Managers As Coaches
Intellectual Output 1:
The MAC VET Curriculum and Course will provide the foundation for the development and up-skilling of the two main target groups for this project (i.e. team leaders and managers and VET teacher/trainers) and the subsequent propagation of the project's products and project impact.
Output 1 will enable partners to design a VET curriculum and course which will address the challenges faced by managers and owner/managers who manage teams and individuals and organisations committed to improving performance through the use of performance-based coaching.
The main challenges that that will be addressed include: a limited understanding of the benefits of and the skills and competences associated with performance based coaching; the belief that coaching is a tool used by mainly professional coaches and NOT managers; performance-based coaching is time-consuming and an additional task and burden to undertake; and confusion about the difference between performance-based coaching and other interventions such as delegation, training and micro-management. Output 1 will also inform the content and design of Output 2 (MAC Educational Game).
Intellectual Output 2:
Output 2 will draw from the game-based learning to create a simple, but powerful performance coaching educational game. The game will use a constructivist methodology, thereby ensuring learners are actively involved in a shared experiential process whereby they learn by doing and develop a shared understanding of effective behaviours and practices. Learners develop their understanding and knowledge of effective performance-based coaching by experiencing it and reflecting on shared experiences rather than simply learning about it passively in the form of a conventional teaching scenario.
The aim of the MAC educational game will be to help learners to develop and acquire a set of practical skills, tools and techniques so they can build and develop their own capacity and capability to problem-solve and to deliver effective performance-based coaching sessions. The game will create a safe practice, experiential learning, and interaction where the participants can learn and experiment in non-threatening environment. It will also help with transferring and developing knowledge and competence through practice and social interaction with their peers.
Intellectual Output 3:
The Handbook - "Become a High Performance Manager" is aimed at the project's main target groups (i.e. team leaders, operational managers and owner/managers).
The aim is to publish the practical, "go-to guide" for VET teacher/trainers and managers seeking to improve their performance as a manager through the use of performance coaching in the work place.
The book will comprise four parts:
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Part 1 will explain the rise in performance coaching; its uses and the advantages of performance coaching over other management interventions and how managers can use coaching as a management style rather than as a technique, hence the term, 'Managers as Coaches'.
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Part 2 will explain in layman's terms the meaning and use of Transactional Analysis (TA), Kantor's theory of Structural Dynamics - the Four Player Communication Model in the context of understanding performance problems and improving the performance of teams and individuals. It will describe the four roles in Kantor's model (Mover, Follower, Opposer and Bystander) and how they can be used to unblock performance problems through eh use of performance coaching.
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Part 3 will introduce managers to the core competences required for to be a 'Manager as a Coach'. These skills will include listening, providing feedback, question strategies, providing feedback and problem-solving and challenging. This part will also explain the use of key coaching tools and techniques.
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Part 4 will present a range of performance coaching dialogues and question strategists which can be used to address some of the most common performance problems that managers face in the workplace. The most common performance problems will have been identified in the development of Output 1 ensuring the relevance of these to the target group.