What Is Workplace Coaching – Benefits of Workplace Coaching

Workplace coaching is the process of equipping employees with the knowledge, tools, and opportunities necessary for them to be effective. It involves a professional helping relationship that focuses on the needs of the employees and the goals of an organization.

Coaching enhances performance.

It can benefit anyone, not just athletes.

As Bill Gates said:

Everyone needs a coach. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast or a bridge player. We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.

Just like athletes, leaders are under pressure to perform every workday. And just like with athletes, coaching is the best way to ensure that leaders can perform at a high level.

Workplace coaching is a burgeoning industry with a growing body of literature to support it. In this post, we break down workplace coaching, how it works, and how you can use it to help grow your organization.

Coaching in the Workplace: A Definition

Workplace coaching is a professional helping relationship, focused on the goals of the coachee (Passmore & Lai, 2019). It is based on reciprocal actions between the two parties.

Information passes two ways: the coach responds to information about the coachee’s needs, while the coachee receives help, in the form of active listening, thoughtful questioning, or concrete guidance, from the coach.

Workplace coaching unlocks the potential of the coachee. Coaching is a facilitative approach, in which the coach enables future self-directed learning and development (Passmore & Lai, 2019). In this way, coaching fits the adage:

Give a man a fish, and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he’ll eat for a lifetime.

Workplace coaching can occur internally, with managers and leaders engaging employees in either formal, “sit-down” coaching sessions or informal, “on-the-run” coaching sessions. When coaching occurs internally, it becomes a leadership style. It can also occur externally, with an outside coach brought in to work with leaders. When coaching occurs externally, it is called an intervention (Grant, 2017).

Types of coaching in the workplace

Coaching does not necessarily have to be top-down. There are several types of workplace coaching, each of which uses different coaching strategies to achieve different benefits.

Leader Coaching

Leaders or managers coaching team members can offer valuable insights and help employees change ineffective behaviors. While meeting with employees in a coaching capacity, leaders must be careful to coach and not to manage. Typical management approaches, such as giving directions or reiterating expectations, may frustrate employees in this context and make them feel micromanaged.

Peer coaching

By pairing together employees of the same level, peer coaching allows employees to be candid about their concerns without the pressures of sharing difficulties with managers. Peers are best paired together when their problem areas are different (perhaps one struggles with interpersonal relationships and the other struggles to accept feedback) so that they can offer each other guidance and support. Employees will benefit from hearing directly from a colleague how their actions are affecting the team. With a little workplace coaching training, future peer coaches can be equipped with coaching skills to ensure effective (i.e. direct but kind) communication.

External coaching in the workplace

If a business has sufficient resources, it may be worthwhile to invest in an external coach who can provide an outside perspective and objective advice. Managers and employees can feel free to articulate problems without concerns about damaging relationships with colleagues. External coaches offer perspective and guidance with all the delicacy their expertise requires.

The Importance of Coaching in the Workplace

Coaching enables leaders to deal with the unknown.

The workplace is a dynamic environment, characterized by turnover and volatile market forces. The beauty of coaching is that leaders do not need to know everything to be effective; instead, they need to know how to empower those around them.

Coaching can be contrasted with a “command and control” leadership style (Grant, 2017). A command-and-control leader is highly directive, decides without consultation, rewards performance, and punishes failure (Wheatley, 1997).

Command and control can be effective in some situations; for instance, when the task at hand is well defined or the organization is small enough that micromanaging is possible. Another approach is needed when tasks are ambiguous and teams are too large to control.

Coaching allows the leader to elicit the strengths and knowledge of the people they are leading. This frees leaders to focus on the big picture, prevents micromanaging, and allows employees to prove their competency.

Approach to Coaching

The highly-experienced coaches at Worklogic are skilled at supporting people at all levels of seniority to build their capability and effectiveness. Our coaches bring to the table a unique perspective and skill-set, underpinned by Worklogic’s deep understanding of workplace conflict and effective strategies to improve workplace culture, team dynamics, interpersonal relationships, and performance at work.

Please note, that for the health and safety of all concerned during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are conducting all coaching sessions via video conference.

There are several scenarios where our coaches can provide practical and effective support:

• Conflict Coaching – Supporting individuals to consider their relationship, choices, and impact, and develop goals and actions they can take to change unhelpful dynamics.
• Executive Coaching – Time efficient, individual support focusing on building strengths, and creating space for reflection, self-development creativity, and innovation.
• New leader Coaching – supporting a new leader to become a leader is as much about identity and values as it is about technical know-how.  New leader coaching helps new leader find their leadership identity and manage the often tricky people issues that new leaders find difficult to navigate.
• Leadership Coaching – effective behavioral and values-based transition is necessary at every level of leadership.  Whether it is transitioning from managing staff to managing managers, to managing a business, to leading organizational change, it’s about what we value.  Leadership coaching supports alignment between capabilities, values, and leadership level.
• Performance Improvement Coaching – helping individuals to identify and build on their strengths, overcome weaknesses and make specific behavioral changes that will help them improve their effectiveness.
• Team Coaching – helping teams or work groups to build skills in self-reflection, mindfulness, autonomy, and ability to relate to one another and improve team cohesion and performance.

It is important to understand that our coaches do not provide therapy or counseling, which typically focuses on the sources of clients’ concerns (often from their past) and helping clients manage their lives more effectively.

