What is the one thing that leaders need to do to be successful? After years of developing leaders and helping build high-performing teams, I’ve narrowed it down to one thing: coaching.
Coaching your employees effectively enables you to build stronger teams and develop resilient, agile leaders who are ready to navigate the chaos of modern life.
Anyone can learn to coach employees effectively by following these five coaching steps.
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The Essential Skill Leaders Must Master
I have a friend who is a talented musician and educator. He teaches high school choir and music to hundreds of students every year. As we were catching up one evening, he asked me a powerful question: What is the one thing that leaders need to do to be successful?
Only one thing? I was stumped. With a frustrated smile, I turned it back on him, asking the same question: What is the one thing that singers need to be successful?
He was quick with an answer: breathing. Singers need to learn good breathing techniques; otherwise, they can’t sing. Oh, I thought…that made a lot of sense. He was clear in his focus, isolating it down to the essential behavior that enables everything else to flow and to have the potential to become beautiful music.
Following that formula, I’ve narrowed down the essential skill leaders must master. The answer may not be earth-shattering, but if implemented well, it will enable change to happen more smoothly, build stronger teams, and develop more agile leaders. The answer is coaching—having the courage to learn and holding others accountable to learn as well.
SUCCESSFUL LEADERS GET THIS!
Whether it is a hallway conversation or a formal one-on-one meeting, the process of a manager effectively coaching an employee is to leadership as breathing is to music. Strong coaches regularly ask probing questions, provide timely and actionable feedback, and follow up on prioritized actions. Great coaching enables great leadership.
How to Coach Employees Effectively
Whether it’s an impromptu coachable moment or a formal coaching conversation, these are the five steps to effective coaching.
Keep in mind that the coaching process is built on the assumption that coaching is more about asking versus telling. A great coach will resist the urge to dictate what the person should do and instead focus on asking the right questions, listening, encouraging self-discovery, and challenging them to learn and achieve.
5-step coaching process
These five coaching steps are presented linearly to depict a complete coaching conversation. However, each specific interaction may require some flexibility to meet the individual’s needs. For example, if the objective and assessment steps have already been understood, then spending more time on delivering behavior-focused feedback and identifying forward-oriented action is a better approach.
1. Establishing the Objective
The beginning of any coaching interaction needs to start with a clear purpose. The purpose tends to be one of three types of conversations: developmental (optimizing strengths), career (preparing for a new role), or performance (overcoming obstacles or addressing performance gaps).
To clarify this objective or purpose of the conversation, ask the coaching participant the following types of questions:
- What would you like to have accomplished at the end of this conversation?
- What does success look like when we are finished today?
- What would you like to achieve as a result of our time together?
It is essential to ask and confirm this objective for mutual understanding and agreement. Mutual agreement can be challenging when a performance gap exists; however, it is the first step in creating a successful coaching conversation and needs to be clarified as thoroughly as possible.
2. Understanding through Assessment
This is a key step in any coaching conversation, requiring the coach to ask insightful questions, actively listen, be comfortable with silence, and view the situation from multiple perspectives.
Leaders may assume they already know the situation or feel they have all the facts. However, asking open-ended and probing follow-up questions is crucial in creating a safe, accurate, and positive environment for coaching participants to open up, engage in self-discovery, and work effectively with the coach.
To help with this assessment step, consider asking these kinds of questions (these will vary based on the objective of the conversation):
- What three things did you learn from this past project?
- What three things will you do differently in the future?
- What three skills are you actively working on to develop yourself for future roles?
It is vital to keep assessment questions open-ended and devoid of trigger or leading words, such as “why” (which can cause defensiveness) or “right” (especially at the end of a sentence). Also, learn about history, but spend more time helping the coaching participant prepare for the future. Describing the past can be a valuable use of time, but it cannot be changed. In contrast, the future is unwritten and full of possibilities.
3. Providing Feedback
This step provides the opportunity for the coach to share observations with the coaching participant. While this can be a positive and insightful experience, it can also become detrimental if not handled well. In the role of a coach, it is vital to allow the other person to identify their own focus areas whenever possible.
However, hearing fact-based observations and suggestions from the coach is a powerful source for increasing self-awareness and seeing new ideas. Connect the feedback to the purpose of the conversation, focusing on the behavior rather than your own interpretation of it, and emphasize the impact of the behavior on how it helps or hinders the coaching participant from achieving the desired business and people results. Consider making these kinds of statements:
- When you were late for the deadline, you let your team down. What can you do to prevent this from happening again? [constructive feedback that focuses on behavior and impact]
- The way you delivered the presentation helped everyone understand and become committed to the call to action. [positive feedback comment highlighting impact]
- Your whole face lights up when you talk about XYZ; tell me more about what you enjoy about it. [Coach's observation of non-verbal signs from coaching participant]
4. Identifying Goals
Goal setting is where the assessment and feedback turn into action to accomplish the purpose of the conversation. It is an essential step in helping the coaching participant move forward and achieve a positive outcome. Guide the coaching participant in selecting a measurable goal that will stretch and challenge them, but will have at least a 50 percent chance of success. Choosing a goal with a low chance of success will likely create disengagement. Also, keep the number of goals and follow-up actions small (one goal with 2-3 actions) to ensure focus. Be sure to discuss how these actions will support achieving the organization’s overall results. The following are examples of questions you can ask during this step:
- How do these specific actions align with your overall performance targets?
- What are the three specific actions that will help you succeed?
- When will you accomplish these actions?
5. Following up with Support
This last step ensures accountability and encourages the coaching participant as they reach their goals. Unfortunately, this step is too often forgotten or not valued. Following up on the participants’ agreed-upon goals is critical to ensure that actions are taken. To this end, a great coach exhibits two skills: 1) recognizing progress and wins, and 2) encouraging the participant to manage through obstacles and secure the needed guidance to be successful. These two skills are essential to implementing and supporting action plans. The following are questions you could ask during this step in the coaching process:
- Who will support and celebrate with you in accomplishing your goals?
- What are possible obstacles that might prevent you from accomplishing them?
- When will we follow up again to check on your progress?
Great Coaching is the Root of Strong Leadership
Learning moments can happen all of the time. Great coaches, and thus great leaders, seize those moments and have the courage to ask, listen, and turn insight into action. Much like breathing is to singing; strong coaching is at the root of strong leadership. Use these five steps to build your coaching skills, develop your people, and accomplish amazing business and people results.
