Learning content

How coaching improves employees’ Performance at Work

As a coach, you can make your team stop feeling threatened and instead start feeling challenged. When it comes to preserving organisational performance, business continuity, and the safety, well-being, and financial security of the workforce, coaching can help to make decisions with greater clarity. With more people working from home and regular workflows being disrupted, you can find solutions to sustain organisational and peers’ performance.

Coaching can help you resolve questions such as how you want to appear as a motivator during this turbulent time. Do you have enough resilience to lead the change?

Nowadays, brief virtual coaching sessions can be beneficial. It can provide a private setting for testing ideas, help manage or regain energy and attention, restore a sense of clarity and purpose, improve communication skills, and help make difficult decisions with far-reaching effects.

Benefits of coaching to improve performance

How can coaching produce results? Coaching is about you and your workplace, leading to greater self-awareness. You learn more about who you are as a staff member or leader in your company.

A coach can increase empathy by helping to understand the reasons behind other people's actions and thoughts. A coach supports discovering what steps someone can take to help team members or guide them in a way that benefits the company.

A coach works with someone to develop ways to better communicate with others, what is essential to you, to the company, and to your colleagues.

Once you see the benefits of coaching for improving your own performance, you are better equipped to recognise and take advantage of coaching opportunities with your colleagues or team. The ability to do so is a crucial factor in separating competent leaders from exceptional ones.

However, a strong coaching relationship is necessary for a successful coaching outcome. Setting the stage for a great coaching collaboration early on involves asking the appropriate questions.

The main strategies to motivate peers through feedback and encouragement

Your team members can only be inspired and motivated if they are aware of the goals they are working towards. Make sure your team is aware of the vision of the company and its goals. This motivates everyone to cooperate for better results. In addition, it is critical to frequently establish goals, explicit and measurable, so that you and your colleagues can track progress and closely observe the success.

Supporting the alignment within and across teams can promote greater productivity and encourage and value workers.

Effective team communication is necessary to create clear goals. Since communication is a two-way process, make sure that you and your colleagues are in frequent contact. By doing this, you can let them know what needs to be done and give them a chance to voice their thoughts and opinions. This benefits your business, as it may handle issues in a different way than you would do.

Make sure you are approachable and have a friendly, open attitude when communicating. As a result, your team feels more invested in the company and its operations, which further inspires them to produce better results.

Teamwork must be encouraged and promoted because it helps workers feel less alone and more involved in their work, which increases productivity. You can accomplish this by routinely organising team-building exercises and giving your team members opportunities to interact and get to know each other.

If you are responsible for hiring new employees, analyse the contribution they will make to the group and to the corporate culture. Even if someone has experience in a position, that does not guarantee that they can get along with the members of your team.

Also, do not neglect your remote workers. To develop a healthy work environment for them too, they require the same level of care and assistance from you. Keep in mind that workers who work remotely a few days a week or on a regular basis face different challenges than those encountered every day in the office. To best assist remote workers and help them establish a happy, productive work environment no matter where they are, be sure to conduct frequent employee engagement surveys.

The value of praising and recognising performance is often underestimated, but it motivates team members as they see how they are moving towards the company's goals. Always express your gratitude and be precise with your praise when employees do well, go above and beyond, or achieve results. For example, do not just say “Good job”. Describe the merits of the position and how they benefited the company. This inspires your team and helps them achieve their future endeavours.

Reward your employees for their efforts, whether it is cash, gifts, benefits, or additional freedom and responsibility.

When team members are learning and improving their skills, they feel more valuable. It is important to give your team members opportunities for professional development if you want to inspire them and drive them to produce outstanding accomplishments.

These changes can take the form of additional training, setting ambitious goals, inviting a co-worker to join you, or investing your own time in training and mentoring someone. Your colleagues or employees should learn transferable skills that they can apply in a variety of roles, and you should encourage them to set their own development goals.

Creativity can easily be stifled by a micromanaging supervisor. Giving your team space and freedom demonstrates your belief in their ability to do the job on their own terms. As a result, people can be motivated to complete work more quickly or efficiently or identify any gaps in their knowledge or department.

