A
Th e
Component Manufacturing dverti$er
Adverti$er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
January 2017 #10210 Page #67
Why Coaching is Important to Continuous Improvement
Ben Hershey, Coach, 4Ward Consulting Group, LLC
It’s 2017, Happy New Year!
If you are like me, you spend the later part of the year setting goals for the coming year and planning how to accomplish them. For those who work for me, I always set goals, metrics, and participate in a conference on how we are going to achieve what we want together. Over the last few months, I also had the privilege, along with the consulting work I do, to speak with several groups (a Chamber of Commerce group in Massachusetts, an industry group in Ohio, and a Christian Advocates group here in Washington) about Coaching and Mentoring and the importance it takes with leaders. Coaching requires a leader (our managers and supervisors) to have a servant leadership attitude.
We must serve the people, invest in the people. If we Coach, the company will grow as the minds grow. True continuous improvement requires a servant leader attitude and outlook to be successful within an organization. Continuous improvement (in its purest sense) actually demands that leadership support others in their development. Hence, rather than exercising power over the people, the power should be shared with the people by putting their development needs first. This is where coaching comes into play for our managers and supervisors. Many of the operations I have worked with have lost sight of the importance of coaching and focused on immediate satisfaction through saving money quickly at the expense of the people and the culture. I hope to share with you some key thoughts on coaching and why it is important to your Continuous Improment journey. Impact of a Coach Think back to one of the coaches you had in the past: who really stood out for you? I can name a few from both High School and College. I had a superstar coach in Trent Richards who consistently produced winning cross country and track & field teams every year in St. Charles, IL. But I would have to say my favorite coach was Jeff Leavey who coached basketball and was an assistant coach for cross country and track & field. Coach Leavey lead by example, he communicated what was expected and then taught the skills over and over to make sure you knew what or how a specific skill was to be performed. It is Coach Leavey who I remember teaching those basis skills that led to many of the successes many St. Charles runners experienced for decades.
PHONE: 800-289-5627
Read/Subscribe online at www.componentadvertiser.com
FAX: 800-524-4982