How To Become a Coach (With 5 Benefits of Manager Coaching for Employees)
Most workplaces have a variety of leaders. Each leader has different responsibilities and their own unique approach for defining and achieving success. In this article, we discuss the difference between a manager vs. coach, how to become a coach and some benefits of manager coaching.
Manager vs. coach
Managers and coaches both assist in essential business functions that contribute to the success of a company. However, they differ in their approach to leading employees and achieving success. Managers often oversee employees and the work they complete and solve issues for employees. Coaches often strive to empower employees to build their skills and resolve their own issues.
How to become a coach
Here are some steps to become a coach and develop coaching skills for managers:
1. Commit to coaching
Coaching often requires patience, and it may take some time to see the benefits of your work. It's important for you to commit to coaching, showing your employees you believe in their skills and ability to grow. Practice deliberate patience, and make time in your schedule to coach employees.
2. Develop a coaching framework
Each manager or coach has a unique approach to coaching employees. It's important for you to develop your own framework to use when coach each employee. Your framework should guide the conversations you have with an employee.
Many coaches use the GROW method. This method involves discussing:
Goal: What the employee hopes to gain from the conversation
Reality: What is happening
Options: What an employee could do about the reality
What's next: A plan for what an employee is going to do about the reality and when
3. Assess the situation
Evaluate the current status of your team. Look for strengths and potential areas of improvement. As coaching is an individual process, it's important for you to meet with employees based on their present situation. Consider each employee's performance and how they may fall into one of the following categories:
Novice: New to learning and needs a lot of instruction
Doer: Understands the basics of their tasks but still requires some instruction
Performer: Completes tasks as required and fairly contributes their portion of work
Master: Efficiently and effectively accomplishes tasks and capable of teaching or coaching others
Expert: Highly self-sufficient and doesn't require direction, praise or recognition
4. Identify and praise what's going well
It's important to approach coaching with a balance of criticisms and praise. Recognize your team for what they achieve successfully. Be sincere in your praise, and only give compliments they genuinely deserve. Use these successes to introduce potential ways to improve performance.
5. Ask employees questions
Begin conversations with employees. Ask guiding, open-ended questions, which are questions they cannot answer with just "yes" or "no." It's important for these questions to encourage employees to provide honest, thoughtful answers about their experiences. Use these questions and their answers to build your relationship with the employee.
6. Listen to each employee
Use active listening skills to listen to an employee's answers, and ask follow-up questions as necessary. Learn more about their unique strengths. Encourage them to share their honest feedback or input with you, and welcome them to ask you questions as well.
7. Forget thinking you should have all the answers
As a coach, it's important for you to stop thinking you should have an answer to every situation. Instead, work with the employee to discover a solution. Empower them to solve their problems, showing you value their abilities and trust their judgment.
8. Consider each employee's perspective
It's important for coaches to consider situations from the employee's perspective. Learn more about what motivates them. Ask about their preferences and personalities. This may help you better understand what they hope to achieve and how you can help them develop important skills.
9. Develop next steps for each employee
Ask each employee what they hope to achieve and how they define success. Set clear goals, and help them develop a general outline for how to achieve that goal. Work together to establish practical steps to achieve these goals.
10. Motivate and empower each employee
Empower each employee to embrace their own abilities and opportunities for growth. Encourage them to develop their skills, and reassure them you genuinely believe in their abilities. Allowing your employees to learn new skills or make decisions on their own shows you trust them, and this may motivate them to complete high-quality work.
11. Create an environment where people want to work
Help foster the success and satisfaction of your employees by creating an atmosphere where people want to work. Consider creating an environment that is safe, fun and inspiring for employees. Ask employees about their preferences for working, and use this to develop policies and best practices.
12. Evaluate success
Evaluate the success of your approach to coaching. Ask employees for their feedback, and monitor how employees grow. Modify your approach based on their feedback.
13. Support your colleagues
Support your colleagues in their efforts. Build relationships with your peers and ask them for advice. Listen to their honest feedback on how to improve your own skills and approach to coaching.
14. Commit to learning more
Make a commitment to learning more and developing your own skills. It's also important for you to commit to learning more about your employees. Continue to have conversations with them, and learn more about their accomplishments and efforts to develop their skills. Consider scheduling consistent one-on-one meetings to monitor their progress.
15. Take advantage of spontaneous coaching moments
Continue to look for new opportunities to coach employees. Take advantage of opportunities to empower employees or teach them something new. Similarly, look for ways to ask for feedback from employees to assess situations and develop solutions.
Benefits of coaching
Here are some benefits of coaching employees as a manager:
Improve employee retention
Coaching often helps employees feel valued, and coaching employees can help them develop new skills. Employees may trust you as a manager and value your opinion. This may motivate them to work for the company longer because they know you care about their personal growth and success.
Build better relationships with employees
Coaching requires you to get to know each employee individually. You learn more about them and their goals, skills and interests. By listening to their goals and helping them develop, they may appreciate and trust you as a leader.
Improve employee engagement
As a coach, you can empower your employees to achieve their own success. Employees may feel more motivated and satisfied at work when you trust their abilities rather than telling them what to do. They may also feel more comfortable taking risks and trying new things.
Improve team performance
Coaching employees focuses on developing each employee's unique strengths. Improving each employee's skills may help create a more talented workforce. Also, employees who feel empowered by their manager may feel more motivated to do their job well.
Improve customer satisfaction
Coaching may help you improve employee performance and satisfaction. If employees feel happier and more empowered at work, this may create customers who are more satisfied. Increased customer satisfaction rates may benefit the business overall and lead to more loyal customers.