Coaching is an effective tool that can be used to help leaders and employees reach their goals and improve performance. It can focus on developing skills within a leader's current job or on moving in new directions. Coaching can also be used to help executives who have failed to improve their performance. On-the-job coaching requires leaders to provide clarity by discussing and reviewing the gap between performance expectations and actual performance with employees.
This involves providing detailed examples of alternative behaviors that employees can try in different situations, rather than telling them what to do in every scenario. Regular training also helps employees pay attention to performance issues when they are younger, and feedback from a coach can help them correct any problems before they become a significant decline in their performance. Performance coaching is an ongoing process that helps build and maintain effective relationships with employees and supervisors. It can help identify an employee's growth, as well as plan and develop new skills. Supervisors use their training skills to assess and address the development needs of their employees, and work collaboratively with them to develop plans that may include training, new tasks, job enrichment, self-learning, or job details.
The goal of coaching is to work with the employee to solve performance problems and improve the work of the employee, the team and the department. Managers can also use performance coaching to help employees who are already contributing effectively become even more effective contributors. Good training requires a leader who pays attention to their staff and observes their behaviors and actions regularly. For example, a high-stress situation that requires rapid execution of a project may require a “more managerial” training style. Research shows that high-performing companies are more likely to teach managers how to empower and hold them accountable compared to their peers. Leaders who provide effective training give people a road map for how to apply what has been discussed in the workplace.
Employees feel better prepared to face challenges and contribute more to the team through honest coaching conversations. The objectives of performance counseling and feedback are to help managers improve the productivity of their employees, develop and improve employee performance capacity, and correct underperformance. Committing to developing your team's self-awareness is key, starting with your own and periodically requesting information about your own training opportunities and development needs. Good coaches are thoughtful and invest time to find opportunities that help team members build on their strengths. More than 70 percent of trained employees foster better relationships with their co-workers and more than 80 percent feel more confident in their ability to produce the desired results.
