Coaching for Results! Increasing Your Effectiveness as a Safety and Health Consultant

摘要

The industry of coaching has taken off in the last five to ten years, specifically in the business arena. While there have always been individuals designated as coaches in the sports world, it seems just recently that you can obtain a coach for virtually any type of personal, work or hobby activity. According to the International Federation of Coaching the current executive coaching field is currently an over-$1 billion industry. And while safety and health professionals are not intending to become professional coaches, there is much to be learned from the field of coaching with respect to advancing the effectiveness of an organization's safety and health program. In fact, it is the author's perspective that safety and health professionals who increase their skill and experience with respect to coaching will serve to dramatically improve and jettison an organization's ability to integrate safety within the business framework. When coming from a coaching perspective, safety professionals can significantly influence and leverage the capacity for employees at all levels in the organization to embrace and promote safety. The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction for safety and health professionals to the area of coaching. It is meant to define what coaching is, what is meant to be accomplished, and to offer a simple to use model for coaching. Once it is clear what coaching is and how it is accomplished, the paper will provide two coaching dysfunctions - one is when safety professionals inadvertently assume the boss role when coaching, and the second is a rescuer model. Both examples are provided in an effort to increase the results and effectiveness safety professionals can experience when they assume a coaching role within the organization.