The Rural Exchange, The Rural Institute: Center for Excellence in Disability Education, Research, and Service, Volume 14, Number 2, 2002
Note: Some of the projects and activies described in this docucment are no longer active so contacts and project opportunities may no longer be accurate.
Independent Living
Put Me In Coach, I'm Ready to Play
If You Can't Lick 'Em, Join 'Em
Tips from the Field
Geographical Diversity
Leadership Mentoring for CILs: RILLMI
Put Me in Coach, I'm Ready to Play: Mentoring for Rehabilitation Leaders
By Cary Griffin at The Rural Institute
Why on earth does Tiger Woods have a coach? Woods is perhaps the greatest living golfer, having achieved more in his young life than most professional golfers accomplish in a lifetime. What Tiger Woods knows is what so many leaders and career-trackers know: advice and support from an experienced coach, or mentor, are powerful tools for improvement.
The Industrial Society reports in a 1999 study that over 80% of 300 companies surveyed found that coaching and mentoring improved their employee performance and profitability. Coaching, (which by definition focuses on achieving specific goals) and mentoring (which focuses on open and evolving issues) are closely related activities, and for the purposes of this short article are considered synonymous. HR Quarterly reports that business and executive coaching are the most effective tools leaders have for achieving sustainable growth, change, and the development of quality staff, teams, and organizations.
Many of us use coaches, and quite a few of us provide coaching to others, as we grow to understand the importance of that role. I learn as much as I teach from several people I mentor. My long-term mentor works in the rarified air of a multi-national corporation, but he knows leadership and complexity, and offers regular down-to-earth advice and counsel. I use him regularly as a sounding board and external conscience. I have many friends and colleagues as well, whom I rely on for guidance and decision-making. I have always found that my personal and professional network is a priceless resource that sustains me when hard decisions have to be made.
I am always shocked to find how few upper-level managers and executive directors in our field have mentors. Through numerous conversations I have learned that many of us work in isolation; we guard our indecision and confusion about complex problems; or we rely on our peers for guidance. Of course, our peers are often just as sheltered from support. Such isolation leads to routine, and often bad, decision-making; status quo preservation; restrained risk-taking; and internal focus instead of community building. The challenges that now face the rehabilitation field are enormous and we all need assistance and thought-provoking guidance from smart people.
There are many places to look for a coach. There are professional coaches: my friend and colleague Katherine Carol at Tango Consulting (www.tangoconsulting.org) is one of the best. There are Service Corps of Retired Executive (SCORE) (www.score.org) members who can fit this role. There are friends and family, your banker, local entrepreneurs, and politicians. People love to give advice, so look for people who make tough and successful decisions in their lives and ask if they might help you.
Still not convinced? Here are a few more reasons to find a mentor
or coach:
- A supportive coaching relationship makes it more likely that you will be supportive of others in return. Ever struggle with staff retention? Coaching on your part, and throughout an organization, can create a welcoming environment that increases staff stability and improves morale.
- Coaching increases your political savvy; it teaches you to slow down and consider the consequences of your actions; it improves your negotiation and problem-solving skills by offering you a confidential environment for exploring problems and solutions.
- Coaching improves your communication skills through the repeated exercise of explaining difficult information to an outsider.
- Coaching improves your conflict management skills because good mentors will question your motivation for action (revenge, punishment, power politics) and will offer advice on anxious situations. Sometimes the simple act of talking with your coach buys you time and lets the situation cool down.
- Coaching forces you to confront your motivations and beliefs, thereby forcing you to check your integrity and honesty.
- Coaching illustrates to others who look up to you that asking for guidance and advice is a superior way of managing; it builds team work and collegiality and helps destroy class warfare in organizations.
- Coaching broadens your vision and compels smart strategy. Getting advice and counsel forces you to look at other perspectives and approaches to similar challenges.
Coaching supports experimentation, adventure, innovation, and making the hard choices that your peers in the field may not be brave enough to make. Coaching and mentoring are not, of course, the solutions to all the problems and challenges that befall leaders. They are, however, wonderfully liberating approaches to sharing the pain and pleasure that management responsibility brings.
If you Can't Lick 'em, Join 'em: Thoughts on the Recruitment and Retention of Quality Employees
By Bob Niemiec, Director of Training, Kaposia, Inc.
