Why Does Anytime Coaching Work?

Anytime Coaching skills are powerful and effective for a variety of reasons. The skills leverage recent findings in the fields of neuroscience, emotional intelligence, leadership development, human resource management, organizational development, positive psychology, and mindfulness.

Work in the field of neuroscience confirms what many of us already know: When people figure something out on their own (even with help), they “own” it. And now, neuroscience tells us that their brain pathways are changed in a way that embeds the learning and makes it more likely to be repeated. “Neuroplasticity” describes how the brain reorganizes neural pathways based on new experience. As we gain new knowledge and skills, our brain creates new neural connections, enabling us to grow and develop. Anytime Coaching works because it fosters and encourages sustainable change within ourselves as well as our employees.

People who do only what they are told to do lack opportunities to grow through experimentation and reliance on their own judgment, experience, and hunches. People willingly exercise their own judgment, experience, and hunches when they know such behavior is both expected and respected. When managed by supervisors with good coaching skills, people perform better, learn more, and grow in overall competence and confidence—and the organization enjoys better results.

Neuroscience also explains why learning the four Anytime Coaching practices requires focus. The brain has two systems that are in constant competition for our attention and awareness. The first system is the higher, more rational, calmer system known as the prefrontal cortex. Think of the prefrontal cortex as the brain’s executive front office or C-suite. The prefrontal lobes allow for higher levels of planning, reasoning, remaining rational, and staying calm. A second brain system, the limbic system, relies on more primitive, deeply embedded cortical networks. The limbic system is often referred to as the emotional system of the brain because it “tracks your emotional relationship to thoughts, objects, people and events“ and it is where emotional memory is stored. This more primitive, fast-acting system often leads to ineffective management choices and snap judgments compared to the higher level, well-thought out executive brain system.

Becoming an anytime coach enables you to gain better access to the prefrontal cortex and its front-office capabilities such as strategizing and planning, while quieting the limbic system.

Work in the field of emotional intelligence tells us that career success depends less on knowledge and expertise in a particular discipline and more on interpersonal relationships and social skills. Coaching behaviors help managers who are experts in their fields interact with peers and subordinates in ways that honor everyone’s contribution to the work at hand and that develop new experts. When leaders’ interpersonal and social skills include the art of Anytime Coaching, they actively develop new leaders.

Experts whose job it is to develop leaders have found that leadership takes many forms, and people can lead from wherever they are in the organization. When leaders coach, their people step forward into challenging situations to present new options and solutions, and they are treated respectfully when they do. Risk-taking and potential failure are seen as part of the learning process. People grow when they are given difficult problems to solve along with the latitude to be creative in solving them. Anytime Coaching skills help a leader decide when and how to work with people so that they become leaders in accomplishing their own work. Such increased self-awareness is a component of emotionally intelligent leadership, which anytime coaches learn to develop.

Research in human resource management tells us that organizations with an abundance of top-down, command-and-control managerial practices have higher levels of employee dissatisfaction and turnover and lower productivity. Coaching skills balance command-and-control behaviors with collaborative and cooperative practices that engage the best of every employee. When human resource professionals are asked how to reduce turnover, improve morale, and boost productivity, many of their recommendations center on changing managerial behavior. Those recommendations include training managers in many of the skills we call Anytime Coaching.

Organizational development experts tell us that groups of people working together naturally form accepted ways of behaving, and that what becomes accepted is greatly influenced by those in power positions. When managers adopt Anytime Coaching as a business-as-usual system of managing, the influence is felt throughout the organization. People know what they are supposed to do and know they are seen as competent and growing individuals whose contributions are necessary and vital to the organization. While the organizational chart may still look like a top-down arrangement, the behaviors between levels of management and across peer groups become coaching-based. Gone are fears of blame and punishment; in their place are risk tolerance, collaboration, shared credit, and responsibility. Anytime Coaching skills help create this type of positive workplace reality.

The field of positive psychology continues to provide evidence that people at work are happier and do better work when they (1) are appreciated for their unique skills and abilities, (2) have opportunities to use those skills and abilities in ways that generate positive outcomes, (3) are given opportunities to learn and develop new competencies, and (4) are recognized appropriately for their efforts and achievements. Anytime Coaching skills provide managers the tools and techniques necessary to interact with employees in ways that create a positive work climate where people know they are valued and, as a result, willingly share their value with the organization and continue to grow.

Research in the field of mindfulness has found that the regular practice of focusing on the present, allowing distracting thoughts to pass on by, has the benefit of increasing our ability to regain that focus throughout daily activities. From the perspective of neuroscience, mindfulness can be characterized “as a series of mental exercises by which one strengthens one’s control over the workings of their own brains.” Becoming more mindful creates a more resilient supervisor, manager, or employee, able to weather workplace challenges without becoming overly anxious, overwhelmed, or paralyzed by doubt or fear. By developing a sense of calm, clarity, and “focus on the moment,” the anytime coach minimizes distractions when observing and interacting with others. Through Anytime Coaching, you will learn ways to be more present, more aware, and more focused.