Our coaches are independent, present and future-focused and solution, task, and action-oriented. Our sensitive, client-centered work leaves your people and organization better equipped to effectively lead, manage relationships and performance, and resolve conflict at work.

The Growing Importance of Coaching in the Workplace

The business field has become highly competitive.

Successful organizations such as IBM, Hewlett Packard, MCI, and others have put in place ongoing coaching of their workforce to remain competitive.

As many large organizations are discovering, the traditionally used “command and control” management style no longer works in today’s environment.

The current environment calls for quick response, resilience, leveraged creativity, individual effort, and performance. These aspects are what will make an organization remain competitive.

Coaching is the key to retention, which is critical in any organization.

Workplace coaching ensures employees gain career or professional development and satisfaction. In return, it helps to retain the most valued employees.

Coaching employees in the workplace to performance, rather than managing them, makes them more committed to their work. They are also more dedicated to the achievement of organizational goals.

According to the Gallup report, the American workforce has over 100 million full-time employees. Unfortunately, the report paints a bleak picture of engagement of workers as shown below:

Engagement status	Percentage	Disposition
Engaged	33%	Love what they make their organizations and country great
Disengaged	16%	Miserable at their workplace destroy what the engaged employees have built
Not engaged	51%	They are just there

Why is coaching critical now and in the future?

For organizations, change will be the norm moving forward. Likewise, team and organizational success will be dependent on individual resilience and performance.

The essence of coaching is that it leverages individual abilities and strengths for maximum performance.

Coaching is critical because it provides just-in-time learning tailored to a particular situation. It also offers direct on-the-job learning.

Coaching promotes behavioral changes, which makes it easy for people and projects to move forward with ease.

Today, business changes require swift shifts into entirely new models. Workforce coaching prepares employees for such shifts necessary to meet changing business demands.

Thus, managers and leaders must coach their employees to become career self-reliant. They should also encourage them to engage in continuous career development.

Benefits of Coaching in the Workplace

A coaching culture in an organization fosters the following benefits:

Engages Employees

We can almost use “coaching” and “engaging” interchangeably. The two go together like peanut butter and jelly (or whatever your favorite combination is).

Coaching is an excellent way of engaging employees in an organization. Organizations thrive more with engaged employees than with unengaged ones.

A study by Gallup on the effects of engaged employees on an organization shows that in such organizations, there were:

• 10% higher customer metrics
• 21% more sales
• 41% lower absenteeism
• 20% more sales

Are these not the kind of results any manager would want to see in their teams?

Coaching makes employees feel more connected to the company. Consequently, this creates a sense of loyalty and trust.

Decreases Employee Turnover

Employee retention is one of the greatest challenges facing many organizations today. In today’s recovering economy, small and large organizations have made employee retention their priority.

One of the best ways for any organization to retain its best talent and maintain productivity is to focus on job satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty.

A manager can create an engaging environment with his employees by spending time coaching them.

Employees engaged through coaching tend to stick around longer. According to the Gallup report, organizations that engaged their employees through coaching reported less than 59% turnover.

Employees interpret coaching by their managers as a sign that they are cared for. They feel valued and necessary in the organization. Such employees desire to stay longer in the organization.

Increases Productivity

Engaged employees and lower turnover rates lead to increased productivity, both individually and corporately.

When you engage your employees, they get direction, purpose, and goals to work towards. Employees also become more confident as you help them reach the set goals.

Remember, the accomplishment of goals equals greater productivity.

Similarly, employees who remain in an organization for long become more competent in their roles. Their competency gives you room to improve their skills instead of hiring and training new employees.

Coaching, therefore, is an effective tool for engaging employees, decreasing turnover, and increasing an organization’s overall productivity.

Creates Stronger Bonds

Workplace coaching helps create stronger bonds within teams in an organization. Coaching helps employees become more comfortable with their leaders and thus feel free to seek help in case of problems.

According to a study at Stanford University, working together boosts employee motivation.

Another advantage of bonding with team members is that it creates opportunities for positive communication and feedback.

Are you a manager wondering how to be a better coach? You can consider Quantic training, which you can do at scale and is more practical.

The benefit of Coaching in the Workplace for Managers

Stepping into a managerial position comes with numerous responsibilities. Managers need to acquire new skills that are critical for leadership.

Leadership coaching is critical for managerial success. Its benefits will also trickle down to the entire workforce.

The benefits of workplace coaching for managers include:

Better Management Skills

Coaching for managers provides them an opportunity to hone their skills, especially those related to management.

Some critical skills for a manager include being a better communicator and learning how to provide high-quality feedback. With these skills, managers are in a better position to support and develop their teams.

Managers can acquire new skills by themselves. However, having a leadership coach accelerates the process and provides first-hand knowledge.

Improved Productivity

As a new manager, you may find it challenging to balance all your new responsibilities. A manager’s responsibilities range from holding one-on-one sessions to attending strategic leadership meetings.

As a manager, you need to know how to manage your time well. Failure to do this may result in a struggle to be productive.

It may also lead to dissatisfied team members who feel that you are not effectively attending to their needs.

Coaching helps a manager to know how to balance their responsibilities. A coach will teach you better time management skills and how to prioritize responsibilities.

