As humans, we are learning something every day, if only we pay attention to it, that is!
If you are in a business of mentoring/training or have people dependent on you to get their job done, then the opportunity for you to learn & coach those, that are dependent on you, is immense. So, if you are involved in coaching your people, read on!
Many a times, we believe that if we tell the audience, what has to be done, the audience will do it. Which is true when those tasks/instructions are basic & generic. However, when you are responsible for someone’s career progression, then just telling them is not enough! You have to go beyond telling. That is what we are going to discuss here.
Tell Me, Show Me, Let Me.
As we know, each one of us is unique & have different learning capabilities. Hence, it is very important for anyone, who is responsible for coaching their people, to know that the same strategy would not work for all. You have to have different paths for different people. Let’s look at the 3 ways that you can use to coach your people effectively & bring about positive change.
Tell Me
- Quite a few people would probably understand the task/instructions when they are told the same.
- These people would also be the first ones to try out the task/instruction once they are told about the same.
- These people are the first ones to try out the efficacy of the methods told to them & provide critical feedback.
- Remember the time when you were told to attend induction at 11 AM & a location was provided? You understood that instruction just by listening to it, didn’t you? Well that is the first step. That’s the Tell Me
Show Me
- A few people would want to see how to carry out the task/instructions informed to them.
- These are people who want to see before they try out the new methods.
- These are the people who will retain the instructions that which were told to them, being witness to the results of those instruction.
- Picture this, you attended the induction as per the time & you were told about the transport facility Hexaware has. Did you retain the transport pick-up points? You were shown the portal where this information is stored for your access any time. I bet you know where to look for the pick-up points now. You are able to do it because you were told & shown where to find them. That is the Show Me
Let Me
- There will be a lot of people who would want to be supervised while they are trying out the tasks/instructions. These people may also need step wise support for the execution.
- These step ensure that the entire audience is well aware about the execution of the tasks & instructions shared
- So during the induction you were informed how to regularize your attendance. But didn’t you take help from your colleague when you had to do it the first time? Once you were able to do it, I am sure now you can teach that to any new joiner. Why do you retain this knowledge? Simply because you were told how to do it? You were shown how to do it. But only after you did it, you retained it. That’s the Let Me
It is imperative that each one of us is aware about these methods & know about the execution of the same. Because, as I said earlier, if you are in a role where people depend upon you to get the job done, then you would have to coach quite a few people to make that happen.
When you cascade what & how of the things to the audience by telling, showing & then letting them do it, you ensure that every individual is taken care of.
At Hexaware, we build this in each of our trainers who is responsible for training new work force & also introduce the existing work force to this, through the OD programs PACE, STEP & LEAP. These techniques are also inscribed further through the plethora of behavioral training sessions on Mentorship, Mindfulness, Effective coaching & Feedback to name a few. Furthermore, the trainers are also taken through a rigorous “Train the Trainer” program, where these methods are practiced.
We have reaped the benefits of this approach in our new hire training programs specifically. To give an example, in one of the e-commerce processes where this was introduced, the throughput of new hire training program improved by 7% on yearly basis in 2019. Also, the same was voiced by the trainees during their testimonials regarding the training program.
This method can go a long way in forming trust relationships & is applicable in each field of life & not just at work.
So, if you are already doing this, Kudos to you & if not, as you read in the beginning, we are always learning & trying new things will only open more horizons in future.
