managers Archives - Her Leadership Journey

GROW coaching model for Effective Meetings

In the past month inside our Facebook Group, The Female Leaders Collective, we have discussed how to have an effective meeting using the GROW Coaching model.

But before we start on how to use it, I will share the meaning of GROW. It is a universal coaching model, it’s the basics. All advanced coaching models come from here, but we can use GROW, and what I definitely teach is that GROW is used for formal conversations, but it’s used for feedback conversations. It’s used for that casual catch-up in the hallway, and conversations around the water cooler in the kitchen. It’s also used for great meeting agendas, and anything that really needs to have a structure around it, but encourages everybody’s input as well.

I can guarantee you that once you start to really understand the GROW coaching model and use it, you will transform your leadership, the way you relate to other people, and the way you’re able to hold people accountable. The way you’re able to give that feedback and bring those expectations to life is through coaching.

GROW is an acronym that means:
G= Goal
R = Reality
O= Options
W= Way Forward

Let’s look at how we can use this acronym to create an effective meeting.

Normally, we have an agenda for the meeting. Others add to it prior to the meeting, and it’s the Chairperson’s job to keep to the agenda. And we find that there is not a lot of outcome discussion- or decisions made.

Let’s look at how our agenda can be our Goal.

If you can instill one reason why you are all meeting today, and focus on that, then you can break it down into different agendas.

What is that one reason, the purpose of this meeting? What is it we want to walk away with? Craft the goal so that everyone can visualise the outcome.

That becomes how you begin your meeting.

Then you move into the Reality phase, which is really about finding out what’s happening now? What have we already tried? What resources do we have already? What do we need? Who else might we need to go and talk to?

This sets the baseline of where we are currently in relation to the goal we are trying to achieve. It’s important not to skip this step because it relates very closely to the next step – the Options or brainstorming section of the meeting.

What ideas can we come up with? Now we know what our current state of play is, now what are the options? This time in the meeting is so important to ensure everyone is heard, but that no ideas are tossed aside at this point.

If you really want to create this safe environment where everybody’s engaging, people are being productive, and speaking up, this is the section to focus on.

Once you have some ideas, and you’ve highlighted a few that could be the best options to reach your goal, it’s time to move into the accountability section of the meeting.

This is the Way Forward. Start by asking the question – “Out of these options, What WILL we do?”
What is our way forward from here?
Then, as a team, you start to break it down into tasks and ask for people to put their hands up to achieve certain tasks. Delegation skills also come in handy during this part of a meeting.

Make sure you set up measurements for success. How will they know when they are successful? What are the deadlines? What are you going to commit to and by when? When will you check in with each other, or as a group etc? You finish the meeting on notes of action.

If you started running even a segment of your meetings like this, you can be assured that not only will people start to wake up and participate, they’ll look forward to helping problem solve.

So, ditch the agenda, and focus on the goal!

Refuse The Monkey

One of the first mistakes new managers make (and some seasoned ones) is trying to fix everything. And worse, they are creating the environment where their team will just keep coming to them with problems and this creates a dependency on you.

Now, why it can be nice to be needed, it’s NOT how you become and effective, and influential leader.

You need to make sure your team keep their own monkeys, and you support them.

Have a listen and tell me how you’re going to use this information!
Emma.

We Need Better Managers, Not More Leaders

Stop Making More Leaders!

Managers and Leaders are two separate identities.

Managers are the ones who get stuff done. The ones that make sure the doors open of a morning, the customers are served and the business is operating well.

Leaders are the ones with the ideas. The visions. The Idealists who believe there is a better way. They are able to communicate their ideas and get people to follow them.

But they aren’t always the doers.

So why are we focusing on developing more leaders everywhere?

We NEED the doers to bring the visions to life! And if you’ve got so many leaders it’s like having too many cooks in the kitchen – chaos ensues as everyone has a different vision, and all the energy is going toward getting followers – not getting anything done!

Look at some organisations that have a great vision, AND operate well – they have confident, effective managers who are skilled in all facets of management that allow them to execute and build the vision. These managers are ones who are able to value their people, apply their strengths and allow everyone to be heard and fulfilled in their job.

And I’m betting that’s what you want to do to right? Be an effective manager, caring about your people and helping them to grow and develop and to be the best they can be?

If this is you, then you are striving to become a truly human leader – someone who puts their people first, works to their strengths and creates a safe and encouraging environment, building a high performing team in the process.

For this to occur you need to focus on the 4 core management competencies that will build your confidence, AND your results. These are

Setting Clear Expectations
Delegating Effectively
Giving AND receiving feedback
Coaching skills

Let’s go a bit deeper into each of these:

Setting clear expectations: This is the biggest conflict creator in ANY workplace. People blame communication, but I take it back one step further and ask the really obvious question – did that person know EXACTLY what you expected of them? Did you actually spell it out or write it down?

And the answer (if the manager is honest with me, is always a no – I could have done this better).

Knowing how to clearly set the expectation and to do it up front will save you countless conflict and hassle, rework and frustration. The process to do this involves many steps, and includes creating the vision, defining the actual requirements, assessing capabilities and defining what success looks like.

Take a brief moment to assess yourself in this area – can you be clearer with your expectations?

Delegating effectively: When this is not being done properly, you’ll find yourself saying “It’s easier just to do it myself!” There is an art to delegating and involves quite a few steps to be done properly. How is your delegation going?

Feedback – The ‘tough’ conversations. If you actually just remove the fear around hurting someone’s feelings, and put respect for them and their growth in front of your own fear, you’ll find that these conversations are not hard at all. And can be very rewarding when you have the mindset of helping – not just telling. And to do this, we need to develop some coaching skills.

Coaching skills – For you to develop into a confident manager, you HAVE to start getting your team to think for themselves. And to do this, we need some coaching skills.

Go and read up on the GROW coaching model – it’s the framework of any coaching method and can be used in meetings, over the phone, to fix problems, for performance development and so much more.

Once you have mastered these 4 core management skills, you’ll start to see your team taking on their own responsibilities, knowing what is required of them and pushing themselves to get there. You’ll see harmony, less conflict and your results will improve.

Your managers will notice, and you’ll be invited to share what’s working, mentor other managers and really start to influence the direction of the organisation.

Yep, through management skills – not leadership skills.

And I teach you all of the steps involved in this in our Management for Impact program. Register your interest for our next program – starting in early February 2022.

Check It Out Here

Spaces are limited as everyone also gets a 1:1 session to help them implement what they are learning. So get in quick if you want to get started on this RIGHT NOW!