5 Key Skills for Great Coaching

A successful leader in the workplace is not only in charge of their team, but they’re also tasked with helping them develop their skills and grow. Leading and coaching are two skill sets that must go hand in hand if one wants a strong team. This article will outline a few tools to engage in more effective workplace coaching.

Practice Active Listening

Active listening is a way to show the other person in a conversation that you are engaged in what they are saying. It can also help you retain the information. You can practice active listening through giving verbal and non-verbal cues that you are listening, such as eye contact or mirroring their body language. Be patient and give the other person their time to talk without interruption, then ask questions to clarify anything you don’t understand. You can even summarize or paraphrase what they just told you. Using active listening techniques shows the members of your team that you are listening. When you show that you value their input, you build a sense of trust that can strengthen your relationship.

Give Constructive Feedback

When an employee makes a mistake, use the situation as a learning experience rather than punishing them. Help them see where they went wrong and connect the dots between their actions and the resulting consequence. If they’re punished, they may not be able to look past their negative feelings to see where they went wrong. The best way to avoid making the same mistake in the future is to know what caused the problem in the first place.

Ask Open-Ended Questions

You want to lead your team so that they can, in turn, develop their own creative solutions. A helpful way to do this can be through asking opened-ended questions. Asking a question that doesn’t have a concrete solution can take one’s mind out of the problem and force them to think outside the box. Combine your questions with your own observations and offer follow-up questions to contribute to the thought process.

Provide Support

Being supportive of your team is a necessary skill to have. As a leader, people will look to you for motivation and encouragement, so look for different ways to express it. Simple acknowledgment for completing a task can go a long way. Make sure that they know you want to see them succeed. Providing support and active listening are two distinct skills that can show your team that you value them.

Recognize Individual Strengths

Humans are prone to focus on their weaknesses more than their strengths. A part of providing support is taking notice of your team’s strengths and then discovering creative ways to use them. To identify your team’s unique strengths, observe them in the workplace. What tasks or positions do they excel in? Ask them questions to encourage self-reflection and give your team the chance to provide each other with positive feedback. Communicate your observations and acknowledge their strengths directly. This can give them a sense of confidence and an idea of where they best succeed.

Develop Effective Coaching Techniques with Help from Kimberly Prescott Speaks

As the owner of Prescott HR and a recognized business and management consulting expert, Kimberly Prescott is passionate about unintimidated HR. If you are interested in inspiring your team and transforming your HR department into a thriving, integral part of your workplace, then reach out to Kimberly Prescott for your next webinar or conference at (443) 351-8818.