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Coaching & Training in Central Europe

Martyn Carruthers

In Central and Eastern Europe, many organizations are hungry for solutions provided by professional management coaching and relationship training. A lack of quality training resources blocks the growth potential of many Central and East European companies, including organizations wishing to expand into Central Europe. Systemic Solutions offers solutions to prevent and remedy this.

Expand into Poland . Expand into Croatia

Long-term organizational success requires technically skilled employees who understand organizational development and have appropriate relationship skills. Qualified professionals can be recruited, or people within an organization can be coached and trained in ways that reflect and include both local and organizational cultures.

Coaching, Training and Culture

Organizational culture can be described as the personality of an organization, guiding how employees communicate and work. This term can be used to define the general character of an organization, and includes core values, ethics, and codes of conduct. Organizational culture may be communicated in mission statements, architectural styles, office décor, work clothes and employee titles.

Some questions provide insight into organizational culture:

• Do organizational values conflict with local cultural values?
• What are the consequences to employees who show initiative?
• Are employees expected to be mobile?
• Who can be trained - who cannot be?
• Does training bring respect or alienation?
• Do employees generally trust management?
• Can employees and management easily communicate?
• What should people do to be promoted?

Organizational culture is indicated by the age of the organization, its history, customers and management structure. Industry and market information can be used to identify an organization's growth, strategy, business opportunities and financial performance.

Cultural values and relationship habits can enhance or limit organizational development. Employees who betray or ignore cultural rules may alienate themselves from their peers and managers. Efforts to improve long-term staff quality must address potential cultural chasms. Creating and maintaining a consistent corporate culture across multiple locations, with standard procedures, objectives and staff attitudes, is a daunting management task.

Efforts towards cultural consistency may be complicated in joint ventures with Central European governments, whose culture may be different to, and perhaps clash with, organizational culture.

High staff retention helps create and maintain corporate culture. Organizations committed to staff development reap employee commitment. Common options for employee development are organizational training, independent training and in-house training. Many organizations choose a combination of these to maximize staff coverage, cost-effectiveness, quality of content and employee retention.

In-house coaching and training provides solutions for many skill gaps, and can focus on individuals who show potential, entry-level staff and older managers.

In-House Coaching and Training

Success, relationship and team coaching are little known occupations in Central and Eastern Europe. Coaching is a new profession, treated with initial surprise. Even the word "coaching" is difficult to translate into Russian and Central European languages, while avoiding the words for counseling, consulting and therapy.

Although a single coaching and training company may not satisfy every staff development need, in-house coaching and training offers many benefits. Cost-effective in-house skill development can be integrated into daily work, with excellent results. A program often starts with courses that immediately improve bottom line profits - sales training, stress control and communication are notable examples - and expands to fill other organizational and management needs.

Employee orientation and follow-up training can reinforce corporate policies and objectives while contributing to operational efficiency. However, creating a dedicated in-house training program is a difficult task for many smaller and mid-size Central European organizations.

One challenge is a scarcity of good local trainers. A potential trainer with business experience can earn far more in management than in training; and inexperienced trainers may not be effective.

Many qualified managers would make good coaches and trainers, but are in limited supply. Most organizations are reluctant to move their most competent managers into full-time human resource development. Instead, companies generally hire young, inexperienced university graduates as instructors, with the hope that they somehow develop into effective trainers.

After a company finds competent trainers, the company needs a tailored curriculum and training materials. Although some trainers are also excellent program developers, most trainers use materials supplied by third-party providers.

Training materials that do not reflect the local culture and specific organizational needs reduce the benefits of local training. Some companies offer commercial training aids in Polish, Czech, Croatian, etc, which are often translations of outdated English manuals. Both the quality and cultural applicability can be poor.

The best in-house training programs generally employ experienced expert trainers, who supervise and mentor local trainers, who learn as assistants and apprentices.

Local Outsourcing

Most training companies in Central and East Europe offer basic staff development, language instruction and clerical training. Local training companies can be a resource for teaching these core skills and are a useful resource for smaller companies that cannot maintain training departments.

It is often difficult to find training companies that provide experienced and skilled trainers who can teach in the local language and create culturally specific training aids, especially outside the larger cities. (Training companies also have trouble finding and keeping competent trainers.)

Overseas Training

While local training programs can be effective, overseas work and study programs are a solution for developing high-potential staff. In addition to the benefits of education and cultural understanding, foreign training often brings status, which can boost a manager's effectiveness.

Overseas training can be transformative. However, transformed individuals may be motivated to leave the organization and either return "overseas" or search for better-paying positions locally.

Combining Systemic Strategies

Effective training strategies require an intimate knowledge of goals and resources. Some questions to help identify training goals and resources are:

1. What is the organization's size and overall objectives?
2. What are the attrition rates amongst managers and professionals?
3. What are the performance objectives for each workgroup?
4. What will likely happen if each workgroup is not trained?
5. What are the essential missing competencies?
6. What curricula and training aids are required?

Successful organizations often combine developmental options to maximize the staff trained, cost-effectiveness, quality of content and employee retention. In-house and local training companies are the popular options for staff development.

Local training companies can provide low-cost and ready-made solutions, and in-house training is often the most cost-effective way to reach the broadest number of staff. Many organizations combine outsourced training with their own in-house programs; accelerated by organizational coaching, which is becoming mainstream.

Organizations in Central and East Europe can order tailored coaching and training programs that meet their needs. Systemic Solutions can work with you to meet your organizational goals. Why not email us?

Systemic Solutions are available in English, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Macedonian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene and Ukrainian.

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to help people dissolve emotional blocks, improve relationships and achieve goals. These concepts and strategies are for general knowledge only. Consult a physician about medical conditions and before changing medical treatment. Don't steal intellectual property ... ask for permission to post, publish or teach this work.