Personal skills

Personal skills coaching assists people to build their capacity and confidence to use a range of personal skills that are deemed relevant to the achievement of their personal and corporate goals. It builds on strengths and grafts on additional skills and techniques for managing their behaviour in the situations they expect to face. It aims to support their efforts to advance and succeed in new roles.

Case Study

A professional was promoted to manage his department, but found it difficult to find the time to do all the things he then needed to do as a manager. He was still doing a lot of his old job that he had not passed on to others, and he didn’t have time to write the policies and position papers he was now asked to prepare. The briefing from the HR project controller was to get this person operating as a manager in this key area.

The initial phase involved sorting out the structure and roles of the department so that the responsibilities could be allocated. At the same time, the manager’s capacity to prepare and present his ideas and plans to his staff, senior managers and third party clients was developed. He did exercises to lift his confidence and capacity to take initiatives without apologising or compromising.

The project then concentrated on his personal and corporate persuasive skills, so that he could gather support for his proposals and get his plans accepted. Extensive reviews and analyses of corporate behaviour, tactics and personal strategies were used to develop insights and understanding, and role plays and simulations were used to develop the right words and appropriate attitudes. He progressively tried out his new skills, and over several months his proficiency and confidence grew.

Towards the end of twelve months coaching he was proud to take initiatives and to report back and discuss them to demonstrate he had learned his lessons and how to put them into practice. This was a natural “graduation” process that allowed the coaching to ease off and diminish naturally. He has since taken additional responsibilities into his department, and become head of a department with a more senior title.