Giving a team space goes hand in hand with reducing meetings and, where possible, checking in asynchronously. You can give back to employees important time by emptying their calendars, allowing them to work at their best and at their pace.

Any workplace needs motivated collaborators, so you should always strive to instil inspiration and motivation in your colleagues or employees. This way, employees can achieve operational excellence. 

Active listening, effective questioning, feedback, and encouragement

Active listening is the process of paying attention to comprehend what is being said. When you engage in active listening, you pay complete attention to what the other person is saying rather than preparing your own response as you might during a discussion or dispute. You then reformulate what you hear back to the other person to make sure you have understood it.

The four categories of active listening are as follows:

• Empathetic listening or listening to comprehend – when you try to understand the feelings and emotions of the speaker. When you listen in this way, you put the speaker’s needs before your own.
• Appreciative listening or listening with joy – when you enjoy what is being said by the speaker.
• Detailed listening – when you listen to pick up fresh information, for example when you watch the news, listen to a podcast, or take part in a class-style lecture.
• Critical listening – when you develop an opinion about what someone else says.

Techniques for active listening and effective questioning

Be fully present – Eliminate distractions, like your mobile phone, by putting them aside, abstain from daydreaming, and silence your inner monologue. Put all your attention on the person you are talking to.

Keep an eye out for nonverbal cues – As much as 65% of communication between people is nonverbal. Observing nonverbal clues may reveal a lot about a person and what they are attempting to communicate. For instance, if they speak quickly, this can indicate that they are agitated or frightened. They can be drowsy or attempt to carefully select their words if they speak slowly.

Your nonverbal cues during active listening are just as crucial. Use open, non-threatening body language to convey to the other person that you are attentive. This entails keeping your arms open, grinning while you listen, leaning in, and nodding at significant moments.

Maintain good eye contact – Eye contact lets the other person know that you are paying attention during their speech. Additionally, it demonstrates that you are not being side-tracked by anything nearby. However, you do not want to make so much eye contact that it makes the discussion awkward. The 50/70 rule should be followed to avoid this. This entails making eye contact for 50% to 70% of the listening time, sustaining the gaze for four to five seconds, and then glancing away momentarily.

Apply open-ended inquiries – Dead-end replies are frequently obtained from “yes” or “no” queries. This prevents the conversation from moving along, which is not helpful. Due to the limited value of a brief, non-descriptive response, it is also challenging to fully understand the other person.

Ask open-ended questions as an alternative to demonstrate your interest in the topic and in the other person. An illustration of open-ended inquiries you may ask while actively listening are:

• What are your thoughts about that?
• Can you tell me a little more about that?
• What do you believe to be the best course of action?
• Which other actions do you believe you can take?

Reflect on what you hear – After the speaker has finished speaking, consider what you heard and share your thoughts with them. You may be confident that you accurately recorded their thoughts, ideas, and/or feelings by using this active listening approach. Additionally, it reduces the likelihood of any misunderstandings while making the other person feel validated and understood.

Paraphrasing is one approach to reflecting on what you have heard. Say something like, “In other words, what you are saying is that…”, or “I am hearing that you are … about this scenario”, as an example. Give the individual a chance to comment on whether you accurately represented their meaning or intent after summarising what they said.

Ask for clarification if necessary to better grasp anything the other person has stated. However, do not get caught up in the little print to the point that you overlook the bigger picture.

Be patient – Being patient allows the other person to talk freely, which is a key component of active listening. Additionally, it allows people to express themselves without you intervening to complete their words. It requires patience to refrain from trying to fill pauses with your own ideas or stories. Basically, avoid composing your response while the other person is still speaking. Additionally, avoid changing the subject suddenly because this suggests impatience and boredom.

Withhold judgment – By not being critical or judgmental in your comments, you encourage the other person to feel comfortable speaking up. It creates a safe environment where others know they will not be embarrassed, ridiculed, held accountable, or treated poorly.