Last year, my co-worker, Jon Alexander, and I wrote a series of articles for the Association for Persons in Supported Employment (APSE) newsletter, The Advance, discussing recruitment and retention of quality staff. We talked about the experiences of Kaposia, inc. where we are employed. The articles listed a variety of steps we took to attract new employees and keep experienced employees. We discussed how this was a total effort by the entire organization to take a critical look at ourselves and make the necessary changes to improve our effectiveness when it came to hiring, training, and retraining good people. This article will touch on some of what we learned, the steps we took, and how it's turned out so far.
The Issue at Hand
The first step in the process was to realize that we were fighting a national trend in employment. I have read labor reports that indicate the average American changes jobs every 2-3 years. Human service organizations have been mired in turnover for as long as I have been in the field (over 20 years). So we needed to embrace the fact that people were going to come and go in our field more than they would stay. If we could have a positive influence on people that would encourage them to remain in the field or perhaps choose this as a career, we would be ahead of the game. To that effect, we examined whom we were recruiting, how we trained them, and what we could do to keep them around.
A Group Effort
Kaposia uses teams to identify an issue or problem, study the situation, and make recommendations to improve the process or solve the problem. In the case of our employment situation, the team was called "The Recruitment, Training, and Retention Group" or RTR for short.
Problem solving can be a frustrating experience if you don't really know the problem you are trying to solve. The first order of business for the RTR was to define or state the problem. In our case, we defined our issue as a lack of skilled, trained applicants for open positions at Kaposia. Along with stating the problem, we also recognized three core areas that needed our attention. Those areas were:
- Individual Issues (qualifications, personality [essence], and a willingness to work);
- Leadership Issues (management and supervision = mentoring and training) and;
- Organizational Issues (structure, functions, etc.).
The RTR discussed Kaposia and our culture. What made us different from other organizations? What would make someone want to work for Kaposia? We looked at ways to change the job. What is the best way to get what we need to get done accomplished? Finally, we identified the characteristics we wanted from an employee. Those characteristics include:
- Reliability (comes to work everyday and on time);
- Positive Interactions (working well with the people we support as well as with other staff employees) and;
- Good Customer Service (communication, attention to detail, etc.).
From the discussions the RTR began exploring the issues and took tangible steps to solve our employment needs.
Contract Employees
At one time, Kaposia had 22 open positions. In order to get the work done, and to continue to provide quality services to the people we support, we had to rely on contract employees (commonly referred to as "temps") to fill our staffing needs. Kaposia took positive action to assure that temporary employees were performing as well as regular Kaposia employees. The first step was changing our language. We made a concerted effort to remind our regular employees that contract employees are Kaposia employees. The only difference was that someone else was paying the contract employees.
We made efforts to include contract employees in team and company meetings. We included them in our regular training sessions and other company functions. This was a commitment by Kaposia because it meant we were paying them to be at these functions and events. The common practice is to send contract employees home when the service day is over and support to people is no longer required.
Our commitment was to assure that contract employees received the same training and attention as those employees paid by Kaposia. We also committed to funding training provided to contract employees in medication administration and other specific skills. The result was that performance improved, contract employees and regular Kaposia employees had a better understanding of one another, and some contract employees joined Kaposia as regular employees paid by us.
Recruitment
Recruiting new employees was becoming an ongoing and constant fact of life. Kaposia used the traditional methods to attract new employees. What we discovered was that our return on investment just wasn't paying off.
We made a decision to stop placing newspaper ads and explore alternative ways to recruit. Kaposia had been in the process of developing a web page about our company. We devoted a link on the web page to employment announcements and contact information. That strategy paid off in that we received several inquiries and a few actual hires. We continue to get inquiries through this path today.
Another strategy we used was personal referrals. Kaposia offered to pay a bonus to employees who referred someone to apply for employment that was hired and stayed employed. Again, this strategy paid off as we did acquire new employees and current Kaposia employees who made the referrals were a few dollars richer for it.
The RTR believed we needed a way to show a prospective employee our company. We wanted to shorten the interviewing and hiring process. To that effect, the RTR recommended that we produce a short video about Kaposia. The video would feature different people supported by Kaposia that were doing a variety of things. This way, a prospective employee could get the flavor
of the array of services and people we support in order to make an informed choice about accepting an employment offer from us. One of our senior employees has used the video to make a CD ROM version complete with music and titles.
Training and Orientation
When our need was high, we just couldn't help ourselves from throwing new employees into the field right now. We fell victim to letting our urgency outweigh our better judgment. The RTR spawned another team to deal with the orientation process. Prior to this team being formed, we would hire a new employee, start them on a Monday, and begin the process of overloading them with information.
