Coaching for High Performance

Coaching lies at the heart of management, and the greater the need for stronger business performance, the greater the need for managers and supervisors to be good coaches. Coaching for High Performance helps students understand the role, purpose, and key responsibilities of coaches in organizations. It clearly demonstrates the value of coaching and the ways in which effective coaching enables the enterprise to deliver strong results both in both the short and long term.

Athletes and those in the performing arts get coaching on a regular basis, enabling them to reach and maintain peak performance. In business, we know that those individuals who have a coach who understands their passion, goals, and aspirations are able to maximize their talents and deliver outstanding results.

Today, a strong commitment to coaching is a major factor in helping retain the best employees. Businesses are asking people to acquire new knowledge, master state-of-the-art skills, take risks, and try out unfamiliar behaviors. The support of a trusted coach helps individuals and organizations excel and meet competitive challenges with confidence.

Coaching for High Performance enables students to master this key management development tool. Following a seven-step coaching process, students learn how to communicate performance expectations, assess coachees’ skills, establish the purpose of coaching, agree on a coaching contract, conduct coaching conversations, vary their coaching style, create the coaching plan, monitor performance, and learn what needs to be done in subsequent coaching sessions. Students master the techniques needed to handle difficult coaching conversations involving conflict or strained emotions. The text highlights strategies for handling special coaching situations, including how to coach various types of teams effectively, how to link motivation and coaching, and how to successfully coach each segment of a multigenerational workforce, from Baby Boomers to Gen Xers.

Coaching for High Performance features assessments, exercises, and scenarios that provide an interactive learning experience and enable students to evaluate their own and others’ skill levels, test new concepts, and measure their progress.

About the Author

Vivette Payne is a consultant and writer who specializes in organization, team, and personal development. Her expertise includes leadership coaching, team building, the custom design and delivery of leadership and other skill development programs, and facilitating planning and strategy development.

Vivette also works with organizations to design human resource systems that enable greater competitiveness and organizational effectiveness. She partners with a network of associates to bring clients a depth and range of expertise in organization, team, and personal development.

Vivette is the author of First-Level Leadership: Supervising in the New Workplace, Second Edition (AMACOM). She is also the author of The Team Building Workbook (AMACOM).

She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s degree in organization development.