Coaching is an important tool people leaders can leverage to increase employee engagement and business performance. Here’s how I help my clients understand the value of coaching and which coaching method to use:
What is Coaching?
Coaching happens when we know there is a behavior we want to change or increase in our employees. It is different from general mentoring and more focused than generic training.
Coaching plays an important role in an employee’s personal development plan and is usually implemented by the people leader in the organization.
Why is Coaching Important?
Having a strong coaching culture can increase employee engagement and business performance according to a 2015 survey from the International Coach Federation (ICF) and the Human Capital Institute (HCI).
- 51 percent of respondents from organizations with strong coaching cultures reported revenue above that of their industry peer group.
- 62 percent of employees in those organizations rated themselves as highly engaged.
(Human Capital Institute, in partnership with International Coach Federation. (2016). Building a coaching culture with managers and leaders. Retrieved from http://www.hci.org/files/field_content_file/2016%20ICF.pdf)
According to the survey, respondents also reported business improvements in the following five areas:
- Improved team functioning.
- Increased engagement.
- Increased productivity.
- Improved employee relations.
- Faster leadership development.
Now that we have established that coaching can help increase business performance and employee engagement, what coaching method should you implement?
The 1+1+1 Coaching Method:
Through my experience, coaching only gets tricky when you take on more than you can handle. This impacts our ability to really help a team member effectively learn a new skill or improve on a deficient one.
In order to avoid taking on too much, I teach my clients a 1+1+1 coaching method. So, what is 1+1+1 coaching?
It is one skill, one level of improvement, in one time frame.
For example, if a salesperson is learning a new presentation and needs to use notes to get through it, then the next level of proficiency is to present without notes and to be capable of doing this within 60 days.
The level after might be to add a success story to the presentation within 30 days, and the next level after that can be for them to teach the presentation to a new peer.
This coaching method is very pragmatic and allows for both the coach and the student can celebrate small victories often.
What are some of your favorite coaching methods?
I would love to hear them in the comments below. You can also get in touch with me with any questions you may have.
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