We would do mandatory policy training like the Minnesota Vulnerable Adult (VA) Act. In other words, we would get someone on board, then we bored them with a lot of policy stuff, isolated them, and then scare them with the VA Act letting them know how they can go to jail if they're not careful. We needed a change.
We honored no sacred cows, and came up with a totally revamped orientation process. One of the principles in the new orientation process was that we would limit the amount of time a person spent alone. We made sure the team coordinators were actively involved in meeting, introducing, and training their new member. We instituted shadowing, whereby the new employees would spend time with other, valued employees from across the entire company. Kaposia is a team-based organization scattered throughout the Twin Cities, so it is difficult to get a true picture of who we are both as a company and as individuals. A new employee would shadow someone from every service team and the team coordinator of the team would be the person who arranged the shadow experience. The team coordinator would also meet the new employee, escort and introduce him/her to the employee who would be shadowed. Also within the first week the new employee would meet each director and everyone who is in a support role or works at the main office. It was important to make sure the new employee felt like a part of our company within the first few days of employment with us.
The orientation team made a distinction between orientation and training. Orientation was more about becoming one of us and training would be about learning how to do what we do. Training comes to employees at Kaposia via many formats and styles. A principle of the newly revamped orientation process was "just in time" training. The idea is that a new employee would learn how to do something when it needed to be done. We discovered that in the old way, we overloaded people with a lot of processes and procedures only to learn that they weren't retaining the information. The "just in time method" allowed an experienced Kaposia employee to coach the new employee in much the same way as we do with supported employees. We wanted to be sure people knew how to do things before we "cut them loose." In most cases the new employee spends two weeks in the orientation process before they actually begin to perform their jobs on their own.
Mentoring and coaching became a cornerstone of "just in time" training. Mentoring and coaching also addressed the fact that not everyone learns the same way in the same amount of time. We began to recruit and train mentors who could show new employees what it meant to be a Kaposia employee.
Kaposia mentors and coaches are carefully selected and trained. A new employee is assigned a mentor prior to their start date, and introduced on the first or second day of employment. They may continue the mentor relationship as long as necessary.
Organizational Issues
Changing recruiting practices, developing new tools, revamping the orientation process, and the other steps we took would not be effective unless we also made some organizational changes. Along with changing some structural issues we needed to overhaul some of our most beloved practices and procedures. We needed to review how people were managed. W. Edwards Demming believed that over 85% of performance problems were the result of the structure while less than 15% were caused by people. In other words, the structure and organization in which people are expected to perform cause most of the problems. Kaposia committed to finding the parts of our structure that prevented peak performance, and changing them.
The Bottom Line
Despite our best efforts, creative approaches, and determination, we still experience turnover. What organizations like ours need to realize is that we all exist in volatile employment times. Turnover is a fact of employment. People are mobile and regularly move between jobs.
It is doubtful we will completely solve the employment issues
in our field. Money isn't the answer. Degrees and certifications
aren't. Completely changing the way we do business won't solve
it. We must come to grips with the employment facts of life. Embrace
the idea that people are mobile. Get the best from them while they
are here. Maybe a few will be struck with the passion and stay
for a long time. Others will leave because it's just their time
to go. If we can make positive changes, treat employees well, and
understand that fluid employment is going to be here for a while,
we can continue to provide quality service to our customers.
Effective Rural Outreach: Tips from the Field
by Linda Gonzales of The Association for Programs in Rural Independent Living(APRIL)
After spending two decades in the independent living field, I can say without hesitation, I have put my time in on the roads of rural America, primarily in the northern reaches of New Mexico. However, by comparison with today, my days of doing rural outreach were prehistoric. It was pre-ADA, pre-cellular phones, pre-distance learning and satellite hook-ups, pre-e-mail and Internet. It was a simpler time in the mid 1980s. We rode circuit, much like the circuit judges and preachers of the Old West. One trip took us up the western slope of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains as far as the Colorado border. The other route saw us crossing the flat plains of eastern New Mexico, to the Texas state line. We traveled in pairs on those long three-day excursions and we packed our schedule with both day and evening events. We visited individual consumers, conducted support groups, held informational or disability awareness workshops, met with local citizen action groups, or trained a new crop of peer counselors.
We'd meet folks in local libraries, senior citizen centers, city halls, and churches. Over and over, wherever we went, we showed a ten-minute 16 mm film on our noisy reel-to-reel projector. It was an upbeat disability awareness film titled "It's a New Day" and I never grew tired of it. There was no narration, only a song written and sung by Danny Deardorff about not feeling lonely and running horses and freedom. The music was a backdrop for a showcase of all the latest adaptive equipment and new devices designed to help people with disabilities integrate into the community. From a gal ordering from a Braille menu at McDonald's, to a physician whose wheelchair lifted him to standing height to view x-rays on a screen, it was action-packed, nonstop awareness—a great icebreaker.
We braved blizzards on mountain roads, sunk our car wheels into a foot of mud on a pueblo, ate fry bread and calavacitas with local families, and were privy to some of the most breathtaking landscape on earth.
As years passed and I moved into the director position of my Center for Independent Living (CIL), it always seemed that getting staff out of the office and on the road was a constant struggle. But we did it. We trained peer counselors, wrote employment grants to vocational rehabilitation to help find people jobs, worked with a church to get funding for a lift-equipped van. We even opened satellite offices for a time in Taos and Raton.
I know about rural outreach from experience and the following tips are from others like myself. They're not researchers or consultants—but they are the experts. And there are many more like them, experts at rural outreach who don't necessarily think they are doing anything special. This information is not intend to be all-inclusive, nor is it gathered by any other means than word-of mouth. These are the folks who responded with their ideas to share…from the field. If this information inspires you to want to contribute your input, I invite you to join APRIL's rural independent leadership mentoring list serve at leadershipil@ruralinstitute.umt.edu.
Tips from the Field
Evelyn Tileston
Independent Life Center, Inc., Craig, Colorado
- Hire and train culturally appropriate people.
- Build a relationship with members of the group you want to served prior to offering to provide the services.
- Ask consumers to help you. They may have extensive contacts.
- Show local governmental leaders how you are bringing money into their area.
- Appear at and participate in local functions, always with one or more consumers. Show— don't tell.
- When you need something done locally, find a way to get people involved through them giving you something that they do not need and you do need or have a use for, such as old eye glasses, hearing aids, printer cartridges, etc. Be sure to show how these items fit into the bigger picture and how important they are to you.
- Always write notes of appreciation or thanks.
Rae Mathis
LIFE, Ripley, Mississippi
I proposed to the mayor he start a Mayor's Council on Disability. We would work on ADA compliance, be a clearinghouse on available resources, information and referral, etc. The mayor went for it. (Good thing it is an election year!) Anyway, maybe it would be helpful if each community would propose this to their various mayors and boards of supervisors. It would certainly get the word out and help with public education. Oh, and by the way, the mayor liked it so much that he told me since it was such a good idea, that I could put the council together. Big task, but lots of good experience.
Sandi Meehan
Ogden, Utah
These are some basic ideas, but they worked for me both in Texas/Arkansas and in Hawaii where I did outreach. First, I educated myself about the culture/ethnic background of the people I was serving. Hawaii had a lot of different cultures, but I took the time to get a basic understanding about things such as a male or female-dominated societies and what the roles were. I learned the difference between Chinese, Japanese Samoan, Philippino, and Vietnamese. In order to help Samoans with disabilities, for example, I needed to go through the community leader or chief.
In Texas/Arkansas one of my job duties was to educate law enforcement officers about domestic violence. I rode with them, I ate with them, I even went to their club shooting gallery, and I learned their perspective. Slowly I introduced the concept of a shelter for victims of domestic violence.
I never dressed above any of the people I served. I wore jeans in Texas/Arkansas and ratted my hair and looked like all of the other women in Texas who had big hair. I wore muumuus in Hawaii when appropriate. I dressed with clothing that had sleeves and went below my knees when I worked in and around the Mormon ladies because it was respectful. I sampled food that was placed in front of me because it was respectful. (I refused to eat chicken feet or anything that wasn't dead yet). The point is, my programs were successful because I took the time and effort to understand the people I was there to help. I needed to be creditable before I was accepted.
My program in Hawaii was supposed to peak after three years because I was supposed to have reached a saturation point. This is year-seven and the numbers continue to grow. My predecessors have followed my lead and now serve Guam and Saipan in addition to Hawaii. They have taken their time to understand and slowly introduce themselves into the community.
John Cleech
CIL of Grand Island, Nebraska
When I do outreach in rural Nebraska, I try to respect the people from the area. For example, in many ranch and farm areas, wearing a suit undermines trust. When I visit small communities, I wear jeans and other casual wear. As a person who was raised on a farm, I know that talking knowledgeably about agricultural business gets a foot in the door. I watch the farm markets closely, and I am not afraid to walk in mud (which sometimes one has to do). So I always gain people's trust by talking about things that concern them, and they know I understand their culture and living situation. People in rural Nebraska are self-reliant and proud, so reaching out for help is a difficult process for them. Once they trust you and feel that you genuine, they are open to a lot situations.
Mary Holloway
Resource Center for Independent Living, Osage City, Kansas
Ten Secrets of Success for a
Rural Independent Living Center
- Become involved in local politics.
- Have employees who live in the area where they work (not who drive out from urban area).
- Drive a vehicle that can't get stuck in the mud, can tow another vehicle, and cross over large boulders without needing repairs.
- Transportation is everyone's problem. Be a solution when you can.
- Learn who the "big fish in the pond" are. They are important to befriend.
- It is OK to complain to other rural folks about rural life, but never OK to complain to anyone else.
- Be more of a value to the community you serve than a drain on its resources.
- Invite the community to your home. They probably have the key anyway.
- Remember that people in the community want the best for everyone. Help them achieve that goal.
- The members of the community will attend your funeral; only you have the power to decide if they cheer or cry at the event.
Geographical Diversity
by John Nousaine at North Country Independent Living Center
North Country Independent Living Center (ILC) serves eight rural counties in northwest Wisconsin. Centers for Independent Living (CILs) with rural service have unique challenges in serving large isolated service areas. In order to insure the entire service area receives a reasonable level of service, North Country developed the concept of "geographical diversity." It is basically a commitment to the entire service area expressed in operational procedures and activities. True geographical diversity is expensive—our travel budget is extraordinary; we spend at least $5,000 per staff position on travel. The following examples were cited as best practices.
Board
North Country has a consumer-controlled board of nine. There is at least one board member from each county in the service area. Part of the role of the members is to insure "their" county is getting adequate service. Having board members from a diverse area limits the amount of time the board can meet, so we have quarterly meetings. The meetings are held in different communities throughout the service area. Typically the board also meets two to three additional times via telephone conference.
Staff/Operations
North Country uses the generalist model of service delivery; all staff provide all services in all parts of the service area. We travel a lot—just call us Road Warriors. Transportation is the major barrier in our service area, so we need to go to our customers because, for the most part, they can't come to us. Cell phones have become an essential part of our operations.
Offices
The main office is located in Superior, Wisconsin in the northwest corner of the service area. Eight staff work out of this office. A branch office is located in Ashland (north-central part of service area) staffed by two full time employees. North Country also has itinerant offices in certain communities and tribal communities. More about this later.
A common lament of satellite offices is the lack of communication with the main office. This can lead to isolation and feelings of being undervalued. To combat this we hold monthly staff meetings alternating between Ashland and Superior. We partner staff with co-workers from the other office. We have also had staff work out of the other office on occasion. We feel it leads to a sense of unity and increased communication.
North Country conducts focus groups in all counties every few years. Based on this input we devised a plan to target certain counties for aggressive outreach. Typically in two counties we will find office space at a Job Center, County Extension Office, etc., for no cost. We will staff it on a regular schedule with itinerant (based out of either the Superior or Ashland office) staff. While we have always traveled to meet with individual consumers, this approach has given the agency more exposure. After a year we are more likely to be remembered and calls increase from consumers and the community in general. We also attend county board meetings and tribal council meetings.
Tribal communities
North Country has five reservations within our service area. Outreach to these communities is different from other isolated communities in our service area because the tribes are sovereign nations and have separate governments. We are fortunate to have past and present board representation from some of these communities.
We are more fortunate to have past and present staff members who belong to these tribes. Because of the connections and reputation of these staff members, the tribal communities are using North Country more and more. These relationships have allowed us to open a branch office (using itinerant staff) on one of the reservations. We have been able to build on this and establish scheduled visits to other reservation towns.
The Native American staff assist our organization with advice and training about cultural issues as well as how to deal with other tribal governments. A former North Country staff is now the director of the 121 Vocational Rehabilitation program on one reservation and is purchasing transition services from North Country. North Country was able to assist with the formation of the United Coalition of Native Americans with Disability Concerns, a Native American-controlled and consumer-controlled organization.
Our involvement with the Native American communities in northwest Wisconsin means North Country is more accepted and effective at serving Native American consumers. The Native American communities have been able to find out more about disability-related issues and develop more services because of this association with North Country.
Outstationing
By Garry Owens, Red Rock Center for Independence, St. George, Utah
The Red Rock Center for Independence serves an area of over 34,000 square miles of rural Utah. A limited budget and sparse community resources would not support a satellite office. It took four hours to reach some of the vast service area during good weather, making it unrealistic to serve them from the St. George main office. The needs were evident and the limits were overwhelming. With a budget of $35,000 it was decided that we would have to prioritize what was needed in order to more efficiently serve the northern part of our service area. It was decided that we would create a new method for serving the areas from the local area. The budget could not support an office so it was determined that the office would not be in a fixed location. There would not be a phone line, desk or desktop computer. In fact we would establish a mobile office.
Creating Outstationing
The Center purchased a laptop computer, a cell phone, and established a budget for reimbursement of mileage. First one and eventually two people were hired in two different communities in the rural areas. Each person was hired because of his/her unique ability to serve the diverse communities. Training routines were established to assure the IL philosophy was maintained and routine monthly meetings are held in St. George to continue the training. Outstation staff connects weekly by conference call for staff meetings to maintain some connection. An Outreach Committee was developed including the Outstationed staff, a board member, and two consumers in order to continue the innovation through brainstorming, goal setting, planning, and evaluation.
Outcomes
Outstationing staff work in the field and report via e-mail, faxes, and phone calls. Monthly, Outreach staff meet at the office for two days in order to catch up on filing, staff meetings, ongoing training, goal review, and committee meetings. Annually staff meet somewhere in the service area to refresh. We review our mission and vision statements, revisit the highlights of the previous year's goals and accomplishments, and brainstorm new goals for the coming year.
The Outstationing has created greater opportunities to connect with people and their communities. The people we hired in the communities have established reputations as locals, making networking and advocacy more consistent and much more effective. We have had increased opportunity to seek funding supports from the local county commissions. Two counties send us a check each month to assist us with mileage reimbursement. Local programs, schools, and businesses are more supportive to our outreach efforts. We have increased our communication with Vocational Rehabilitation programs in the outer areas; we contract with the AgrAbility programs to provide referral for people with disabilities in the agricultural setting; we are able to sit on Local Interagency Councils as representatives to people with disabilities; nursing home Ombudsman identify us as a mediator for cases they find to hot to handle; and we are under contract with the Department of Health to provide alternative options presentations in the Medicaid long-term care facilities and swing bed programs.
Congratulations to Garry Owens for his recent recognition of an "innovative program" by the IL Net.
Igniting the Spirit through Coaching
By Katherine Carol, Tango Consulting
A recent study in the public sector shows that, while training alone increases employee productivity by 23%, coaching and training together increases it by 88%. Imagine a 65% gain in productivity—coaching is that good!
The Vision
Firing up the perfect blend of purpose, performance, passion, and profit is at the heart of coaching. It is a strong extension of current management and human resource efforts, moving from traditional personnel management to actually inspiring and developing individual employees. Coaching especially makes sense when shifting from the mindset of managing people with disabilities to one of encouraging growth. This happens through offering choices and ever-increasing opportunities for more personal responsibility. You see, when people working in the field of human services experience tremendous personal and professional growth, they are more capable of facilitating it.
The perfect organization has a team of professionals who live to make a positive difference in the lives of people with disabilities. They share a bond with the individual they support as they both fully participate in mutual growth. More than that, they strive to improve the organization's reputation and participation in the community.
Having a team vividly "living" the mission everyday—standing shoulder to shoulder, arm in arm, involved in one of the greatest social
re-re-engineering efforts of our time—is the vision. We
see a group of excited, passionate partners full of ideas and strategies.
We hear the desire, as individuals requesting support for employment
strive to improve their lives. The organization urgently wants
to meet that request.
We sit in a team meeting with co-workers and artfully move through
a powerful agenda to expand services. Or we see the sincere interaction
between a manager and an employee solving a problem. In the out-stretched
hand of understanding, we reach a frustrated parent one moment
and, in the next moment, extend a warm welcome to a community that
supports the mission of a proud organization. In this vision, we
continue to be touched by people who seek to make a difference.
The Problem
This describes the vision; the reality is often quite different. Creating success in today's rock and roll world where nothing seems certain and resources keep fluctuating has become more challenging than ever. The rules keep changing—sometimes daily. What worked yesterday may still work today—the only difference is people want more from us—faster, better, cheaper. They want to feel the passion, hear the spirit, and see the results—NOW!
