2005 UK study of employee engagement showed the most motivating form of communication is team meetings (almost 80 per cent), followed by leaders who wander around and have conversations with employees (72 per cent).
Face-to-face conversations are the favoured medium because of the opportunity to share and debate ideas and build a sense of teamwork. Where conversation does not exist, 80 per cent of all employees are demotivated and more likely to leave.
