(This article is based on the on-demand
flagship seminar developed by Tayo Solagbade, following his
presentation of a management paper at Center for Management
Development, Shangisha, Lagos in 2002")
The Need To Be Versatile
Anyone wishing to remain competitive,
and relevant at work/in life must become what I like to call
a Practical Learner. That is someone who continually seeks/adopts
new (and appropriate) knowledge, attitudes and skills, so
as to become more useful/valuable to herself and others.
Let’s consider an analogy based
on a popular sport - Soccer. Some players learn to use both
feet equally well so they can play on either side of the pitch.
Some learn how to play defensive, attacking (even goal keeping!)
roles. They are often called Utility
players.
Coaches love to have them in their
teams because when tricky match situations occur, such individuals
give the coach more options to consider in terms of substitutions
to be made. For those individuals, you will notice that except
when injured, they not only command a place in any team, but
also often get into the starting line up! The
reason: they fit in easily i.e. there is always a role
they can play.
Now relate this to the workplace. Imagine
a company having an individual with proven
versatility in managing various processes, coupled
with an ability to quickly settle into - and function efficiently
in - virtually any role, even when it is in a higher capacity.
Add to all these a genuine interest
in developing others around her to be equally as competent,
if not better than she is. You get what could be called the
Ideal Employee! Her boss is likely to consider her
a most valuable asset, and will often readily recommend her
for secondments, and promotions(she would have trained others
to do her job, making it easy to be replaced)!
But how does one become like the kind
of person described above? Is it in fact possible for one
person to be like that? To both questions, the answer is yes.
I am convinced that diligent application of Spontaneous
Coaching for Self-Development(SCfSD)™
techniques is all that is required. My conviction derives
from over 7 years of successfully employing those same techniques.
Why Employee Training(Sometimes)
Does NOT Work
You might wonder why I didn’t
mention Employee Training as a requirement for producing the
Ideal Employee. It’s because evidence abounds that sending
people on routine training courses does not guarantee their
workplace performances will improve.
Why?
Among other reasons, it is because the decision to attend
a course is often made for them and not by them. So they might
not feel that course will equip them with the specific skills
set they believe will help them improve. Consequently, they’ll
pay little attention during the course. Ultimately, the money
invested is wasted!
To avoid this, decision makers in progressive
minded companies now involve employees in deciding courses
to attend. However, I believe even better results can be achieved
by creating an enabling environment for people to want to
develop themselves.
When people
take responsibility for their own development, it means they
are already motivated to deliver better results. You
therefore have less worrying to do about getting them to do
their jobs - to the required standard!
This not only costs less in the medium/long
term, but also yields more sustainable results in terms of
improvements in employee competencies.
Spontaneous Coaching for
Self-Development(SCfSD)™ : A
Complementary Alternative
If you could learn how to help others
around you grow and develop in such a way that you not only
get their undiluted goodwill, but also consolidate YOUR own
development, in a way that equips you to achieve accelerated
career advancement, how fulfilled would you be? "Very",
is likely to be the answer of most career persons.
Spontaneous
Coaching for Self-Development(SCfSD)™has
two aspects:
A). Spontaneous
Coaching
Spontaneous Coaching is a unique approach
to coaching that is informal, often subtle and based on the
coach's sincere desire to help others grow and develop to
their full potential(regardless of who they are or what they
do), in a way that benefits the organisation.
One major aspect of Spontaneous
Coaching, that makes it different from traditional
coaching is the use of what I call Multi-Dimensional
Peer Pressure(MDPP)™ to effect positive changes
in work-related behaviour in a person(s) being coached over
time.
Another
unique feature, is that a Spontaneous Coach will often be
found willing to help a “coachee” resolve non-work
related problems, as a means to stimulating improved work-related
behaviour/performance subsequently in the “coachee”.
A summary of key features of
Spontaneous Coaching is as follows:
i.