Being less critical when listening involves demonstrating empathy for the other person or their circumstance; learning more about various cultures and people; practising acceptance of others; recognising when you could be passing judgement on the other person and putting an end to those thoughts.

Techniques for feedback and encouragement.

Many people struggle with criticism, and it can be difficult for them to perform successfully based on it. Next, we present some of the best techniques for providing constructive criticism in a positive, polite manner.

Establish trust – You want your interlocutor to understand that you value their work and that you are aware of their skills and potential. This allows them to see your criticism as constructive and will further widen the communication, making this kind of exchange simpler and more fruitful in the future.

Balance the positive and the negative – Whether your feedback is positive or negative, it is critical to convey a balanced perspective while providing constructive criticism. Especially if you have serious concerns about the work or behaviours being discussed, it is important to point out some positives in a person’s attitude or output.

Observe, do not interpret – Before assigning meaning or intent to someone else's actions, give them the opportunity to explain themselves. Issues are presented as things you are watching, and participants must be given the chance to share their viewpoints.

Be specific – Concentrating on specifics is one of the methods for offering constructive criticism. It is useless to tell someone that their work needs to be improved without providing specifics on what is lacking or how it may be rectified, since the person will not know what you are looking for. This will irritate them, and you will probably not receive the results you were hoping for.

Speak face-to-face – It is nearly always preferable to provide constructive feedback in person rather than over the phone, email, or instant messaging. Even though they are valuable in other contexts, all these technologies make it much easier for misinterpretations to occur since they remove crucial contexts.

Do not take things personally – Remember to separate people from their behaviour while offering constructive criticism. Instead of drawing generalisations about who they are, concentrate on the specific issue at hand, whether it is a pattern or performance on a particular task.

Give feedback consistently – The amount of time you spend with the person to whom you are offering constructive criticism determines how frequently you give feedback but be sure to make feedback a regular component of your talks and meetings.

Be prompt – do not wait days or weeks to comment on someone's work, especially if it relates to a specific task.

To encourage your team, explore ways you can reinforce ideal behaviour and make rewards an everyday part of the culture. You could try some of the following:

• Set a deadline and give your staff the freedom to decide how to best meet it, at any time and in any location they want. This will give them a sense of ownership over the activity at hand and make it appear more organically worthwhile.
• Consider your options for rewarding for a job well done:
  • you can let everyone briefly address the group and discuss their progress every week.
  • you might let your staff leave early if they complete a predetermined number of tasks;
  • you may acknowledge an employee's excellent performance in public or privately;
  • you may also assign your workers the task of rewarding others, such as their assistants or their team (if they have one);
  • you can pair workers so that one oversees an award for another.

Encourage everyone to consider a positive inspiration. It all depends on which approach would work best for your team to establish a rewarding work environment.

Case study

Context: A professional grappled during the COVID-19 pandemic with ineffective time management, which plagues many professionals. They can blame poor time management, overwork, understaffing, or a lack of delegation skills. They recognise having their attention tugged in ten different places, falling short of everyone's demands, and feeling unproductive, unhappy, or exhausted. These are typical worries. However, a lack of time management abilities frequently conceals bigger issues or other crucial needs that may be identified with efficient coaching.

Description: This professional was annoyed. She sought advice on how to organise her meeting calendar and prevent others from taking up all her time with their demands. She had constant pressure from others. Her main worry was “time management. Coaches constantly work with clients’ priorities while also being aware that there is generally more to be addressed underneath the surface. So, she looked for a coach.

After a few sessions with her coach, she told her “I want to be on the cutting edge of a product that will save lives”. So, the coach inquired: “What must you do in order to get there?” Her response was “I am not sure”. That was turning out to be her biggest challenge.

She focused on gaining leadership abilities, having uncomfortable talks, and managing her challenging employer over the following months. If she was promoted inside the company, she would promote team members who could take her position. Slowly, but more clearly, she began to see what she had to do to get there. She would have to serve as the team leader in the effort to develop a product that would save lives.

