ABSTRACT
Coaching is the essential management style or tool for optimizing people's potential and performance. Commanding, demanding, and instructing, persuading with threats, overt or covert, cannot produce sustainable optimum performance, even though they may get the job done. In performance coaching, a coach works with a coachee to support them to move towards particular performance standards, described in terms of specific behaviours the coachee needs to show. Observation of the practitioner at work is a way of gathering evidence about the practitioner's performance that can be used to support their reflection on their practice. At the beginning of the coaching session, the coach hands the observation transcript to the coachee to enable them to review the extent to which they are on track to achieving their goals. This encourages self-evaluation, engages the practitioner in actively reflecting on their practice, and allows them to form their own views without interference from the observer - thereby respecting their need for autonomy.