Requires “coach” to have an innate desire to help
others regardless of who they are/what they do.
ii. Typified by coach’s
willingness to “help” even if "coachee”
is not aware, or does not express gratitude.
iii. Depends mostly on “influencing”
by example from the coach or other adherents (re: MDPP™).
iv. To successfully practice
Spontaneous Coaching, you must LOVE(or develop LOVE for) empowering
people to be their best – without feeling threatened
by their progress, EVEN when it means they could advance AHEAD
of you!!
B). Self-Development
“.. the process
by which an individual continually – and intelligently
- uses her own efforts, resources, knowledge and experiences(as
well as those of others, voluntarily supplied), to improve
her ability to achieve repeated personal or workplace successes”
- Tayo Solagbade
Peter Drucker, as far back as 1955,
wrote in his book “The Practice
of Management”, that development cannot be anything
other than Self-Development. Among other things, he explained
that for any organisation to take on the responsibility of
developing her people would effectively be a waste of time
because, that responsibility is the individual employee’s
– and no development would happen if the individual
does not take up the responsibility to make it happen.
Read my article titled "How
to make yourself UNRETRENCHABLE!" to learn more about
other recognised and qualified authorities in the field of
Human Resources/People Development who have acknowledged that
Self-Development is the most reliable way to achieve significant
and lasting employee development.
The concept of Spontaneous
Coaching for Self-Development(SCfSD)™was
developed by combining certain tested and proven Spontaneous
Coaching and Self-Development techniques, based on their successful
application in real-life workplaces.
SCfSD™
Will Benefit Forward Looking Organisations
It is my strong conviction that organisations
of the future will be those in which the need for formal,
deliberate training, and education through direct interventions
by the organisation, for employees will drop significantly.
Instead, concepts like Spontaneous
Coaching for Self-Development(SCfSD)™
which make it easy for employees to take control of their
own development, in a way that ultimately benefits the organisation
they work for, will be preferred.
Spontaneous
Coaching for Self-Development(SCfSD)™
can be independently applied by individual career persons
to achieve dramatically improved workplace performances.
More importantly, decision makers in
an organisation can learn how to use it to establish an alternative,
cost-saving/self-sustaining system that perpetually empowers
their team members to perform optimally in the workplace.
The following articles provide details
of my achievements in the fast-paced workplace of a large
corporate multinational using techniques based on SCfSD™.
1.
How To Turn A Major Blunder At Work Into A Career Advancement
Opportunity
2.
Achieve Recognition and Attract Career Advancement Opportunities
By Being A Change Agent
3.
Do You Have A Self-Managed Development Guide?
4.
How To Be A Jack Of Many Trades™, And Why It Can Make
You Succeed More Often
In the box below is a reproduction
of the main contents of the e-flyer(Acrobat PDF document)
for my on-demand flagship
seminar on Spontaneous
Coaching for Self-Development(SCfSD)™.
| FLAGSHIP
SEMINAR INTRODUCTION
TITLE: Using
Spontaneous Coaching for Self-Development
(SCfSD)™ To Maximise Employee Productivity
WHO
SHOULD ATTEND? This session is designed
to be of most value to people who have the power
to influence the employee training and development
strategy(i.e. decision makers) of an organisation
– and other individuals who occupy key leadership
positions and/or play supervisory roles.
Possible job titles
would include:
Organisational Devpt.
Manger
Personnel Director or Manager
Head of Admin/Personnel
Executive Director
Educational Administrator
Head of School(s)
Sectional/Departmental Heads
Team Leader/Lead Facilitator
Direct reports to the above
PREAMBLE
This seminar shows how to ensure your employees
get the skills and experience they need to achieve
their fullest potentials on the job. On a more
individual level, employees eager to advance their
own careers will find this seminar not only inspiring,
but also a source of tested and proven ideas,
concepts, strategies/advice on how to develop
their own skills and use workplace assignments
available to them to the fullest advantage.
What I shall demonstrate
during this seminar is how to combine a few proven,
simple, yet powerful techniques anyone can use
to achieve SWP – Superlative Workplace Performances™
such that more frequent (Perpetual) Career Advancement
opportunities result. I’m sure you’ll
find attending this seminar a day well spent.
