What is e-coach?   A virtual coaching solution that revolutionizes workplace performance support!
What is e-coach?   Our Theory     Online Coaching     Problems Addressed     Key Benefits.     How We Are Unique               The Theory Behind e-coach As learning and development experts who had designed hundreds of workshops and seminars and conducted as many leadership, coaching, feedback, and management training programs, we were feeling frustrated that our "good work" wasn’t always making the difference it should make. So we asked ourselves if there was something that could be done that would really improve results and performance and thereby revolutionize the "standard" approach to learning and development.    A Breakthrough Approach   What we concluded prompted us to develop e-coach  -- a breakthrough solution that answers questions pertaining to learning and development such as these: Can we use technology to help people with typical performance challenges to perform and contribute at the highest levels possible -- like the help live coaches successfully provide every day? How do we make certain the training we do is effective – and that it delivers an appropriate return on our training investment? How can individuals get the coaching and feedback they need to actually use skills on the job, and hence develop competence in new skills? How can we best teach and support the use of competencies associated with emotional intelligence such as self-awareness, social skills, empathy, and others that research consistently suggests make the true difference between average and star performance? How can we give people opportunities to get support when they need it -- not just when their managers or coaches are available? How do we help people to use the Internet, organizational intranets, and other  forms of technology to approach learning differently and interact effectively with others?   The Need   e-coach is needed today because increasing changes in the workplace and fewer workers to do the work have created ever-growing needs for people with broader and stronger skills. Companies have responded to these needs by spending increasing amounts of money on both technical- and interpersonal-skills training. Despite this increase in spending, however, many programs have failed to make a real difference in competencies and performance.   The reasons for this shortfall are varied and complex. One reason is an overemphasis on technical training that assures skills required for threshold competence but does not provide everything that is needed for workplace success. Other reasons include inadequate feedback, no opportunity to practice new skills on the job, and an organizational culture that doesn’t provide support for learning.   The need for more support is not new. Human support – the kind provided by coaching and active  reinforcement -- has always been an important adjunct to effective training, and many consultants, including ourselves, have routinely recommended it. We suggest that trained managers supplement training by being available to coach, structure follow-up learning opportunities, and support further learning and the use of new skills on the job.    Another reason why e-coach is needed – perhaps an even more compelling one – is related to the typical performance management process.  While most organizations have some type of performance management program, it typically focuses on goal setting and assessment.  It does not usually include a “formal” component for providing active support for individuals throughout the performance cycle – when work is actually performed and active support is essential.   The publication of Working With Emotional Intelligence (Goleman, 1998) gave new urgency to the need for more support for workplace learning, especially in areas related to emotional intelligence. It crystallized what many of us have long suspected -- that a new model for learning is needed if training and educational efforts are really going to be effective in creating better, more skilled workers.   The new model incorporates many of the suggestions of earlier training models, but it goes beyond them by presenting new challenges to the learning community. It spells out what is needed to support training if it is to be truly effective in creating "differently-skilled" people. These "absolutely essential" elements include preventing relapse through practice," "giving feedback," "encouraging practice," "reinforcing change," and "arranging support."   e-coach -- The Winning Solution   e-coach is a breakthrough in workplace performance improvement because it offers an effective way to provide these essential elements. For example: If people need more support and more coaching and practice, e-coach provides it. Even within the highly charged, political environment of many companies, e-coach makes it possible to provide people at all levels with the individual support they need. e-coach provides a cost-effective, user-friendly, and highly effective way to use new approaches to learning and new technologies -- including the Internet and internal intranets -- to help with these and other pressing human resources and organizational concerns.