Get more from your team through effective coaching

Recently, we looked at how you can progress your business by developing your team. We explained the difference between training and development and how they both play a vital role in getting the most from your employees.

Training is about giving your employees the skills or knowledge to carry out a specific task or a role. Development is about helping employees achieve their potential, progress to the next level and expand their skill sets beyond their day to day roles.

Coaching can be an extremely effective tool for developing both yourself and your team.  

What is coaching?

There are many types of coaching; sports coaching, life coaching, business coaching, executive coaching, performance coaching and skills coaching.

Training focuses primarily on skill, whereas coaching focusses on skill as well as behaviour, knowledge, attitude and objectives.

Coaching your employees

Workplace coaching centres on facilitating the professional growth of employees and enhancing their performance.  

Coaching can be used in a number of situations:

• Address and overcome a performance issue

• Develop interpersonal skills and improve relationships

• Facilitate progression into leadership and management roles

• Performance enhancement

• Guide employees through organisational change or transition

• Improve employee engagement

Unlike training which can be quite rigid, coaching is usually non-directive. It is important that you listen to the employee so that you can coach effectively.

There are a number of coaching models you can use depending on the purpose of the coaching but the key elements to remember are:

Explore

Work with the employee to understand their motivations, objectives and desires. Help them identify any skills and knowledge gaps or any behavioural and performance issues. When dealing with a performance issue, do not react emotionally.

Question

Use questioning techniques to facilitate the employee’s thought process so they can identify the problems and solutions themselves. How does their performance affect the rest of the team or the organisation in general? What barriers or obstacles are preventing them from achieving their goals?

Set goals

Discuss ideas for potential solutions to problems and areas for development. Encourage the employee to set goals. These should be SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based).

Support

Provide guidance and support to help your employees achieve their goals. If there are realistic steps that you can take to enable their success then ensure that these steps are taken. Provide them with the tools, knowledge and skills to succeed.  

Evaluate

Coaching is ongoing. Help your employees to assess their progress and set new objectives on a continual basis. Conduct regular performance reviews to check that they are on track and offer them constructive feedback.

Encourage

Ensure that you are praising and encouraging your employees. When they meet objectives, make sure that you recognise their achievement in an appropriate way. Reinforce positive behaviour and progression. 

Effective coaching can directly impact on the productivity of your employees and improve your bottom line so it is worth investing some time in this area. If you do not feel confident as a coach then consider working with an external company who can assist you.

Coaching for business owners, leaders and managers

As well as coaching employees, many business owners, leaders and managers invest in coaching for themselves.

Business coaches or executive coaches can provide many benefits to any size business. Not only do they help you in your personal development, they can also help you progress your business to the next level.

Working with a business coach is highly recommended if you are ready to grow your business or you need to make significant changes to your organisational structure, systems or processes.

Find out more

At Key Appointments, we don’t just help our clients recruit great talent, we help them retain it. We believe that coaching is an excellent way of engaging employees and building a successful team. That’s why we’ve built a network of exceptional training, coaching and development companies that we can recommend to our clients and contacts.

If you would like to know more about coaching then get in touch. Whether you want to hire an executive coach, develop your coaching skills or invest in coaching your future leaders and managers, we can connect you with the right people.

Contact Key Appointments today if you would like to find out more about our trusted partners or if you have any recruitment requirements.