She started discussing her objectives with top leaders as her leadership was being acknowledged. Therefore, she received a job offer as a director in a newly created work position. The coach asked her how this would help her to achieve her goal. She submitted her case to top officials as they went through the responses, and she was given the promotion.

She then had to figure out how to work with another team leader who, in her opinion, was attempting to undermine her efforts while still getting the team to support the objective. She had some imposter syndrome that was holding her back, but she learned to let go of the idea that she had to be an expert and have all the answers.

Lesson Learned: The coach role-played challenging talks with leaders and co-workers while she kept her attention on her goal. She presented fact-based talks to get desirable results, developing some “muscle memory” and confidence in the process. She put an end to her concern over what the team leader was doing and concentrated on her own actions. That allowed her great development towards her goal.

Questions and answers

Q: Summarise the benefits of coaching.

A: Coaching:

- leads to greater self-awareness, as one can learn more about who they are as a staff member or leader in their companies.

- increases empathy by helping to understand the reasons behind people's actions and thoughts.

- supports the discovery of which steps someone can take to help team members or guide them in a way that benefits a company.

- supports the development of ways to better communicate with others.

Q: What are the main strategies to motivate peers?

A:

- Make sure your team is aware of your vision for the company and your ultimate goals.

- Establish goals, explicit and measurable, so that you and your colleagues or employees can track progress.

- Make sure you are approachable and have a friendly, open attitude when communicating.

- When hiring new employees, analyse their contribution to the group and corporate culture.

- Encourage teamwork because it helps workers to feel less alone and more involved in work.

- Organise team-building exercises and give your team members opportunities to interact and get to know each other.

- Praise your employees when they do well or achieve results.

- Give your team members opportunities for professional development.

Q: Give two examples on how you can offer feedback and encouragement.

A: Establish trust; balance the positive and the negative; observe, do not interpret; be specific; speak face-to-face; do not take things personally; give feedback consistently; be prompt.

References

Asana. (n.d.). How to Practice Active Listening (with Examples) [2022] • Asana. Asana. Retrieved December 6, 2022, from https://asana.com/pt/resources/active-listening

Ciner, L. (2019, October 31). 6 Practical Tips to Improve Employee & Workplace Performance. WalkMe Blog. www.walkme.com/blog/how-to-improve-employee-performance/

Cuncic, A. (2022, February 13). How to Practice Active Listening. Verywell Mind. www.verywellmind.com/what-is-active-listening-3024343

Krakoff, S. (2022). How to Give Constructive Feedback in the Workplace. Online.champlain.edu. https://online.champlain.edu/blog/giving-constructive-feedback

Miles, M. (2022, April 15). Why Motivating a Team Changes the Game for Business. Www.betterup.com. www.betterup.com/blog/motivating-a-team

Oxford Languages. (n.d.). Oxford Languages and Google - English. Languages.oup.com; Oxford University Press. https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/

Positive Motivation Techniques For 2021 - Driven. (2021, July 13). Driven Resilience. https://home.hellodriven.com/articles/positive-motivation-techniques-to-conquer-the-rest-of-2021/

Success Stories – Sphereshift Coaching and Consulting. (n.d.). Www.sphereshift.com. www.sphereshift.com/success-stories/

4 Benefits of Coaching to Improve Performance | CCL. (n.d.). Center for Creative Leadership. www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/coaching-to-improve-performance/

Additional resources

Article on the usefulness and significance of mindset coaching as a technique for assisting clients in recognising and improving their way of thinking.

www.positivepsychology.com/mindset-coaching/

Video on how teams can be strengthened and coached effectively, by approaching feedback and performance with a growth mindset. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEWCVBETSEw

Article on how leaders need to adopt a new coaching approach to thrive in today's fast-paced world

www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2022/07/13/coaching-mindset-for-leaders-a-game-changer/?sh=6bfb70ba1f8d

This link provides a video demonstrating the value of motivating speeches for employees and how to deliver them effectively.

Employee Motivational Speech: Failproof Formula | Indeed Career Tips www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfowtoO_zTI