Executive coaching is typically for senior executives focusing on leadership development and behavioral change, wherein the engagement will be over a six-month period; operational coaching, on the other hand, is short-duration coaching to help supervisors, managers, or any individual to solve operational issues at hand. The coaching could be a one-hour session or extend to several short sessions. Operational coaching helps to get greater clarity on the issue and to take action soon to make the change. It brings clarity of thought and accuracy of action.
Operational coaching helps functional heads and managers to manage their responsibilities more efficiently and effectively. The coaching can help to improve execution, presentation, customer satisfaction, meeting quality, and process flow. Coachees can also get help for goal setting, statistical analysis and meeting KPI and targets.
The approach used is similar to STAR model (Situation- Target- Action- Reflection) and it is about quickly getting the client or coachee solve the problem. The unique model we have developed is called SAS (State, Articulate and Suggest)
State: the client states the problem
Articulate: The coach helps the client articulate the problem more logically. This could go back and forth several times, before a clear Problem is stated. Very often the client would find answers in the Articulate stage itself. When the problem is articulated correctly the person facing the issue would often get an idea of the right solution
Suggest: The third step is about the solution.
Some problems need a detailed analysis or approach used by any of the world class systems- PDCA, Six Sigma, Lean etc… .It could also be a quick win solution that is recommended based on the coach’s experience handling similar problems or by doing a hypothesis test. Another outcome of this stage could be a short-term solution followed by a suggestion to implement a long-term project or intervention
The Essence of this approach is that all the problem-solving tools, techniques and philosophies would essentially help us see the problem and the related solution from a commonsense approach.
Irrespective of a company having adapted a continuous improvement philosophy or not, there are always challenges faced by Engineers, Functional Leaders and also Executives running operations. Operational coaching helps solve problems as well as build capability.