Researchgate carried out a study on the effects of executive coaching. In the study, 31 managers had one-on-one managerial training that involved:

• Goal setting
• Practice
• Collaborative problem solving
• Feedback
• Supervisory involvement
• Evaluation of results

The one-on-one training increased productivity by 22.4 percent, thus clearly indicating that leadership training is key to improved productivity.

Coaching in the Workplace Examples

Atul Gawande and Medical Coaching

Dr. Atul Gawande realized that his growth as a surgeon was on a plateau. Determined to change this, he decided to hire a coach to observe him in the operating room.

This coaching set him back on a progressive trajectory in his career. Having rekindled his progress, he further created a program that has coached doctors in Uttar Pradesh, India.

Coaches also played an instrumental role in helping doctors to execute the steps of child delivery. This coaching has helped save many lives.

You can catch the full story in this TED Talk.

Saba Mathieu and Workplace Coaching

Saba Mathieu is a specialist workplace coach. She specializes in creating coaching cultures within her clients’ organizations.

She focuses on three critical needs for employees:

• Autonomy
• Relatedness
• Competence

According to Saba Imru, meeting the three needs gives employees satisfaction at work. In addition, they become more productive for their employer.

When to Use Coaching in the Workplace

If used in the right situation at the right time, workplace coaching makes the life of a manager easier.

On the flip side, it can be frustrating if a manager tries to coach employees whose problem doesn’t require it.

A manager should recognize situations that call for coaching and those that require a different approach.

For example, an employee may have the necessary skills and ability to complete a task. However, this employee may be struggling with motivation, confidence, or drive. Here, coaching can help.

Struggle among employees is usually because of three things:

Skills and abilities: They lack the ability or skill to do the current work (aptitude).

Themselves: They lack focus, motivation, commitment, or the confidence to complete their current work (attitude).

Outside factors: Employees get affected by external things that are out of their control, such as a lack of resources and changing market trends.

For an employee who lacks specific skills and abilities, coaching is not necessary.

Coaching vs. Counseling in the Workplace

The difference between counseling and coaching is that both are time-driven. Whereas counseling is past-oriented, coaching is future-oriented.

Counseling takes care of behaviors and thoughts that affect performance and productivity.

You can recommend counseling for an employee after they have received a disappointing performance review. Here, counseling will involve listening to the employee before deciding on how to help them out.

You can also recommend counseling for an employee dealing with personal issues that are affecting performance and productivity.

Some of the common issues include:

• Substance abuse
• Health issues
• Divorce

Effective Coaching in the Workplace — 5 Steps 

As an HR manager, effective coaching will ensure your team is prepared to achieve the set goals.

The following steps will help you achieve effectiveness in coaching.

Decide What You Want to Accomplish

Be clear with what you want your employees to accomplish before you go to them.

Coaching can either be about improvement or training on a new process. Whatever the reason, keep your focus on how the result should look.

Be clear about your expectations with your employees right from the start. Let them have a clear picture of your intended result.

Choose the Right Path

Set specific criteria for achieving the set goals and a timeline for the same.

Ensure there is a continuous flow of communication before, during, and after the coaching process.

You can determine the best approach if you know your employee’s skill sets and areas of expertise. In most cases, some employees will require extra instructions on some topics than others.

Don’t forget to inspire your employees as you move toward the desired direction.

Stay on Top of the Process

Always come back to check progress and encourage employees. However, avoid micromanaging your staff.

Guide, instruct, and offer encouragement, but give them space and autonomy.

Correct without using a negative tone and keep measuring the employees’ progress against the timeline.

Give Feedback

Ensure you give straightforward feedback by:

• Avoiding being vague
• Providing examples where necessary
• Being clear on what the employees didn’t do right
• Showing them how they could do it differently
• Being clear on why it should be done in a certain way

Combine Coaching With Education

Lastly, make your coaching effective by combining it with education. Our Quantic programs are currently the best go-to education programs.

3 Steps to Coaching in the Workplace

Now that we have defined what coaching is, let’s discuss how to coach employees in the workplace. Leaders who follow the steps that follow will be able to not only improve short-term results, but improve engagement, inspire loyalty, and encourage future growth and improvement.

Step 1: Model the Behaviors You Want to See In Your Employees

An important initial step to effective coaching is showing individuals what great performance looks like. It’s one thing to tell people how to behave, but another to show them through your behavior. Leaders who “walk the walk” show through their actions how to adapt to change, how to incorporate new processes or behaviors into daily work life, and how to be a reliable members of the team. Ultimately, employees are more likely to be receptive to coaching when they have leaders who live the expected and required values and behaviors every day.

Step 2: Coach Employees In-the-Moment

Coaching is more than merely giving feedback or telling people what to do. Effectively coaching others requires taking an approach that ensures the feedback will be heard, accepted, and acted upon. Great coaches take the time to connect with the people they’re coaching, carefully observe their behavior, and offer new ideas that help individuals make the jump from good to great. Coaching must always be delivered in the right context and at the right time. If it’s not, the coaching is likely to be rejected or ignored.

Many of today’s employees crave in-the-moment feedback and words of affirmation that will help them succeed in day-to-day activities. When employees only hear feedback or get direction during an annual or semi-annual review, it happens after the fact and cannot be as easily worked out with the help of their leader. Conversely, when you provide coaching at the moment – for example, helping someone with a client negotiation as it is happening – the person can immediately apply the feedback to ensure a better outcome.

Now, the best coaches communicate in a way that encourages people to remain open to coaching and willing to take action based on feedback, regardless of whether it happens face-to-face or through a screen. Bear in mind that when coaching, how you communicate feedback will be just as important as what your feedback is. For example, if you need to have a difficult coachable moment with an employee, set up a time to do so in private, away from the eyes and ears of colleagues. Then when that time arrives, follow the C.O.A.C.H. framework:

Connect and Communicate: Establish relationships and create connections before coaching so it can be conducted authentically and genuinely.

Online Coaching Tip: In the world of remote work, maintaining connection is more important than ever. For those you lead, find creative ways online to stay connected so you always have a relationship status that has “permission to coach.” Impromptu phone calls, notes, and caring questions help demonstrate that you care.

Observe: Always observe and ask probing questions before diagnosing and advising.

• Online Coaching Tip: This is where most coaching breaks down, so to combat this leaders must be intentional about creating a context where they can see team members performing. This requires forethought and making this explicit to the team member otherwise they will default to the leader. As an example; sales leaders need to be deliberate in creating a context to be on calls with their reps where the rep is owning the entire call and does not rely on the leader to carry the conversation.

Assess: Gain an understanding of the actual performance of the individual versus the expectation you, or the organization, has of them.

• Online Coaching Tip: Leaders generally default to one of two extremes, both of which break down learning. The first is that they overly weigh context for the reason for poor performance and do not assess team members against what was possible for them to achieve. The other is that they assess team members against an abstract standard that is not possible in context. An accurate assessment is based on critically thinking through what performance was possible for the individual and holding them to that level. Only once they achieve that, then leaders can raise the bar.

Clarify: Clearly distinguish the gap between the expectation and an employee’s actual performance so they know exactly what to work on.

• Online Coaching Tip: As leaders, we often draw from a deeper well of experience and mental models that allows us to see the competency gap. It can be easy to assume communicating the gap will make it clear to others, but this is rarely the case as they lack the context and framework that we have in our positions. Therefore, take the time to ensure that those you are coaching understand the gap (remember, this often takes longer than you think!). Ensure you plan the appropriate time and check for clarity by having your team member explain the gap back to you in their own words.

Explain How-To and Encourage Questions: Having concrete actions that they will be supported in implementing is imperative to having coaching translate into better performance. Whether you provide the actions or facilitate them committing to them is situational, the key is that they are explicit, mutually understood, and have a time frame for completion. Mutually agreeing to the anticipated results of doing these steps and encouraging them to initiate with you for support in achieving the outcome is also critical so that they don’t become a check-the-box exercise but rather a collaboration to improve their results.

• Online Coaching Tip: In an era of zoom fatigue, leaders face a dilemma in that the best time to coach is immediately after the performance but the mental space to do all 5 steps in the coaching process well requires mental and emotional energy. When faced with this dilemma consider breaking your coaching into two parts. This first happens immediately after the observed performance and deals with assessment and clarification. Then ask the person to think about how to improve and commit to giving it thought yourself. At this point, schedule the second part within 48 hours to provide any additional clarity and then tackle how to do it. 

Step 3: Require Action and Results

Coaching is only effective if it results in actual behavior change. You can model and coach all day, but there comes a point when you’ll need to hold individuals accountable for performance outcomes and results. At this stage, the coach needs to require individuals to take the necessary actions to meet performance expectations. This requires ensuring accountability by providing a timetable for reaching specific milestones and by establishing regular checkpoints to review and discuss progress.

A Brief Look at the Types and Styles

Two prominent types of workplace coaching are executive coaching and team coaching.

• Executive coaching is a helping relationship between a consultant and a client with managerial authority and responsibility in an organization (Kilburg, 1996). Executive coaching occurs for many reasons, including integration into a new role, performance issues, or consultation on strategy. It is often performed by an external coach.
• Team coaching is a coaching engagement with an entire team, to help team members coordinate efforts and use their resources more effectively (Traylor, Stahr, & Salas, 2020). Team coaching often occurs internally, with the team leader adopting a coaching leadership style.

Herminia Ibarra and Anne Scoular explain the different coaching styles in their 2019 article “The Leader as Coach.” They spotlight four different coaching styles:

• Directive coaching is akin to mentoring when a manager with years of experience tells a younger employee what to do. This style comes easily to many managers.
• Laissez-faire coaching involves leaving employees to do their work. This style is appropriate when team members are highly effective.
• Non-directive coaching draws wisdom, insight, and creativity out of others through listening, questioning, and withholding judgment. It does not come easily to most managers.
• Situational coaching involves balancing directive and non-directive coaching. The authors recommend that managers first practice non-directive coaching and then alternate between leadership coaching styles depending on the context.

3 Proven Benefits of Workplace Coaching

Research has verified the importance and benefits of workplace coaching. Below are three examples of studies that have been done.

1. Leadership Effectiveness

In a study measuring leader effectiveness, Thach (2002) found that executives who received six months of coaching increased their effectiveness by 55% when rated by their peers in a 360-degree feedback survey.

The coaching in this study comprised a series of one-on-one coaching sessions provided by an external coach. This type of coaching can contribute to a company coaching culture, which positively affects the entire organization.

2. Team Effectiveness

Teams are at the core of how organizations get things done. A literature review investigating both internal and external team coaching found that coaching had a positive effect on team effectiveness and productivity (Traylor et al., 2020).

Coaching was found to be more effective for teams that were struggling with communication, reflection, and self-correction. Coaching was found to improve productivity through mediating factors such as psychological safety (Traylor et al., 2020).

3. Increased employee self-efficacy

Self-efficacy is an individual’s belief that they will accomplish the task at hand. It is a cognitive estimate of a person’s own ability to perform. This belief impacts both stress levels and actual performance.

In an experiment comparing a control group to an experimental group of managers who received coaching, the coached managers reported significantly higher levels of self-efficacy (Leonard-Cross, 2010).

Coached managers also reported feeling more aware of their strengths and weaknesses after the engagement (Leonard-Cross, 2010). With a more accurate view of themselves, these managers felt more prepared to take on challenges.

Coaching vs Counseling in Work

To distinguish between coaching and counseling, it is important to look at the root of these approaches.

Coaching is usually done to bolster an existing skillset. In the above studies, coaching was provided to executives who were already performing at a high level. In short, coaching is usually done to help people excel at something that they are already doing well.

Counseling, on the other hand, is remedial. It may be recommended for an employee who has just received a disappointing performance review. Here, counseling would involve more fundamental work, listening to the employee, figuring out the problem, and then addressing the situation using a similar set of tasks to coaching.

Although similar skills are required for each, what the work is called is very important. Top performers are unlikely to engage in workplace counseling but may engage in coaching, which has gained a reputation of prestige (Grant, 2017).

SMART Action Plan

To make sure that action plans are S.M.A.R.T., ask the following questions:

S – Specific

• What exactly needs to be done to address the issue?
• Who will do it?
• What steps will be taken?

M – Measurable

• What will be the measure of success?
• How will progress be checked?

A – Attainable

• What are the limitations?
• Do we have the resources right now?
• Can we do this within the timeline?

R – Relevant

• Has the employee understood the importance of the action plans?
• Is this aligned with the organization’s objectives?
• Will this help achieve the goal?
• Will this impact the customer?

T – Time-bound

• What is meant to be achieved by the deadline?
• Is there a deadline set to complete the action?
• What dates will the action/s need to be done?

Once the coach and the employee agree that the action plans are indeed SMART, document the coaching session, commit to the action plans and monitor employee progress. Ongoing performance management can be done to ensure the task and outputs meets the requirement effectively and efficiently.

Identifying Your Workplace’s Coaching Needs

If you are interested in bringing a coach on board, there are several ways to identify the coaching needs of your workplace.

First, you can bring in a consultant with expertise in gathering information in organizations through surveys, assessments, and interviews.

There is no better way to identify needs than by talking to the people involved in your organization. It is unnecessary to bring in a consultant if the culture of your organization allows employees to give honest feedback. In this case, you can select a sampling of your staff to interview, asking them about the skills and resources that they feel they need to do their job effectively.

If you feel that employees are not giving honest feedback or you are stuck, it may be time to bring in a consultant.

Building a Coaching Culture: Methods and Strategies

To build a coaching culture, it is important to first teach managers how to be coaches themselves. Many coaches and consultants teach the managers they work with how to use coaching skills such as active listening, asking the right coaching questions, and setting actionable goals.

Teaching managers coaching skills helps maximize the value of each conversation. Much of the coaching that takes place in the workplace is done informally, in corridor conversations, or when lingering after a meeting (Grant, 2017).

A coaching culture results from managers who are trained as coaches and can capitalize on brief exchanges to provide timely, in-the-moment coaching.

Another way to create a coaching culture is to use coaching as an incentive for those at the top. Providing coaching to top-level employees can be a way to bolster leadership and offer a desirable reward for hard work.

Challenges and How to Overcome Them

Coaching as a leadership style is foreign to many leaders and employees.

To overcome resistance, organizations need to minimize the anxiety and uncertainty that surrounds this fresh approach (Grant, 2017).

When working with resistance, pay attention to two factors: employee wellbeing and the congruity of the coaching intervention.

Well-being at work is a mix of life satisfaction, work-life balance, and positive affect while working. It is a delicate balance that can only be achieved when the person has sufficient resources to do their work (Grant, 2017). Introducing coaching into an organization where workers are already stretched thin may ignite resistance. Coaching should be simple to adopt and easy to use.

Next, think about how well the intervention fits the existing culture. Coaching needs to be deeply personalized (Grant, 2017). Personalization is an important aspect of the consultant’s work. Good coaches create interventions based on the needs of their clients, rather than delivering cookie-cutter interventions that are the same for each client.

2 Real-Life Examples

Two practical examples of how workplace coaching has made a difference.

Atul Gawande and medical coaching

Dr. Atul Gawande hired a coach to observe him in the operating room after he noticed a plateau in his growth as a surgeon. After restarting his growth through coaching, he created a program to provide coaching for doctors in Uttar Pradesh, India.

Coaches helped doctors execute the steps of child delivery, and as a result, they were able to save many lives. For the full story, check out this TED Talk.

Saba Imru Mathieu and workplace coaching

Saba Imru Mathieu is a coach whose job is to create coaching cultures within her clients’ workplaces.

