Learning content

What is coaching?

Coaching is an intensive monitoring of a person's performance and learning activities combined with a set of training techniques to provide feedback on how a person can improve their performance.

Coaching can be used as a management strategy, in which the manager provides overall direction to an employee and let the employee determine the best path to achieve the expected results.

Coaching cannot be viewed as a top-down, directed activity under any description. Instead, supervisors collaborate with staff members to help them develop their talent.

Coaching techniques

Be SMART

Establish clear parameters on how you want your coaching relations to go in a professional context using the SMART goal-setting methodology. Writing out SMART goals might assist you and the individual you are coaching in deciding how to move forward. The SMART acronym stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bounded. The SMART methodology lets you establish precise coaching goals that are simple to monitor and assess.

Write down objectives that fit the following criteria to create SMART goals:

• Brainstorm top areas for development with your team members or clients. This helps to limit and focus the coaching goals and offers clear targets to accomplish.
• Think about how to gauge the success of each objective. If you have an easy way to monitor the improvement of the coachee, it is easier to suit the coachee's needs and provide useful feedback.
• Set realistic expectations with your coachee to make sure that they can accomplish their desired result. Consider breaking up big goals into smaller ones and then concentrating on completing each step before moving on to the next.
• Pick coaching objectives that directly address the requirements of the employee or client. The coachee must comprehend how they can aid in problem-solving and foster growth or improvement.
• Choose realistic deadlines with your coachee to complete each coaching goal. They might be inspired to work independently if they have a deadline.

Ask guiding questions

Learn which coaching methods to employ and guide your coachee's self-reflection by posing open-ended guiding questions. Asking thoughtful, specific questions help you elicit thorough responses from your team member or client, which can promote effective coaching discussions. Giving the coachees the freedom to think for themselves and ask questions can also help them become more self-reliant and successful. Ask questions that nudge the coachee to consider areas for improvement or obstacles to exceed so you can offer individualised guidance and advice.

Take a positive approach

When dealing with a team member, keep a positive outlook and trust in their capacity to overcome obstacles. Having a positive mindset can help you to be a source of inspiration and motivation, regardless of the coaching methods you choose. Coachees must concentrate on their own personal development if they are struggling with one of your coaching goals. When they succeed, congratulate them; when they fail, offer them emotional support.

Support personal confidence

One of the responsibilities of a coach is to provide people with the self-assurance they need to work and grow on their own. Your coaching methods must inspire and uplift others to be successful. Establish a solid rapport with them and a coaching relationship by displaying an interest in their objectives and thoughts. Encourage them to talk with you about their ideas, worries, or viewpoints; to take initiative in their jobs, and to explore career options that will stretch their abilities.

Show empathy

Understanding a point of view can assist you in choosing the most efficient coaching approach to increase the coachee’s engagement and performance. To learn how to best assist someone in developing their abilities, consider their characteristics. Each person has a different personality, preferences, and goals. Empathy allows you to adapt your coaching style to the coachee's working style and establish mutually agreeable goals. By demonstrating your personal investment in their success and happiness, you can further strengthen your professional relationship.

Set expectations for each coaching session

Be sure to specify and detail the expected actions before each session to ensure that coaching sessions lead to positive improvements and results. Outline the improvements you would like to see and offer advice on what individuals can do to make them a reality. Work together to create realistic expectations that consider the workload and the complexity of the upgrades or modifications to be made. After each session, consider sending a summary email to the coachee so they have something to look back at if they need to remind guidelines.

Look for teaching moments

Watch your coachee's conduct and consider your interactions to identify teaching opportunities and pinpoint new areas for development. You might be able to offer pertinent insights and advice by observing how the other person acts. If a coachee has a question regarding a procedure or technique, take advantage of the chance to educate them and schedule a meeting with them. Alternatively, you can arrange weekly one-on-one meetings with each coachee to allow you to frequently address their queries or worries. Make coaching your apprentices a weekly priority if you want to use it to increase their performance.

Follow up on plans

By periodically checking, you may talk about what worked well and what did not work, and what should be done better. When you set the SMART goal deadlines and develop the action plan, you can define a date to follow up. If a coachee needs to improve, track their development before the due date and in a subsequent meeting. You can identify any issues they may be facing and take fast action to fix them. During that time, you can also acknowledge the advancements or improvements they have already made.

