Estimated time to read is 15 minutes
“Coaching is a mutual sharing of experiences and opinions to create agreed-upon outcomes”
When leaders are coaches, they’re focused on helping their team gain both short-term and long-term wins. They are able to unlock people’s potential to maximize performance. Those that do it well have mastered the ability to impart knowledge while also helping their people discover it within themselves.
Design the Relationship
As with all relationships in life, more than one person is involved in work relationships. Design the relationship with the employee and determine how you want your professional relationship to be. Here are some questions to facilitate the conversation around designing the relationship with your employee:
• How does the employee like to be managed? • How will you as the manager provide feedback? • What do you expect of your employee? Be clear about goals and expectations. • What does your employee expect of you? • How often will you meet? • What are your goals for the coaching relationship?
These are just a few of the questions that can be used for designing the coaching relationship. Remember, designing the relationship is a two-way street. Make sure you give the employee a chance to ask questions and express what they need from the relationship.
Ask powerful questions
Asking questions opens up the lines of communication between the manager and the employee. The power of the coaching relationship requires that you engage the employee in the process. Asking questions allows the employee to express their thoughts and ideas, and makes them feel included. Powerful questions can be used in discussing professional development, creating solutions to problems, and managing performance issues. Focus on asking open-ended questions that invite the employee to explain. Don’t rush to give employees the answer, coach them to think of solutions to problems for themselves. Below are just a few examples of questions that can be used in conversations with employees:
Questions for Professional Development Conversations: • What are your career goals? • What is your vision for your career in five years? • What do you need from me as your manager? • What energizes you? What work do you look forward to doing?
Questions for Understanding: • What have you learned from this situation? • How might you handle this situation differently in the future? • How would you approach your co-worker to resolve this issue? • What are your ideas for fixing this problem?
Asking questions allows you to gather more information before taking action. For example, if you need to have a difficult conversation with an employee about performance, focus the discussion around asking questions. Gather information first and then together develop options for moving forward.
Use active listening skills
Listen at all levels, not just to the words the employee is saying. Use the skill of listening to gather information so you can assess what is going on below the surface. What is their body language telling you? What do you sense is not being said? Articulate your thoughts to the employee and follow it up with a question. For example: “I sense that you are upset about your performance evaluation. How are you feeling?” Active listening involves focusing on the employee while he or she is talking and paraphrasing what you hear to ensure understanding. The goal of active listening is to understand the employee, not necessarily to agree with him or her.
Clarify the situation
This coaching skill is a combination of listening, asking, and reframing. At times, you may jump to conclusions about something an employee said or did without having all of the information. Using the skill of clarifying allows you as the manager to gather more information to ensure understanding. For example, if an employee is describing a disagreement with another employee, clarifying would involve listening to what the employee is saying, asking clarifying questions, and reframing in your own words what the employee’s message is.
Acknowledge the employee
This coaching skill recognizes the inner character of the employee. When you acknowledge someone, you are recognizing who the person is, not what they did by giving praise and compliments. Although giving praise and compliments are also good skills for managers to use, acknowledging is a deeper level of recognizing an employee’s inner character and building them up. Here are some examples: “Jane, you really showed your commitment to this project.” “Peter, you took a big risk with this project. That took a lot of courage.” The intent is to support the employee and recognize him or her for taking action. Acknowledging is the act of empowering the employee to keep growing and developing.
Be curious
Asking questions and showing curiosity evokes personal exploration in the person you are talking to. Rather than give the employee the answer, be curious to help get them thinking at a deeper level. Here are some examples: • What will finishing the report give you? • What makes this an effective strategy for you? • What’s another choice you could make besides the two in front of you? • How will you move forward on this project? • How will you gain commitment from your team members?
These are just some examples of being curious which helps get the employee to think more deeply about the situation. Using curiosity in place of interrogation or finger pointing engages the employee in a learning process and improves the ability for them to make their own decisions (i.e., less work for the manager!).
Be authentic
If employees feel comfortable with you as a person, they are more likely to want to work hard for you. Show employees your personality and be genuine. This is not to say there won’t be situations that will require you as a manager to make tough decisions, however, the more real you are with your employees, the more they will trust you and want to build a productive relationship.
Establish goals and expectations
As a manager, it is your responsibility to communicate the organization’s vision, mission, goals, and expectations to employees. Research shows that most employees do not know what is expected of them. When your employees understand the expectations and goals that you and the organization have for them, productivity increases. Hold regular meetings with your employees to establish goals, and then check in with them to evaluate how they are doing.
Hold the employee accountable
You’ve heard the phrase, “What gets measured, gets done.” Coaching employees creates accountability. Using coaching sessions as a measuring tool for action means goals are more likely to be accomplished. After establishing goals and expectations with employees, follow up with them regularly to check in on progress. Depending on the skill level of the employee, helping them break larger projects into smaller, more manageable tasks may help accelerate progress. Be a resource and support for your employees so they feel comfortable coming to you and can learn in the process.