The Answer
Zeroing in on providing "died and gone to heaven" services happens through leadership development and best practices. This has been the main strategy in high performing organizations.
However, many organizations have trouble getting past basic survival and requirement training (examples include CPR and medication certification). So coaching can be used to improve skills for employees and managers in the following areas:
- Communication
- Career and personal growth
- Job satisfaction
- Relationship with co-workers and supervisors
- Leadership development and supervision
- Organizational and personal values
- Negotiation strategies
- Decision making skills
- Work/life balance
According to Business Week (January 10, 2000), coaching has become a legitimate industry. Corporations using coaching see not only improvements in individual performances and greater retention of talented employees, but increased profits and customer satisfaction. Employees themselves report more self-confidence, stronger skills, more goals achieved, and better relationships because of coaching. It works!
How Coaching Works
Coaching has a variety of approaches. Some are strictly performance-based—that is, they are skill specific and designed for quick improvement in a limited area. Others are more transformational and growth-oriented.
What often emerges during a coaching relationship is a challenging and often ineffective pattern of decision making and actions needing examination. A coach can be particularly effective in bringing the pattern to people's attention and helping them discover a new way to approach similar situations.
You can use a well-known coaching technique called "questioning" to get to the root cause of the problems, not just deal with symptoms. The questioning technique also leads to strategies for moving past limitations. Often, typical management methods focus on quick fixes rather
than listening for the "root causes" to help them find the best solution rather than just a solution. That's why it's important to question those being coached on how they see solutions. The questioning process also elicits a greater investment in following through.
Group Coaching
Coaching can be expanded beyond individuals to groups. I frequently coach work teams on project development and offer teleclasses and coaching sessions for individuals seeking personal and professional growth. We use a conference call, thus allowing people in a variety of locations to talk together. These calls are used to facilitate goal setting and decision-making, and to identify barriers and brainstorm solutions. The sessions allow the coach to see patterns of peak performance so he or she further develop those abilities—much like a coach works with great athletes. (Remember that even Tiger Woods has a coach!) And they let us look for patterns of breakdown, which we want to reframe and replace with productive actions.
In corporate coaching situations, a manager or supervisor may set an agenda for the group only. Ideally, the coaching session also focuses on individual agendas—often overlooked in the day-to-day operations. So having an objective third party can be quite effective. With an outside coach facilitating the agenda, it gives decision-makers a taste that leads to initiating a full coaching program. These programs influence "rising stars" in the organization as well as employees struggling with performance or work/life balance concerns.
Managers As Coaches
Companies have another option: using their own managers as coaches. Managers who have good people skills can be effective in coaching their staff or the staff of other company managers. What doesn't work is this: managers who think they are coaching but are really just telling people to improve yet not taking the necessary time to develop weekly goals and reinforcing them. They often miss the key ingredients of listening, discovery, dealing with logistics, and providing solid tools for success.
Begin Coaching Today
If you want to provide first-rate services, start a coaching program in your organization. Take these steps to get started:
- Decide to invest in your organization and start small.
- Recruit interested individuals who would like to be coached (or need to be coached).
- Decide if you want to hire an outside coach or develop an inside coaching program (or a combination of both).
- For inside coaching—select your coaches, define the coaching process, train them, and match with those seeking coaching.
- For hiring an outside coach—select criteria describing your coaching needs, send out a proposal, and interview and select coaches or a coaching organization.
- Review and evaluate your program and make adjustments.
- Enjoy the quantum leap in organizational productivity
For quantum leaps and more effective use of resources, add coaching to your management strategies. It will ignite the spirit of your people and encourage them toward its vision. Doing so translates into Purpose, Passion, Productivity, and Profit.
If you have further questions on coaching, call Katherine Carol
at (888) 706-0176. You can also visit the International Federation
of Coaches web site (www.coachu.com) for information on Coach University.
Leadership Mentoring for CILs: RILLMI
By Tina Sayer, HASL Independent Abilities Center
HASL Independent Abilities Center was accepted to participate in a series of trainings through The Rural Independent Living Leadership Mentoring Project (RILLMI), jointly run by The University of Montana Rural Institute and the Association for Programs in Rural Independent Living.