Invest in your own development

To give your team members better recommendations, enhance your own knowledge and skills. You can enhance your coaching techniques and give pertinent advice to others by gaining knowledge about the topic you are coaching. To understand the other side of a coaching relationship and receive helpful guidance on how to become a better coach, you can think about seeking out your own professional mentor. To better serve your coachees, find out what improvements they might want to see in your coaching relationship by getting their input.

Active listening, effective questioning, and feedback/encouragement

Active listening

Listening is an active activity in which a conscious choice is made to pay attention to and comprehend a speaker's messages, rather than being something that just happens (that is hearing).

To maintain objectivity and avoid passing judgement, listeners must avoid taking sides or forming opinions, especially at the beginning of a conversation. Patience is another aspect of active listening; pauses and brief silences should be tolerated. When there is a moment of silence, listeners should not feel compelled to interject with questions or comments. Give the other person enough time to explore their thoughts and feelings because active listening involves giving them space to do so.

Effective questioning

Effective questioning is based on carefully chosen open-ended questions that need clarification. It also embraces hypothetical questions, which do not always require real responses but do prompt introspection.

Not every query is intelligent. Some are better to avoid, as they do not encourage a coachee to elaborate or process their thoughts further. What kind are these? Closed questions, leading questions, multiple questions, or questions that can only have a simple “yes” or “no” as an answer. The subtext of all these questions frequently has less to do with elucidating the specifics of the coachee's problem than it does with validating the coach's own “solutions” or point of view.

Feedback / Encouragement

When a system's output is used as input again as a link in a cause-and-effect chain, this is known as “feedback”. This modifies system variables, leading to altered output and, hence, varied feedback, which may or may not be positive. Feedback is important and beneficial when a system needs to be aware of the output to improve or deliver a specified outcome. However, feedback is frequently undesirable for a system that does not require it, such as an audio system.

Communication dynamics in coaching relationships

Coaching provides encouragement when needed. So, once you allow your mentees to choose their own path, you will not intervene in it unless the mentee specifically requests it. Coaching communication is all about demonstrating to people their ability to achieve goals on their own while making it clear that help and guidance are accessible at every step if needed.

However, it takes time for this exploratory style to mature. A person cannot be trained quickly to realise his full potential.

To establish a good coaching relationship and overcome some resistance, build trust, and facilitate improvements using the following techniques:

• Show genuine interest and curiosity and ask sincere questions. Curiosity fosters interpersonal trust by demonstrating your interest in the coachee. To make the coachee feel heard, pay attention, and summarise at the end of the conversation.
• Assurance about privacy and confidentiality must be agreed upon in advance and then firmly maintained. A single incident can destroy months and weeks of trust building. Be someone who keeps things private.
• Develop rapport through body language. Use the same tone, posture, and keywords as your coachee while modelling your own approach. When used naturally, this method helps to put the coachee at ease.
• Be fully present during coaching sessions. Do not get distracted and manage the mental chatter while actively listening.
• Be reliable and responsible. Keep your word and execute your action plan. When it comes to building trust in a relationship, it goes a long way. Establish your credibility by describing your past accomplishments, citing credible sources, and offering evidence to back up your claims. It will be essential for you to be able to use your knowledge and a variety of tools to support the people you train.

Case study

Context: Unhealthy working conditions are rife with misunderstandings, ineffective leadership, stunted growth, frequent personnel turnovers, unreasonable expectations, and, most importantly, a lack of respect that may leave you feeling demotivated and worn out.

Imagine that one woman entered this kind of workplace under unusual circumstances. A few months have passed since the epidemic shutdown. She did not meet anyone in person during her interview or when she began working from home. She was urged to pursue the position even though it was in a different working area. But she started to believe that her supervisor had treated her with disrespect. It was time for her to conduct some research and find out more about herself.

Description: You can use an assessment tool to find some “pain points” where there may be a discrepancy between individual values and corporate or departmental values. This woman was aware of the communication challenges in the workplace. Therefore, a coach advised her to use an assessment tool. This tool helps people understand the various communication and behaviour trajectories they naturally project. As both delved into these findings, two things stood out. She was spending too much time in her current role, which was different from her previous one, and this drained her energy reserves.

