Development and Learning in Organizations: An International Journal

Coaching for performance improvement: the COACH model

Michita R. Champathes

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Michita R. Champathes, (2006),"Coaching for performance improvement: the COACH model", Development and Learning in
Organizations: An International Journal, Vol. 20 Iss 2 pp. 17 - 18
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Coaching for performance improvement:

the COACH model

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Michita R. Champathes

Michita R. Champathes is the

Managing Director of the
Management Psychology
Institute, Thailand. She is also
the lecturer of the College of
Management, Mahidol
University and a consultant in
Organizational Development
areas.

The nature of coaching

Coaching has become a necessary technique for performance improvement. Coaching is
not teaching. Teaching is usually one-way communication. Managers can teach their
subordinates to do or not to do things, but subordinates may not understand or act
completely as their managers expect. Coaching is more of a two-way communication
process. When learners, who are expected to be coached, deliver results, coaches will give
feedback and let learners adjust their actions again. This process will go on and on until they
reach the expected outcomes. It is a reciprocal relationship between coaches and learners.
Coaches are not actors on stages but learners are. It is similar to sport coaches. We do not
see boxing coaches helping boxers fight with the opponent. Coaches can help learners
diagnose what is going on in the battlefield; find out what can be improved and how to
improve. Learners are the main players who would like to improve their skills as much as
possible by listening to reflections or advice from coaches. Coaches may not perform as well
as learners but they know how to improve others.
Coaching may be very useful for some jobs but not for others. Jobs with high complexity,
comprehensive skills, high task identity (a whole project can be done by one) and that use
more tacit knowledge (knowledge that is not normally accessible to consciousness) are
likely to fit with coaching. Jobs that can easily be understood and use less skills can be just
taught as on-the-job-training or classroom training. Coaching can be used to improve
selling, product design, interpersonal skills, negotiation, management, etc.
In my model the coaching process is simplified into four processes plus a preparation stage.
This preparing stage was added after finding that it is too difficult to start a coaching process
with someone without good preparation. When coaches want to start a coaching relationship
with their subordinate, such as a call center employee, coaches may tell learners what is
wrong. The response can either be positive (accept and adjust) or negative (argue and
deny). So, the preparing stage will help reduce the chance of negative responses and
facilitate the successful implementation of the other stages.

The COACH model

The COACH process comprises (Figure 1):
B

Clarifying needs;

Objectives setting;

Action plan designing; and

CHecking activities.

The preparing stage starts with gathering data about people who expect to be coached. The
objective of this stage is to make sure that people really need to be coached. Minor mistakes
of staff might not need to be coached. Possibly teaching or supervising is enough.

DOI 10.1108/14777280610645886

VOL. 20 NO. 2 2006, pp. 17-18, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1477-7282

DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING IN ORGANIZATIONS

PAGE 17

Figure 1 The COACH model

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Observations, documents and interviewing of colleagues can be used for data collection
and diagnosis. The interview method can be used with caution. The colleagues selected for
interviews should be reliable and not become like police or engage in gossip. After data from
various sources confirms what actions learners want changed, coaches can plan the
coaching process. They need to address such questions as: what are the objectives of this
coaching relationship, what are the expected outcomes, what are current actions and what if
people resist being coached.
Clarifying needs is an explanation from coaches that may be needed to convince a person
why the coaching relationship is needed. The reasons may include documents or evidence
of the persons performance. Without agreement or willingness of the person to be coached,
the coaching process may be ineffective.
Objective setting by both coaches and learners will encourage concrete results. The SMART
concept can be applied here. The goal should be specific enough for learners to focus and
improve that particular action. Measurable goals are preferred if possible. In the call center
case, one of the objectives can be increasing customer calling satisfaction from, say, 60 to
90 percent. Agreement of the learner is very important for real changes. To overcome the
resistance to change, coaches may need longer time for convincing and listening to
learners responses until agreement is reached. The objectives should also be realistic and
timed. Unrealistic objectives will demotivate rather than motivate learners to achieve. Also
objectives without a time limit are often disregarded.
Action plan designing is appropriate for comprehensive coaching (simple coaching may
only have a short and defined coaching schedule). The action plan for coaching should
include targeted objectives and outcomes, actions to do, skills to be improved or learned,
levels of competency, a timeframe and follow-up meetings.
Checking activities is evaluation. Activities, skills and outcomes of learning will be evaluated
against the mutually agreed action plan. To evaluate effectively, many activities need to be
demonstrated, preferably in the workplace. Coaches may observe learners activities or ask
for feedback from others, such as colleagues and customers. Then coaches will give
feedback to learners or let learners evaluate themselves. More knowledge can be provided
for learners in this process.
Keywords:
Coaching,
Performance management,
Training methods

Conclusion
The COACH model is a simple and easily remembered framework that can work in a variety
of settings. It allows both coach and learner to be clear about how the proce ss will work.

Corresponding author
Michita R. Champathes can be contacted at: michita@thaiboss.com
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PAGE 18 DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING IN ORGANIZATIONS VOL. 20 NO. 2 2006

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