For the past several months I have been  focused on completing two related projects. Both focused on the development of coaching skills and your capacity to provide coaching to every leader and team. One is the publication of a book, The Lean Coach. The second is the launch of a new online course, Coaching Leaders for Success.

To change the culture of an organization you must change the habits of leaders and teams.
Habits rarely change without the assistance of a coach.

The Necessity of Coaching

Most organizations are adopting lean culture and leadership. However, many are struggling to create a sustainable change in the habits of continuous improvement, teamwork and problem-solving. Training alone is insufficient. Face-to-face coaching is required. The cost of external coaching is too great and most companies do not have sufficient internal coaches. The only solution is to do what Toyota has done – develop coaching skills and provide that coaching to peer managers and teams. This is the Lean Coach. This book and companion online course are intended to provide the needed coaching process and skills.

This course is based on two bodies of knowledge: The first is lean or Toyota Production System. The second is behavior analysis or behavioral psychology which focuses on observable behavior, not personality traits or attitudes. It can be summarized by the phrase “It is easier to act your way into a new way of feeling, than feel your way into a new way of acting.”

Both of these methods are founded on the scientific method, focusing on data and experimentation. They are also practical and can be employed in the workplace without advanced training. The model of coaching presented in this course is well proven and easily adapted to your organization.

Targets - Hard and SoftIn both the book and the online course I present a model of coaching that addresses not only short term habits, but the development of leadership skills and a focus on achieving improvement in key performance metrics. Over the past forty years of consulting with clients to improve performance I have always included the development of internal coaches, who can assist every team leader and team in the organization. Now I have developed this into a book and course that are available at a very low cost.

Develop Internal Coaching Skills

The online course on Udemy includes more than four hours of instruction. The thirty lectures are divided into six sections that include the following:

  1. Introduction
  2. The Basics of the Leader Coaching Model
  3. The Seven Step Coaching Cycle
  4. Helping and Human Relations Skills
  5. Giving and Receiving Feedback
  6. Supplemental Lectures on Goal Setting and Motivation

Please take a look at the course. I think you will find it to be a valuable addition to your continuous improvement effort.Â