by Romy Ronquillo, Director, CitySavings

The following is from 1995, the beginning of JRA and EIA’s assumption as the new ACO/AEV leaders. We had launched the groupwide Total Quality Management campaign and we needed to retrain all team leaders of all Aboitiz business units. This topic comes from one of those seminars I had been conducting for our management people—supervisors and above. I think, even today, too many cannot differentiate training from coaching.

For the past 45 years, plus or minus, I have been spending time in training and coaching people I am responsible for, eventually focusing on training, limiting coaching to those directly reporting to me.

In POS, I am basically a facilitator more involved in training with the hope of being to do some coaching.

Training to me is the important function of a supervisor’s job. You train to improve skills and acquire more skills with the end in view of building a person’s proficiency and efficiency. One refers to proven concepts and methods, in short, the fundamentals. For those familiar with a team sport like basketball, for example, you always find a coach and a trainer or trainers.

You may also say training is tactical while coaching is strategic. Once trained, you start coaching, developing your own style, using your inherent talent and that is acquired from the training. You draw from your own resources. Attitude is important and having the right paradigms aligned with the times and needs.

As a coach, you start using your leadership attributes; setting up your own goal, and departing when needed from the conventional. A positive and enlightened mindset is required.

I mention this because I infer from your comments that coaching and training are either the same or interchangeable, which they are not.

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