TRANSFERRING SKILLS – "PESOS" PROCESS

Teacher, Mentor, Coach - what’s the big deal?

While a teacher will give you information and a mentor will share their invaluable experience, a coach will primarily do one thing: ask questions. Coaching is all about asking the right questions. It’s amazing to know the power of “question probing.” Coaches know what to ask, when to ask, how to ask, and who to ask great questions to take you from where you are now to where you want to be. A great coach asks great questions to help you remove the obstacles in your mind and to get you back on track in life and business.

Most leaders always want to see their employees grow to reach their full potential. The question is how can we “transfer skills” successfully? Training by itself is not enough. How can we develop high achievers? How can I “multiply” my team, rather than just growing it by small numbers?

Developing people is different than just training them. It’s about cultivating their talents, enabling their abilities, and allowing them to learn from actual experience. Most companies excel at ‘training’ their employees, but not at ‘developing’ them. Training is often theoretical and tactical, while developing someone takes more of an ongoing, interactive approach. Learning skills doesn’t start and end only in the classroom or in your particular field of practice.

Transferring skills is an art. Through my years of coaching, leadership development and sales trainings, I have found a very effective, simple five step process for this purpose, which I would like to share with you. It’s called the “PESOS” process. This obviously is not about currencies…it’s about coaching.

PESOS stands for Prepare, Explain, Show, Observe, and Supervise. Skipping even one step can undermine the entire process, therefore, it’s very important to follow each step below:

1.    PREPARE:

Prepare yourself and all the necessary materials. Put your trainee at ease. State the objective and point out the benefits. Have a dialog about what the trainee can expect, discuss all the possible scenarios, and eliminate any concerns they may have.

2.    EXPLAIN:

This is where you explain the what, why, how and when of your plan and process. Set the expectations.

3.    SHOW:

Show your entire presentation and do an actual demonstration. Show how you do the entire job, not just bits and pieces. Role play and use all the materials and skills exactly as you normally would, in the same way your trainee should use them. Set a high standard. Quality produces more quality.

4.    OBSERVE:

Let the trainee now perform the presentation or complete the task on their own. Observe. Complement, Coach, and provide feedback. Providing feedback is critical, so the  trainee can learn what they need to change or improve.

5.    SUPERVISE:

Transferring skills won't be successful if it’s not supervised. The fortune is in follow up. Consistent supervision builds credibility, and shows you care about the success of the employee. Most employees improve if they know you are going to check their ‘homework’. This step verifies that you believe the training is important.

By ‘developing’ people as opposed to just ‘training’ them, you are growing new leaders who now have the talent and skills to maximize your company’s true potential, in addition to their own.

Here is the difference between Training vs. Developing someone: