Leadership Development - Coaching Team Members

As a leader the technique of coaching is invaluable. It demonstrates to your team members that you believe in them and that you care enough to develop them. It also buys you time! If your team members can do or even almost do what you do, then you can focus your energy growing & expanding in other areas.

So what is coaching all about? To summarise, it’s about teaching, not telling and most importantly, being patient. The art of coaching absolutely requires patience. As a leader, share information and experiences, guide, but DO NOT take over. The moment you take over, you have failed in coaching.

Coaching is about being open in sharing your knowledge, asking your team member’s opinion and listening to their response. Sure it’s easy to ‘tell’ someone what to do, however it won’t sink in until someone learns it for themselves. If their response isn’t aligned to your business requirements, redirect them by asking further questions such as, “How would that work if ‘XYZ’ occurred?” or “Why do you think that would be the best solution?”.

Your team members will take on learning in different ways, so it’s important to consider this. Some team members will be introverts and hesitant in responding straight away, they need time to think. Some will be extroverts and are likely to provide their response straight away, so you may need to go over several responses which will lead to solutions. Regardless of this, the same basics apply to coaching:

 1.       SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE TO EDUCATE TEAM MEMBERS

2.       ASK YOUR TEAM MEMBERS QUESTIONS SO THEY CAN COME TO A SOLUTION THEMSELVES

3.       LISTEN TO THEIR ANSWER TO REINFORCE THAT YOU GENUINELY VALUE THEIR INPUT

4.       REDIRECT THEM IF THEY NEED SOME FURTHER GUIDANCE – BUT DON’T ‘TELL’ THEM WHAT TO DO

5. SUPPORT PUTTING THEIR SOLUTIONS INTO ACTION

Coaching doesn’t only provide your team members with a sense of value, it develops them, it builds their confidence which benefits the workplace and wider team.