You’ll leave buzzing with enthusiasm to
apply the techniques and concepts that will be
of immediate benefit to you and your organisation.
And above all, you will know what to do and how
to do it. I therefore hope you decide to attend,
and look forward to meeting you at the event.
Why
simply being good enough is no longer good enough
to cause career advancement
In today’s highly competitive workplace,
it’s no longer good enough to merely do
what is required of you on your job. Evidence
abounds to show that this will not generate the
benefits and opportunities that can lead to significant
career advancements. To gain those benefits and
opportunities, “something more” is
needed.
We shall therefore begin
the day by considering what that “something
more” is for the Ideal Employee and more
importantly, what it might be for ordinary, everyday
people in an organisation like yours.
How to identify and
successfully utilise your career advancement opportunities
All employees will regularly be presented with
career advancement opportunities. Different employees
will have different ones. The challenge is often
HOW to identify and make effective use of them
to get ahead in the workplace. Some employees
have more than others - sometimes through deliberate
planning and effort. Some are more prepared to
“seize” the opportunities than others.
But without doubt every employee has them! And
as earlier hinted, some even create them. We will
see how when we discuss this section.
Using
“Brain Training” to give yourself
a consistent edge at work
Some businesses suffer from what I call “Employee
Brain Lethargy”. It afflicts them by limiting
their ability to create continuing value in the
workplace.
In this session, I will
explain what “Brain Training” is,
how it is working for people in many successful
organizations, and how you could apply it, along
with your Self-Development efforts, to gain an
“unfair advantage” over others in
your workplace.
Case
Study – Intelligent use of the techniques
This case study will be a real-life example of
how the ideas and techniques I advocate worked
successfully for some of my former reports (a
different example will be used at each event).
How
to utilise the power of Spontaneous Coaching™
(SC) and Going The Extra Mile (GTEM)
SWP = SD (Self-Development)
+ SC + GTEM
This simple equation explains
how an employee’s performance is moved from
adequate to excellent and so from satisfactory
to superlative. A key element of achieving repeated
workplace successes is therefore hidden in the
concepts of SD, SC and GTEM.
This session will show
how anyone can use SC and GTEM to repeatedly achieve
exceptional workplace performances to the delight
of decision makers. Also, how SC is used to secure
undiluted loyalty, goodwill and cooperation from
co-workers and/or reports.
How
to use SC to train and develop new employees
Most highly successful people have a personal
bias for developing and empowering others around
them to achieve their fullest potentials. As the
saying goes, “they encourage ordinary people
to achieve extraordinary performances”.
In this session, we will
consider the key qualities of a Spontaneous Coach™
in the workplace, and the significant challenges
to any person wishing to operate as one.
Case
Study – Intelligent use of technology
This case study will show how the latest technology
(PC/Software, Internet etc) may be used to enable
the successful adoption and practice of SD, SC
and GTEM. (I will also give significant personal
examples from seven years spent in a large, blue
chip multinational).
Implementation
techniques that ensure your SD strategy will achieve
outstanding results
Except they are converted into useful and effective
actions, good ideas will be of little (if any)
use. A strategy is useless if it cannot be successfully
implemented. This session will therefore focus
on proven implementation techniques and how they
may be employed by any individual wishing to differentiate
him/herself through performance.
How
the Superlative Workplace Performances lead to
significant Perpetual Career Advancement opportunities
This session will show how all the ideas and techniques
considered in previous sessions are combined and
used to achieve Superlative Workplace Performances
which in turn lead to Perpetual Career Advancements.
Action Planning
During this final session, you will prepare a
prioritised personal action plan. This plan will
ensure that the relevant ideas and techniques
learned during the day are used to achieve the
maximum impact and success in your workplace.
TIMING
The seminar will begin at 9.15 am with delegates
registration taking place between 8.30 and 9.00
am. It will close at 4.00pm.
Click
here to request further details
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