Second, she did not communicate with others the way her supervisor did. She became more efficient in her own communication as she adapted to her supervisor’s quick and direct speaking style. She was then able to recognise that her personal responses in conversations with the supervisor were simply a result of her communication style. She compared these differences to learning a new language.

Although her current workplace has become more tolerable, she realised that her long-term goal was to leave her current position. So, using coaching, she started finding out what motivated her, the type of business she wanted to work for, and the people who could help her to get that job. She ramped up her networking efforts and got a position at a company that seemed to tick all the right boxes!

However, not everything is as it seems. Immediately upon her arrival, there were organisational changes that led to an unclear situation. She needed clear guidelines and expectations, which was one of the coaching values she had identified. She felt discouraged and frustrated all over again.

But it was clear that her experience with the coach helped her to make substantial personal growth. This time, though, she focused on what she could do instead of blaming the company. She did her best to explain her job requirements and expectations but kept up with her networking and job search. She might succeed this time in finding a position that suits her.

A few months later, she accepted a position with her previous employer. This time, it was a position she had wanted for a long time. Fortunately, she was now in a more encouraging atmosphere where she was using her competences with a clear goal in mind.

Lesson Learnt: Sometimes the route we chart for ourselves does not necessarily take us where we want to go. It is important to pause, think, and purposefully take the next step. This woman recognised that her professional career is an exciting adventure rather than a simple destination achieved through hard work.

Questions and answers

Q: Give some examples of coaching techniques

A: Define SMART goals –specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bounded; ask guiding questions: take a positive approach: support personal confidence: show empathy; set expectations for each coaching session; look for teaching moments; follow up on plans; invest in your own development.

Q: Briefly define active listening and effective questioning.

A: Active listening is a way of attentively listening and responding to another person that improves mutual understanding.

Effective questioning is a key tool in the assessment that must be planned to anticipate a range of responses.

Q: What are the characteristics of coaching communication?

A: Coaching provides encouragement when needed. So, once you allow your mentees to choose their own path, you will not intervene in it unless the mentee specifically requests it. Coaching communication is all about demonstrating to people their ability to achieve goals on their own while making it clear that help and guidance are accessible at every step if needed.

References

Bragg, S. (n.d.). Coaching definition. AccountingTools. www.accountingtools.com/articles/coaching

coaching noun - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com. (n.d.). www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/coaching

Coaching Techniques: What They Are and How To Use Them at Work. (n.d.). Indeed Career Guide.

www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/coaching-technique

Gauthier, G. (2020, June 8). 6 Techniques to Build Trust in a Coaching Relationship. GoMasterCoach.

www.gomastercoach.com/post/6-techniques-to-build-trust-in-a-coaching-relationship

Oxford Languages. (2022). Oxford Languages and Google - English. Languages.oup.com; Oxford University Press.

https://languages.oup.com/google-dictionary-en/

Skillsyouneed. (2011). Active Listening | SkillsYouNeed. Skillsyouneed.com. www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/active-listening.html

Staff, H., & Staff, H. (2020, November 24). What’s Your Leadership Communication Style? | HRDQ. HRDQ.

https://hrdqstore.com/blogs/hrdq-blog/what-s-your-leadership-communication-style

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

What is Feedback? - Definition from Techopedia. (n.d.). Techopedia.com. www.techopedia.com/definition/7159/feedback

Additional resources

The ancient schools of philosophy are said to be the origin of coaching. Get to know why and much more about the characteristics of coaching in the site below.

www.mentoringgroup.com/what-is-coaching.html

In the following video, you can watch a detailed definition of what coaching is.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBJuwnEun9Q&t=12s

This video, produced by the International Coach Federation, presents how coaching works, the coaching process, and the coaching benefits.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi367FBm8Ik

Article about what is coaching in the workplace and why is it important.

www.positivepsychology.com/workplace-coaching/

Simon has dedicated his professional life to advance a vision of the world that does not exist yet – a society in which the great majority of people experience daily inspiration, safety, and fulfilment in their work. In the following video, he explains how it is possible to achieve a world like this by fostering a growth mindset.

Coaching with a Growth Mindset | Simon Sinek

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEWCVBETSEw