Personal Coaching

During the past few years, NEPPA has expanded its training opportunities in a variety of areas: safety and technical, supervisory and leadership and customer service and office skills. One constant among them is that they have all been conducted in group settings.

But sometimes learners need a more focused approach, an individualized setting that is customized to them and their specific needs. This can be especially true with talented and high-performing employees who are being groomed by their utilities and cooperatives for leadership roles in order to manage the future challenges of an ever-changing public power industry. To meet this need, NEPPA is pleased to offer a new professional development program in Personal Coaching.

Coaching is a series of one-on-one meetings between an employee and a coach for the purpose of helping the individual improve his or her job performance. The process begins when a supervisor in a utility identifies a productive employee who has even more potential to be uncovered and when the employee is willing to undertake specific steps to realize that potential. After an initial meeting between the employee, supervisor and coach to discuss the skills or habits that need development, a series of private coaching sessions (via telephone) is scheduled.

What kinds of topics are covered? It depends on what the person’s needs are, but coaching typically centers around interpersonal skills (listening, communicating, supervising), goal-setting, leadership skills and time management. Anybody can be a candidate for coaching, especially someone whose expertise and experience have prepared them to help their organizations move forward into the future. How frequently the sessions take place also varies, but typically, they start out once a week for the first few sessions and then are gradually scheduled less frequently. What doesn’t vary, however, are the benefits of coaching: the employee eliminates troublesome habits and gains new perspectives on how to interact with others, while the organization gains a more confident and productive worker.

NEPPA’s coach will be Rockie Blunt, director of educational services. Before coming to NEPPA, Rockie did considerable coaching as part of his management training and consulting company. In his three years with NEPPA, he has worked with public power personnel at all levels through association training programs, special consulting projects and various committees and roundtables. He also has a certificate in Coaching Skills from the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD).

For more information about the Personal Coaching program, contact Rockie at the NEPPA office: 508-482-5906 or rblunt@neppa.org.