The Four Cs of Coaching
By Nancy Friedman

Most tech support organizations take advantage of the experience and wisdom of senior staff by making them mentors, or trainers, or coaches for less-experienced staff. But when most people think of the word "coach," they immediately imagine someone on the sidelines screaming at their players to do a better job. That may be true in certain sports situations, but in business, coaches, mentors, and even managers need to take a completely different approach to help others improve performance.

Let's take a look at the role of a manager/coach and how that integrates with employee development. Where does traditional training come in? How does training relate to coaching? And what are the differences between training, coaching, and counseling?

It all starts with training. Say you're training a group. What usually happens is most of the group understands, learns, and benefits from the information you provide. Unfortunately, not everyone gets it. What do you do about those hopefully few employees -- often good, conscientious people -- who may need personalized attention after training? These are the people who need your coaching.

Coaching is strategically guiding someone into improving performance. It's analyzing feedback to see the areas where group training hasn't taken hold.
At the Telephone Doctor, we’ve come up with a four-step model for effective coaching in a business environment. We call it the 4 Cs of Coaching.

1. Concurrence
2. Content
3. Commitment
4. Congratulations or Continuation

Concurrence -- Concurrence is critical. Unless you and the trainee agree (concur) that there is a gap, and they commit to the necessary improvements, you won't be able to coach to your full capacity. Concurrence is required. You and the employee need to concur that there is an issue. Once that's done, you can go on to content.

Content – It’s very important to identify the content that needs to be improved. What needs to be done? What are some of the issues involved? Normally when coaching is needed, it's either due to the employee not knowing how to do the job (they just don't get it) or doesn't want to do the job. You need to find out which it is. The coach and employee need to agree on the content, the issue, and the problem. Only then can they make a commitment to solve it.

Commitment -- The coach and the trainee need to agree that there is a problem, as well as the scope of the problem. Then they can make a commitment to solve it. Normally, you’ll be working with an intelligent, conscientious employee who wants to do a good job. With some coaching, the job will be done right.

Congratulations or Continuation -- Once you and the employee have found the content that needs correcting, you’ve given them instructions on how to do it right, and there’s a commitment it will be done, it will and it's time for a pat on the back. It’s critical you let them know when they've done a good job. It's most important you don't leave that part out. Worse case scenario, it's continuation. A little more work may be needed with some employees to reach the congratulations step.

Much coaching takes place to fill a perceived need. You find out that there's a gap in the performance of an employee, and then plan a coaching approach that should improve the performance of that employee. It's nice and orderly to be able to think about what you're going to do. Formulate your plan and decide when you're going to do your coaching.

Coaching, while immediate, should also be in private; especially when it becomes an on the spot type of coaching. Never embarrass the employee.

About the Author
Nancy Friedman is the president of Telephone Doctor, a customer service training company in St. Louis, MO. She is a featured speaker at association and corporate meetings. To receive a free monthly email article on customer service and a free subscription to the Telephone Doctor newsletter, The Friendly Voice, email press@telephonedoctor.com or call 314-291-1012.