Coaching

It is never easy to coach someone. I always find this job a challenge which fuels my increasing respect and admiration for teachers.

Everyone learns differently. What works well for one person may not work for another. Yet, as a coacher, we often fall back on the method that works for us when we coach rather than coach in a way suitable for the person. For all of us who need to give on-the-job training to another, we are often pressured by time, especially during handover. We face with the stress of transferring our knowledge as soon as possible for the other person to be able to run on their own. At the same time, coaching is often an ECA which is to be performed on top of our normal job scope. Pressed for time, we do not have sufficient time to understand the learning needs of the recipient. Hence, we coach as we deem fit and which is often the way that works for us. Unless the other person learns in the same manner as us, we end up being frustrated by the outcome.

The next most difficult area is the determination of what is important and what is not. There is so much information that needs to be shared on the subject matter. What is critical for the coachee to know immediately and what can wait for the coachee to discover on his own. For the coacher who has been on the job for some times, it is difficult to know as all the information and knowledge complement one another.

Yet coaching is definitely an important skill to acquire because as passing on the baton is required both at work and at home and from supervisor to subordinates and peers and from parents to children. As the coacher expend effort to pass on the information, the least the coachee can do is to pay attention and do their part in the learning.