Her focus is on three essential needs:

• Autonomy
• Competence
• Relatedness

Her theory is that when these three needs are met, people will work in a way that is both satisfactory to them and productive for their employer. Check out this TED Talk for more info on Saba’s approach.

4 Effective Techniques, Tools, and Activities

Good coaches have several tools in their toolbox to help their clients. What follows are general techniques and specific coaching tools to kick off a successful coaching intervention.

1. Socratic questioning

Socratic questioning is a type of focused, open-ended questioning that encourages reflection. It forms the bedrock of coaching skills.

People rarely think of questioning as a skill, but the better you become at asking the right questions, the more success you will have as a coach.

2. Active listening

Coaching is primarily about asking, not telling. Being an excellent coach requires excellent listening skills. Active listening is a way to learn what your employees and clients need to be successful. It is also key for building and sustaining relationships.

3. Motivational interviewing

Motivational interviewing is a way to have conversations that help others generate their internal motivations for change. If you are coaching a group of leaders who are struggling to elevate their work, motivational interviewing may be the right tool for you.

4. Soliciting and giving feedback

Giving and receiving feedback are vital parts of a coaching culture. Learning how to give constructive feedback and receive it effectively will help you and those around you work more effectively together.

Ethical Considerations

Ethics are the consideration of what is right and wrong.

Many organizations oversee coaches, such as the International Coaching Federation and the International Association of Coaching; however, membership in these organizations is voluntary, meaning that coaches do not need to be members to call themselves coaches.

These organizations have come up with different ethics codes. What follows are a few ethical considerations that all coaches should follow (International Coaching Federation, n.d.; International Association of Coaching, n.d.).

• Competence
  This has to do with the skills of the coach taking the engagement. Does the coach have relevant experience to draw upon to help the client? Are they qualified to come up with a plan or put forth an intervention that can meet the client’s needs?
• Fit
  Coaches should not choose their clients based solely on prestige or money but should consider whether they can form an effective helping relationship with the client.
• Boundaries
  Coaches should be mindful of boundaries during the engagement, both personal and professional. This is especially apparent when it comes to the line between coaching and therapy. Coaches need to have mental health training to recognize when the client’s problems are due to clinical issues and to be able to refer out to a therapist when these situations arise.
• Confidentiality
  Working within organizations, coaches must be very clear about what information will be shared with whom. Clear communication in this area is vital for creating trust with the client.

A Look at Training Opportunities

Training opportunities for coaches are plentiful. Many of these opportunities are available online and can be accessed at any time.

The International Coaching Federation (ICF) is one of the largest credentialing organizations for coaches in the world. It is known for both credentialing coaches with a high quality of training and helping coaches to find quality training. For the latter, the ICF has developed a database of recommended training programs.

The Society for Consulting Psychology is a division of the American Psychological Organization that serves coaches and consultants with a psychological background. It is a supportive community for coaches at all stages of their careers. The organization provides many opportunities for online learning, including a variety of webinar series and conferences.

The Center for Creative Leadership offers a Coaching Conversations Training Program, which helps those already holding leadership positions learn how to have the kinds of conversations discussed in this post.

An ideal course for leaders is the Emotional Intelligence Coaching Masterclass©, offered by our very own Dr. Hugo Alberts. This course will help you improve your coaching skills by building your emotional intelligence skills. By understanding the emotions of those around you, you’ll be in a better position to coach them and maximize their strengths.

Teams are at the core of how organizations get things done. To improve the efficacy of teams, the Positive Relationships Coaching Masterclass© is a valuable resource for helping you understand the nuances of relationship building. The different aspects of this course will help you create cohesive and coherent teams.

How to Coach and Mentor Employees

In an article on the importance of coaching, Atul Gawande asks if the “outside ears and eyes” of coaches are important for concert-caliber musicians and Olympic-level athletes, “what about regular professionals, who just want to do what they do as well as they can?” A coach’s eyes will help you see where you are falling short, even when you’re incapable of seeing yourself. Coaching in the workplace is the best way to develop an agile and adaptable team and take your game to the next level.

Before we look at a few examples of coaching and mentoring in the workplace, let’s discuss a few tips and best practices to help you design a program that gives you all the benefits we have just seen.

Identify Development Needs

Before you can begin coaching and mentoring employees, you should establish the need for coaching in the workplace. This means conducting a clear training needs analysis so that you can build a solid foundation for your coaching program.

Who should you offer coaching to? What knowledge and skills are lacking? Which development opportunities would have the biggest impact on performance? Do your employees understand the purpose of coaching in the workplace?

Factorial’s skills matrix template is a great tool for this. With this template, you can see how team members have developed, assess their level of interest in learning particular skillsets, and compare learned competencies with overall objectives.

Define Coaching in the Workplace Goals and Timeline

Once you have identified coaching opportunities in the workplace, you need to define clear goals and a clear timeline to meet your objectives. This means creating a development plan for employees with clear goals and expectations.

Set deadlines and establish clear benchmarks so that your employees know what they should be working towards. Help your employees structure their time so that they can manage their learning and development without feeling overwhelmed.

Find the Right Coaching Styles and Techniques

Another important step in workplace coaching is finding the right styles and techniques for each individual. This might be visual, kinesthetic, or auditory. Ask each employee which techniques would help them get the most from their coaching sessions.

