Coaching Conversations

I just got off the phone with a colleague I've known for several years, although we've never met in person and this colleague lives most of the way across the country from me. We spoke of the downturn in the economy, changes in our workload, aggravations of management that sometimes can be ambiguous and send mixed messages, and my colleague's eventual goal to reinvent himself after retirement.

When the phone conversation began, my colleague, whom I'll call Tom, sounded a bit tired and edgy. He'd had a stressful couple of weeks - mostly due to that oft-time aggravating situation of having ambiguous messages from company leadership or lack of clear support from the upper level management team. I've often seen professionals and mid-level managers who truly want to work hard and become fully engaged in their organization's success; however, there is an apparent lack of a clear and consistent vision or support from the leadership team. It's difficult to jump on board the organizational train if leadership either continuously changes direction, or management alternately hitches and unhitches cars from the train showing support at times and lack of support otherwise.

As my conversation with Tom wandered a little and he mentioned a potential new direction or link between his current work and something he'd like to be doing in the future, we discussed the link between employee discipline, employee relations, and labor relations - including the differences and similarities of these human resources focus areas. The more we talked the more that future possibilities seemed to have a positive potential. Tom's voice started to sound much more relaxed and comfortable. He was beginning to see that things would not always be the way they were looking today - and that his attitude would make all the difference between a positive or negative future outcome.

The call ended on a good note - with both of us feeling better and more energized than we would have felt without working through the conversation. I was reminded of why I enjoy sometimes taking a coaching role with family, friends, co-workers, employees, and colleagues half way across the country. Conversation can be a great mood enhancer and problem solving tool. Just as a computer and the internet are the technology of written communication - conversation is the technology of coaching.