Although this seems to be expensive to undertake, one-on-one coaching offers a lasting value to connect innovation far more deeply in the way a person and their organization ‘sees it’. It provides the place of context, meaning and content if facilitated well.
The importance, like all behavioral change coaching, is to create a safe but challenging environment so the recipient can take risks and learn. You as the coach find the balance between challenging through inquiry and supporting different thinking to draw out possibilities to gain new understanding from.
All the work is usually based on the recipient’s agenda, through a set of opening discussions you need to balance both personal learning’s with organizational needs. These need consistent clarification and re-calibrating as you go.
The coach’s role is to facilitate and collaborate.
You need to take care not to act like ‘the expert’ imposing a given view but you can explore options that the recipient draws their own conclusions and value from. Avoid imposing and provide different thinking and perspectives so it becomes a facilitated debate that the recipient draws into.
Coaching is made up of a series of interactions
The ability to create meaningful interactions that connect people with ideas allows them to clarify and connect on the more important principles and critical issues surrounding innovation. Having a real passion and depth of innovation knowledge becomes critical to navigating this often tricky road to discovery.
The value of a coach is he/she is both a catalyst and facilitator of individual development. The value is in looking to improve innovation performance within that person’s understanding so there is a distinct ROII (return on innovation investment).
Pause, learn and then move on with new innovation purpose and knowledge
By helping executives to firstly pause, then take stock of the significance of various innovation transitions, and help them determine the best way to proceed is invaluable. Of course, this support is determined by the commitment, engagement, the given skills, and scope as well as the person’s real interests in wanting to have a greater understanding of innovation. It all requires available time.
Innovation coaching has a valuable contribution to make, in the right hands and with the right person. It has a significant personal investment on all sides involved to achieve clarity, insight, and returns for innovation to flourish so others can equally benefit from this more intensive approach and emerging internal expertise that will eventually come from within.