Active Listening & Open Communication

One of the most important pillars of successful coaching in the workplace program is encouraging active listening and open communication.

Encourage your coaches and mentors to create connections and develop safe spaces where employees feel secure enough to give honest feedback. This feedback is ultimately what should be guiding your coaching sessions, so it’s vital that your employees don’t hold back, and that your coaches engage in active listening skills at all times.

Monitor Progress & Encourage 360 Feedback

Make sure you monitor the progress of your coaching in the workplace programs and encourage 360 feedback regularly. And make sure you follow up on feedback and address any issues that are raised.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly of all, celebrate the accomplishments of your employees and remind them that each achievement represents a step forward. This will help them build their self-confidence so that they are motivated to further develop their skills.

Examples of Coaching and Mentoring in the Workplace

Now let’s look at a few examples of coaching and mentoring in the workplace. Here are a few scenarios in which you may benefit from coaching your employees.

Developing New Skills

The first and most obvious of coaching in the workplace examples are developing new skills. Coaching and mentoring can help your employees develop skills they may be lacking. This might be when a new employee joins your team, or when the requirements of their position change. It might also be useful if there have been any changes to your work processes (such as updating technology).

Improving Job Performance

Coaching in the workplace is also a great tool for improving employee performance. For example, if an employee is underperforming and not meeting their objectives, a few coaching sessions might help them identify what’s preventing them from being as productive as they should be. The employee can then work together with their coach to monitor and improve their performance.

Promotions & Succession Planning

Finally, coaching in the workplace can be a very effective strategy for supporting employees as they transition into new roles within your company. The right coaching can give them the right tools to prepare for their promotion and help them establish new performance goals.

5 Tips to Improve Coaching and Mentoring Practices

Different approaches to coaching will yield different results. Here are five coaching methods in the workplace:

1. Coaching with curiosity

An effective coach is an active listener who offers understanding without passing judgment. A coach can help an employee to reflect on what they have said. Coaches need to remember that the golden rule here is: “Ask, don’t tell.” By posing open-ended questions like “What do you want to do?” “How does this impact you?” or “Can you give me an example?”, a coach can help explore an issue so the employee can come up with a solution on their own.

2. Focus on problem-solving

Coaching should be future-focused. Coaches don’t stew in or ruminate on the past, but rather use past experiences to imagine how to approach future situations. A good coach helps lead a coachee to think of their setbacks as lessons and ask what can be done differently.

3. Coaching with goals in mind

One role of a coach in the workplace is to help staff set and reach their goals. A coach will try to determine what an employee wants and help make a concrete plan with intermediate milestones and a plan for tracking progress.

4. Lead with empathy

A coach is looking for substantive, measurable change in an individual’s behavior. By offering constructive feedback and compassionately sharing personal experiences (“I get it, I’ve been there myself”), coaches can connect with employees and help them to make strides.

5. Coaching in the workplace is an investment

Coaching isn’t a one-time meeting. It’s a multi-week process that requires check-ins to face obstacles and measure growth. A good coach makes sure to offer as much support as is needed. By offering and accepting feedback, a coach can create a relationship of trust and open communication. This helps nurture employees to build self-awareness, take responsibility for their actions, and take charge of the future.

Effective Coaching and Mentoring Processes

As we have seen above, effective coaching and mentoring involve planning and implementing several processes.

Firstly, you need to identify skill gaps and development needs and create clear goals and objectives. Secondly, you need to pick the right coaches and decide which employees would benefit from the initiative. Thirdly, you need to decide how you will roll out your workplace coaching.

Will you focus on one-on-one coaching? Job shadowing? Roleplay activities? How will you collect feedback and monitor the process? And what incentives will you use to encourage your employees to embrace coaching in the workplace?

Above all, for it to be truly effective, you need to focus on developing a culture that supports coaching. And this means fostering a learning culture that aligns all your employees with the vision, mission, and values of your organization.

Ultimately, you need to create a safe environment where you encourage all your employees to develop their knowledge and skills. You need to offer them the right learning and development opportunities to help them perform at their best. Make sure they have the right tools, support, and resources. Show them that you support both independent and shared learning. Teach them the value of reflecting on their work and striving to continuously develop and improve. Show them the benefits of embracing coaching in the workplace.

Why is coaching important in the workplace?

Coaching is important in the workplace because of how it benefits employees. Having a mentor to coach employees can improve their performance and increase job satisfaction. Here are other ways coaching employees can help:

Affects employee performance

Coaching can teach employees new skills for success and help them improve productivity at work. Having a manager that is a coach can make them more approachable, so when employees need help they may feel more comfortable going to their coach. This can help improve employee performance which ultimately benefits the success of the company.

Helps achieve goals

A coach can help create personal goals for each employee, which consider each employee’s skills and job role. Specific goals can lead to greater success because coaches design these goals carefully and they are more attainable and measurable when goals involve fewer people.

Promotes teamwork

Coaching encourages collaboration between employees and promotes and strengthens teamwork. This leads to high efficiency and greater productivity because employees work together.

Establishes open communication

When managers coach their employees, this establishes an open channel of communication between them. Coaching can also help build relationships between employees, which improves the work environment and makes the workplace more enjoyable for everyone.

Teaches employees problem-solving skills

One goal of coaching is to teach employees problem-solving skills so that they can better help themselves and perform their job tasks independently. Coaches help employees develop problem-solving skills by introducing processes and strategies to find a resolution.

