Eight Steps to Coaching Success

Coaching has received a lot of attention in recent years. The number of professional coaches in the world has grown to more than 10,000. A 1999 study determined more than 90 percent of U.S. companies offered some form of coaching to top executives. As a result, many managers are exploring a coaching style of management as a way to boost the performance of their employees. But as they’re learning, good coaching involves a whole lot more than standing on the sidelines and hollering at your “players.” According to Florence Stone, an authority on management and workplace issues and author of Coaching, Counseling and Mentoring: How to Choose & Use the Right Technique to Boost Employee Performance (AMACOM, 2007), there are eight key components of being a good coach. Here they are:

1. Act as a role model: You must model the behaviors you expect from your subordinates. You can’t rant (as one manager did) about everyone being at work on time when you frequently stroll into the office half an hour late. You can’t insist on accuracy and then distribute memos with typos. Remember that your team is watching you at all times – be sure that what they are seeing is what you want them to emulate.

2. Hire the best. A good coach knows how to hire well, choosing those people with the right job skills and experience to succeed in the job – and then advance beyond it.

3. Create the right climate. Stone says good coaches create a climate that reflects “a free and open exchange of ideas and is seen as a learning environment. Your goal is to create an energizing atmosphere that stimulates employees’ internal motivations to produce.” Sound like a tall order? You can do it by: keeping threats out of conversations; building rapport with employees; developing a flexible management style; supporting an employee’s efforts; looking at mistakes as learning opportunities; separating the behavior from the person; recognizing improvement; and building on strengths.

4. Clarify expectations. Within a week of starting work on your sales team, a new rep should have met with you to agree on three to five goals to work toward. This process should be an ongoing one – employees should always know their micro objectives associated with their particular job, and macro objectives tied to the organization’s overall strategy and mission.

5. Provide regular feedback. Give employees constant feedback about their behaviors with a view to keeping (or putting) them on the right performance track. And remember this is a two-way communication process: not only should you be providing feedback, you should ask employees for their feedback on how they are doing, any problems they have encountered, and any confusions they have.

6. Use appraisals for development. Too often, managers discuss performance appraisals only in terms of the rating the person received and its fiscal consequences while neglecting the developmental side of the evaluation. Yet the performance review is a great springboard for a discussion of a development plan that will help your employees reach their goals for the next year.

7. Develop your team. A coach provides the training and resources employees need to succeed – and excel – at their jobs. “It is a manager’s responsibility in his or her role as coach to determine if members of the team lack any competencies,” says Stone. These gaps, she adds, become the basis of developmental plans for staff members.

8. Praise well. Praise is included last and separately to emphasize its importance in coaching. A good manager praises often and he makes his praise sincere, concise, and specific. Praise that meets these requirements sounds like this: “Janet, I really appreciate all the extra time you took to dig up these numbers from the Japanese analysts. The numbers really make this a strong report.” That kind of specific praise is far more effective than, “Good job on the report.” When used properly, praise is the greatest motivator there is for getting employees to repeat outstanding performance and seek to continually exceed your expectations.