Coaching Employees
What is coaching?
Inspiring members of your team to perform at expected levels by personalizing teaching for each one of them, It’s also about listening to your employees to create the best working environment so they can perform at their highest level. Coaching is more informal and is an excellent tool for new hires and employees who are taking on additional responsibilities.
Coaching is not mentoring in that the manager coaches for performance, whereas a mentor focuses on the development of an employee. Mentors are not direct managers, rather across department management or upper management.
When you take the time to coach an employee, you are building trust and a stronger working relationship. In most cases, this increases employee engagement and performance which supports business growth.
Coaching is one of the most important and effective methods for performance improvement, as it is an excellent tool to turn a negative into a positive. In the role of the coach, a manager can openly discuss an issue with their employee, investigate the situation thoroughly, and support the employee to help them increase their performance.
Communication is a key component in effective coaching strategy. Identify the following before you sit down with an employee:
- Clearly, state the issue,
- explain to the employee why they need to resolve the problem, and
- acknowledge how you can be there as a support system.
When you coach effectively, you demonstrate that you value the employee and are interested in supporting them in efforts to grow and overcome any performance issues.
This process of communication between the manager and employee is designed to assure the employee understands the job duties, performance expectations, and knows how to collaborate and work with others on the team. Today’s market is competitive, and as a manager, you need to not only ensure employees know their job, as well as build a strong working relationship with each one.
One of the main reasons employees leave is a lack of trust and not feeling respected by their manager.
Final Note
If you spend most of your time in coaching your staff, ensuring they know what is expected, and quickly making minor corrections to their performance, you will not need to spend as much time in the other areas of managing performance.
Be well,
Pat
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