Case Study: Financial Institution - Coaching Managers

This organisation was developing a range of new products and services in view of becoming a full service financial institution. Previously, the primary focus had been lending. This represented a major change in business strategy, operations and staff training.

Type of Company:

Financial Institution.

The Background:

This organisation was developing a range of new products and services in view of becoming a full service financial institution. Previously, the primary focus had been lending. This represented a major change in business strategy, operations and staff training.

Part of the new business focus involved the branch managers becoming better at coaching their staff to help implement and support this strategy on the frontline.

As a long time partner with DTS, we were approached by their Learning & Development (L&D) team to deliver a coaching skills development program for 75-80 branch managers.

The Problem:

One of the crucial tasks of managers is to train their staff by helping them to become more effective (both in their role, and externally with customers). However, managers frequently find themselves fire-fighting, struggling to devote adequate time to staff development. Without proper support, they are not able to help their people be at their best.

The organisation wanted coaching to serve as a model for embedding training concepts and this new strategy into the business (on-the-job), but there was no model in place for coaching team members.

The Solution:

DTS proposed the development of a clear framework that would give managers a process to follow when coaching their team. Having a process would help to reduce the time to plan and conduct coaching activities. It would also help maximise the time invested in coaching by replicating previous coaching sessions, and provide a structured approach for streamlining on-the-job coaching.

• A coaching framework was built to help managers plan, conduct and review coaching conversations based on the GROW framework. This included a template for practical use on the frontline.
• Training for branch managers on coaching and how to use the coaching template with frontline staff.
• Follow-up session for the branch managers to revisit and deepen their understanding of coaching on the frontline.

The Results:

Many managers are reporting great success in coaching conversations. Some have seen measurable changes in their people, others have found that by having a framework to build on they have developed their own coaching style. People in the organisation at multiple levels have found coaching a useful tool for better communication and interaction with the people they manage.

Due to the success of this program, DTS are continuing to roll-out a similar program for the Branch Supervisors (Second in Charge - 2IC) and a Train-the-Trainer for the internal L&D staff.