A Win-Win Situation

by Ninive Badilescu

The January 27-February 2, 2005 issue of Business Weekly Review features, under the Title "Help Wanted - Urgently" a very detailed study describing the current and future labour shortage in Australia as "nearing a crisis point". The study points to a ratio of 3:1 skilled workers who are leaving the country coupled with cuts in University funding as the major reasons for the less than optimistic view on finding the necessary skills in the future.

The study will send the employers to their corporate boardrooms to start planning on how to attract, retain and nurture talent for the future needs of their business success. Emily Ross, the author of the study, stresses the importance of companies taking a different approach to managing talent.

Ross ranks as high the importance of "Start a retention strategy at the beginning of the employment cycle, not when someone says they are thinking of leaving" and "Managers need to stay in touch with the workforce. No workforce is perfect, so there is an enormous need to listen and respond" on her list of changes employers have to consider if they want to be successful.

On the other hand the study offers an encouraging insight on the long term opportunities available to those designing their career strategies, those in transition and those who are ready to take advantage of the current economic situation. For them Ross highlights the most relevant aspects of the times ahead:

In 2008, for the first time, more people will leave the workforce than enter it.
In the next decade, annual workforce growth will drop from 0.8% to 0.4%
In the next five years, more than 20% of senior executives will reach retirement age.
The current workforce growth is 170,000/yr. In 2012 it is forecast to be 105,000 a year. In 2022 it is forecast to be 12,000 a year.

In other words start planning now and look at the industries sectors that are faced with a higher than normal shortage of skills and types of jobs they are interested in and employ a structured and careful career planning to build the professional future of your dreams.

The future offers a chance like never before for the employers and employees a win-win situation to work together and have an equal interest in the outcomes. For those companies who understand early the importance of adopting the new style of management, the times ahead will provide the opportunity of bringing and retaining the best people for their jobs. For those ready to take advantage of the opportunities that are available for them and start planning now, the times ahead can bring a more fulfilling and enriching professional life based on a carefully developed and implemented career strategy.

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The Manager as a Coach

by Ninive Badilescu

In an effort to attract and retain talent, companies are employing new approaches to managing their employees. More and more we see a shift towards offering employees the opportunity to achieve professional growth through self-awareness, clear and detailed career plans and a coaching management style approach.

Sean McPheat , CEO of the Executive Coaching Studio describes the Coaching Management Style as: "Directed towards professional growth of employees. Manager focuses on helping employees identify their strengths and weaknesses, improvement areas and set development plans that foster career goals. (The) manager creates an environment that supports honest self-assessment and treats mistakes as learning opportunities in the development process."

When acting as a coach, the manager has to remember that coaching should be a continuous process. As such he/she should avoid employing it solely for dealing with an acute problem. While coaching can deal with the odd issue such as: absenteeism, low productivity, etc, managers should use coaching as part of their talent management activities.

All managers who successfully use coaching as a management style base their actions on a few principles/beliefs:

Know your employee: the more you know your employee the easier it will be to help them on the path to self-awareness. Knowing their strengths and weaknesses will pave the way to better development planning increased performance on the job, job satisfaction and recognition. All these translate into a happier and more loyal employee.

Listen: the managers successful in employing a coaching management style have great listening skills. It is more important to listen and understand the other person than it is to think of immediate solutions. These managers listen to what it is said and also to what is it left out. Sometimes discovering what is not put into words holds the key to a successful coaching session.

Ensure commitment: both parties (manager and employee) have to be fully committed to the process. Lack of commitment on either side will result in failure. The International Coach Academy has introduced the term UAC which stands for Underlying Automatic Commitments. According to this principle people are always committed to something whether it is something beneficial or not, whether on a conscious or unconscious level. Therefore our experiences are based on what we are committed to at the time and on our core individual commitments. Developing and ensuring commitment to the coaching process will result in a successful coaching process.

Offer structure: a successful coaching program needs a cohesive structure. Building appropriate structures is sometimes half of the work offering the work frame for the process, ease of results monitoring and clear parameters to work with.

Inspire trust: a coaching relationship cannot exist without trust. The employee should feel supported, enthused and safe in his/her coaching relationship. There are no shortcuts for this. Lack of trust will lead to lack of communication, lack of commitment and ultimately failure.