Most companies understand the importance of providing their associates with development opportunities on a regular basis, but sadly far too many fall short when it comes to developing their staff with rigor. Another challenge is that companies don’t always help their managers and leaders to develop their coaching skills to allow them to develop their people so that they increase their capabilities in ways that lead to long-term organization success. The reality is that far too few associates of companies are given access to the type of coaching that will make a difference in their career or in their life, but that doesn’t mean you cannot make it a standard best practice in your firm and reap immediate benefits. How can you leverage coaching in your firm?
Get Started — You Can Go First! Become the leader you always wanted to be, and be that person whenever you are coaching your team. Lead by example and demonstrate patience, integrity, honesty, punctuality and excellent organizational skills. Demonstrate excellence and inspire your team to learn how to coach. Buy the team a book or two on how to coach their teammates and direct reports. Bring in a great coach from outside the company to help your team develop the ability to coach your associates if necessary. It will be well worth the investment. Encourage your leaders and managers to coach and be coached, and to work at it until they become skilled in helping their teams to develop.
Get A Good Start, Select The Right Focus! — A coach’s relationship must be centered on the person they’re coaching and their needs. The coach cannot be too results-oriented or too focused on what THEY want for the coached associate. The client/associate sets the direction of the coaching and sets the pace of forward progress. As the coach, you show respect; listen attentively and create an environment for safe self-reflection and self-guided action. Then you support the associate with encouragement and support and occasionally challenge them to keep them moving in a positive direction. Coaching is about the gap between the current state and the future desired state. A great coach helps the associate to determine on their own when and how to close the gap.
Strong Coaching Depends Upon The Right Approach! — Nobody wants to be identified as someone “in need” of coaching as a remedial last-ditch effort to “SAVE” them. Take a more positive approach. Approach your associate as if they are a peer, and a successful one with a bright future. Your role is simply to focus on them and on their development, trying to leverage their considerable strengths and develop some new ones. Nothing is more disrespectful than treating your associate like they’re broken, and you are here because you’ve heard that you need to fix them. Coach positively and focus on their strengths and progress, not on problem solving and what’s wrong, and you’ll get a welcome reception and a greater commitment to invest in the coaching relationship.
Understand Your Role As The Coach! –Understand that when you begin to coach someone you must operate as a facilitator and a guide. When coaching goes well, you will slow down the distractions barraging your associate and provide them with the time for “slow-motion” self-reflection and introspective inquiry. In essence, you are buying your associate some time to figure out all of the noise and distractions in their fast-moving business life. Once your associate has caught up to the speed of the game, you then begin to help them move forward to gains by taking self-directed actions that lead to greater success. Sounds like fun and rewarding work, doesn’t it? That’s only because it is…
Remember That Coaching Is Always About Action! — Unless something positive happens to manifest change, nothing happens, and nothing changes for the better. Accordingly, when you and your team begin to coach with their associates, they must be certain never to leave a coaching session without gaining commitment for action. It works well to identify in the coaching conversation 2-3 items gathered from the concepts you’ve been discussing and developing together. Don’t shove the action items down the throat of the associate, rather coax them out of them, by asking them to identify them on their own. You can do this by asking the associate a question like “given all of the things we’ve discussed today, what 2-3 actions could you take now that would have the most positive impact on your efforts?” Write them down and send your associate a summary email to remind them of their commitments to actions designed to move them forward.
Coaching works! Help your Leadership Team to develop their coaching skills and coach them and encourage them to coach the associates who report to them as a best practice that will lead to greater culture and a learning mindset in your organization. The coaching that you provide will make a meaningful difference in the careers and lives of your leadership team, and the coaching that your leadership team will provide to their associates will make an enormous difference in the future of your company. If you need some support getting started, reach out to me, I’d be delighted to help you identify an easy to execute plan to get started and get moving forward to a brighter future.
Michael is Certified Professional Business Coach and works closely with C-Level Executives, Leadership Teams, Business Owners, and their Emerging Leaders to make the world a better place, one leader at a time. Michael enjoys coaching Leaders and especially Emerging Leaders, helping them to build success beyond what they were able to achieve on their own. If you need assistance developing a coaching mindset and a coaching program within your organization, send your inquiry to info@michaelbeachcoach.com. You can also subscribe to Michael’s e-newsletter “Coffee With Michael” and you’ll begin to receive regular thought provoking Best Practices around Business Excellence that will put you in a great position to begin developing a coaching methodology for your company. Check out Michael’s YouTube channel Michael Beach Coaching & Consulting for valuable free videos on business and personal effectiveness topics. Best of luck to you with developing your coaching program for your business, you’ll never regret it!