Increases employee retention

Coaching in the workplace can also increase retention rates because employees receive better training and therefore their performance and job satisfaction improve. Coaching also helps establish healthy relationships at work which can have a big effect on the happiness of employees.

Examples of coaching scenarios

Here are examples of scenarios in which you may coach employees:

1. Adapting behavior

An employee may require coaching to adapt their behavior if their behavior is affecting their or others’ work. An example is an employee who turns in work late and puts a project behind schedule, but a coach can help develop time management skills and improve the employee’s productivity.

Coaches may provide one-on-one training when company policy changes to help employees change their behavior and adapt to innovations. This eases transitions and can make employees more comfortable.

2. Changing careers

When an employee changes careers and comes to work for a company, having a coach can help them learn their job tasks quickly, which helps the team reach its goals more efficiently. During a career change, there can be many job skills that an employee needs to develop for the new job.

A coach may help an employee change careers within the company as well. This is helpful for companies to hire candidates who are familiar with the team and job duties. They may do this by allowing the employee to job shadow someone in the company with the position that they are moving into. This situation may also apply to mentors coaching their successors before retirement.

3. Developing skills

Coaches help new hires develop necessary skills for their job roles, such as communication and technical skills. This is beneficial to the company because training programs improve talent and can make them more competitive.

Another scenario that requires coaching is when a company changes work processes, for example, updating technology. To adapt to this change, coaches may teach employees how to use the new technology.

4. Improving job performance

Improving employee job performance is a scenario where coaching can help an employee reach their goal quickly. For example, if an employee is under their production quota, a coach can provide them tips on how to improve their productivity. A coach can help improve job performance by monitoring progress and providing the employee with self-monitoring tools as well.

5. Increasing positivity

A positive attitude affects productivity so managers can benefit from encouraging positivity in the workplace. In this scenario, a coach may teach methods of relaxation, positive visualization, and improving your mood at work. Consider coaching a workshop on positivity for all employees. This can offer preventative measures that promote positive thinking and reduce the risk of employees feeling negative.

6. Problem-solving techniques

It’s helpful for managers to coach all employees on how to solve problems with proven techniques such as:

• Brainstorming: Involves a group of people and helps a team collaborate and take part in the decision-making process.

• Mind mapping: This allows you to visualize the problem by drawing and connecting it to potential solutions including details of how to implement the resolution.

• Storyboarding: Helps visualize a process and potential outcomes by drawing a story of the problem and resolutions.

Coaching employees to use problem-solving methods can give managers more time to focus on strategies and offer employees more independence.

7. Setting goals

Coaching employees on how to set goals is one of the most common coaching scenarios for the workplace because setting goals is an effective way of measuring progress and accomplishing tasks. Coaches may teach employees to use any of the goal-setting methods to set personal goals and to help accomplish team goals. here are popular goal-setting methods in the workplace:

• SMART goals: Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound goals are easy to track and provide a detailed plan for how to reach your goals. This method is best for general goals, such as project completion.

• HARD technique: Goal-setting method for a heartfelt purpose that you can animate and visualize yourself achieving with requirements and reasons for achieving a difficult goal. This method is for long-term goals like paying off a loan.

• WOOP method: A method that works best for creating or quitting habits. To use this method you identify a wish, the desired outcome, obstacles to achieving the outcome, and plan how to reach the wish you have.

8. Receiving a promotion

When an employee receives a promotion, a coaching program can help them be more successful in the new role. In this scenario, a coach may train the employee and prepare them for the promotion by providing tools for the new role, showing how to perform tasks, and helping set performance goals.

9. Reducing fear

Fear can inhibit an employee’s performance so finding methods to reduce their fear can improve performance and help achieve company goals. A coach could work with these employees to learn about their fears and help find ways to address them. For example, if an employee is nervous to work with a new team, a coach can educate them on ways to communicate, introduce themselves and adjust to collaborating with new people.

10. Retirement planning

Employees who reach retirement age may not be ready to retire and a coach can help determine how to utilize their talent and knowledge. This can help an employee adjust the capacity at which they work but remain working for the company.

Coaching can also help the team transition when a member retires. A coach would not only prepare the team but also help the employee with their retirement planning by helping them to notify human resources and finish projects.

11. Returning to work

Employees who return to work after a leave of absence, maternity leave, a sabbatical, or a period of unemployment may need a coach to help them transition and assimilate back into the workplace. Returning to work can be a challenge and it is helpful to have someone to offer support and instruction on how to perform job tasks. In this situation, a coach may educate the employee on company policy, and workflows, give an orientation of the building, and introduce them to other team members. This provides a training program and equips employees with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed.

A Take-Home Message

To lay the foundation for positive culture change, your organization needs workplace coaching.

Coaching has many benefits and can improve the company ethos, revitalize energy in the workplace, reduce friction, and even boost sales.

Coaching is a way to have conversations, with either your clients or your employees, in which you can maximize their potential and empower them to generate solutions to problems.

Coaching has grown in popularity as the business has become more unpredictable. Leaders are hired for their ability to elicit creativity and innovation from employees, rather than their expertise in a specific field.

If you are a coach looking for a career opportunity or an executive looking for a tool to improve your business, workplace coaching may be right for you.