At that time, HASL was going through many changes. Our organization was in a state of redevelopment, with new management, new employees, and new goals. We had been backsliding—we didn't have the tools to be able to foresee or repair problems that faced us. So the RILLMI project addressed the particular adjustments needed to guide the agency through the changes.
After our site review by the Rehabilitation Services Administration, several areas in our program needed attention. One of the first things we did was hire a new executive director, who started just months before our RILLMI training began with Cary Griffin of the Rural Institute.
Throughout the year there were four, three-day training visits scheduled. Cary would spend a couple days during each visit with staff, board members, and the executive director helping all to learn new things and adjust to change. The "values, mission, and culture" training proved to be a part of the training that helped to build a foundation for the board and staff to interact as well as for all to begin to realize the same goals.
One of the most important changes that occurred was choosing a new mission statement because the old one was too long to understand. The executive director asked for suggestions from all staff and board members and after collecting and reviewing suggestions, the team synthesized one everyone could believe in and that also described our organization in a better way.
Cary was able to support our new executive director at the start of her employment, and through the first year, to make the needed organizational changes. Change is good; it keeps us from becoming complacent. Goals may not be set in stone, but they keep us focused in the direction we're moving. Change gave us the opportunity to negotiate the future.
Another topic that was compelling to several of the staff and board was "team effort." I think we all learned that we are all as much a part of the problem as we are a part of the solution. One staff said, "having respect for the leadership is important, but at the same time we all support the totem pole. If one person doesn't do their job, that would have an impact on others."
The staff discussed at length the conflict / communication portion of the training. Just the name alone scared several people. Cary, through these trainings, showed us how conflict could be used in a positive way and how communication was something that you cannot do alone. A staff person summed it up this way "After this training I honestly can say that I can enjoy conflict, and the prospect of conflict. I like to challenge myself by being diplomatic and versed in my responses to people. When conflict gets out of hand, I know I can go to my boss and ask her to intervene."
One of the training topics that affected us the most was "good communication." There had been a lack of respect for the person in charge and the chain of command was something no one remembered. With the new executive director focusing on teamwork and our first training session underway, we lost a few staff people who
could not or did not wish to work in a team environment with a
defined chain of command. Through the training several skills were
learned. Role-playing put a realistic spin on the situation and
we learned how different personalities impact an outcome. The entire
staff realized that communication was important and that good,
complete information was a must.
Because of the communication portion of the training, HASL staff
now spend more time truly listening to what consumers have to say,
and the response from consumers is positive. People feel what they
have to say is important and that their goals and wishes are heard.
Time management was an issue for some staff and through this training and Cary's humor, staff were able to map out their days and organize themselves more efficiently. Stress was reduced and time was not such a big issue once we focused on the "important" work. People are happier and nicer to each other.
People learned to look deeper than the surface, to probe the issue, to observe the person, accommodate the situation, and do our part to make it a positive one. We learned to never assume but always anticipate, to be innovative and involved, to speak up, and let our team build off the initial idea. Great things are bound to come. Be willing to bend in order to succeed and be able to fail gracefully and learn from that.
I think that HASL staff really got a lot out of these trainings and when I hear things such as "respect the order of things; don't go to a coworker when you should be going to your boss; respect others for who they are outside of the job and for what they bring to the job; reward, praise, and encourage; laugh and when it seems impossible laugh again; bring what you can to the table and recognize your own limitations and strengths; be a team player; speak up when you have an issue don't wait to blow up," then I know that HASL staff learned from this training and that the foundation built throughout this year is a strong one.
The part of the RILLMI project that was most visual was the marketing training. We did a marketing map and it laid everything out so well; we saw our strengths and weaknesses and set new goals. Today we are working on those goals and we are getting out in our community more; people are getting to know us. HASL executive director and board chair have done an interview for a community TV show, which will air in February. This show talks about HASL and what we do for and with our community. Our executive director has also been featured in a local paper in the profile section where she once again got the chance to talk about HASL.
To sum it all up, the assistance HASL received has helped to build a strong team with defined goals for our role in the community, which is To improve quality of life by finding solutions for today. This mission statement is something we live by, something we do everyday.
The staff here at HASL want Cary to know that his style of training
made it fun and exciting to learn. Change was easier because it
was delivered in a style that made it easy to accept. From all
of us at HASL, Thank you Cary.
SMILE ILC in Yuma, Arizona and Panhandle Independent Living Services
in Scottsbluff, Nebraska are this year's RILLMI training sites
and will participate in the leadership mentoring program.