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2009-11-11 00:39:25
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 - and him/herself.
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!!
v. Most importantly, a Spontaneous Coach will engage constantly, as a matter of habit, in self-education relevant to achievement of his/her valued goal(s). S/he will actively seek to use his/her(and other people's) failures and successes as learning platforms on which to develop him/herself - and also use achieved learning to coach others. It is this quality that will ensure s/he remains capable of functioning successfully as a Coach to others.
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 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.
You can email a four page Acrobat PDF e-flyer on Spontaneous Coaching for Self-Development(SCfSD)™ to yourself using the File Mailer web form on the Free Resouces page of my website.
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Self-Development/Performance Enhancement Specialist – Tayo Solagbade - works as a Multipreneur, helping individuals/businesses develop and implement strategies to achieve their goals, faster and more profitably. Download your copy of his 25 Articles Ebook from . You get full reprint rights for each article. Article Source: |
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