Do you know how coaching improves team performance?
Today we will Learn How Coaching improves team performance
Table of Contents
What Coaching is?
Coaching is about working on common goals & helping someone get to where he/she wants to go.
More than performance, it is about talent development for your team & organization.
Sharing experiences, opinions & skills to create agreed upon outcomes.
It is an ongoing partnership v/s once or twice a year event.
So we can say coaching is action and future oriented & benefits an organization in a log run
It is also important to understand what is not Coaching
Coaching is a well trained behaviour.
Its all about listening, empathy, creativity to help a person or any business to scale up.
Its a long term process based on SMART goals. If done right way it gives wonderful results.
Identifying the problem & the pain points of a person facing the situation and provide a solution
Coaching is more about listening.
Requires lot of patience.
What Coaching is not?
Now, we know what coaching is. Lets understand what coaching is not
Coaching is not about forcing or manipulating an employee to do things your way.
It is not about an ‘Expert Coach’ with all the answers
And Coaching is totally different from Therapy
Many people mistake coaching as mentoring and consulting which is also not correct
Coaching, Mentoring & Therapy Difference
Therapy is more about looking at the past of a certain person and the problem he is facing
identify the problem faced by that person and you come out with a solution to fix that problem
You tell the person what to do so that the problem can be resolves and he has to follow the instruction
Consulting is more about qualitative analysis and then creating a roadmap and solve the client’s problem
Facilitating client learning—that is, teaching clients how to resolve similar problems in the future.
And they chanrge when solution is provided to client’s satisfaction
When it comes to mentoring, it is more about helping a person who has less experience.
Mentors helps someone to learn and develop faster than they would otherwise do so.
The focus is more on the future or broader skills for personal & career development
Mentor can different roles in the process of developing a mentee.
He can be a coach, consultant and a coach. It is more of a give and take relationship.
Having great relationship can provide huge benefits.
What is the goal of Coaching? How it improves team performance
You can have a coaching relationship with your team members, your colleagues & even with your manager
Coaching improves team performance by defining and exploring a problem or issue
And then determine an action or steps to resolve or improve the situation.
Leaders also coach to coach to make the most of opportunities for development
Coaching a team is very critical for the growth of not an employee but the overall growth of any business
In order to improve team performance, coach has to build a relationship in order to sync everything together
Everyone in team do not requirecoaching.
Some people are excellent performers, some are just starters and some have just started performing but not experts
Understanding each level of learners can help coaches to build a plan for each individual.
In this way Coaching improves team performance the level you expect
Good Coaching- Means improving team performance-Asking Right Questions
In a sales organization, where you have so many different team members who are backbone of the business
The question is
How do you identify who is performing and who is not or an underperformer, but needs improvement
The best way to do is to meet each and every individual on one on one basis.
The objective is to find out where they are at.
What challenges they are facing,
Do they any concern?
What help they need?
Do have enough resources to achieve the target?
What is their knowledge level? Are they using righ tools?
Are managers supporting and addressing their concern?
As a coach you really need to do lot of analysis and ask right set of questions
Most important for a coach is that he should be a good and effective listener.
You can’t provide a solution unless and until you know the cause of the problem
Because remember team is a group of people who work together to achieve the goals.
Good Coaching- Means improving Team performance-Effective Listening
Your job as a coach is to build relationships.
It comes from effective listening
Caring and showing that you are concerned about their performance is a great way to start.
in 9 hours job employees goes through a lot. They have sales calls to make, close the deal, prepare the day to day call logs
On top, employees receive lot of inputs, questions and feedback from managers.
They have lot of stuff on the plate.
Your entry as a coach should not be a threat to them but should provide a security and overall support system
And it all starts with listening. The feeling that someone is listening, provides assurance and builds relationship.
Good Coaching- Means understanding their perspective
Understanding employees and getting into their shoes will help improve the performance of a team member.
Keeping yourself in his position and what is their concern and seeing from their eyes can solve big issues
Some employees would like to have one on one rather than speaking in group discussion
Few people are motivated by recognition, rewards, and not salaries.
Identify their perspective can improve engagement & performance
Good Coaching- Means What is working and What is not
One of the best to make people talk is asking what is working and how they are doing it so well in a particular area.
Even the most introvert person will speak out, no matter what.
Ask them to share the best practices they are doing so it can help other members in the team as well
Every individual has a challenge so starting with what is working will also lead to a next question as what is not working for the,
What are the things that are not working even after they have tried. Listen well and talk about the next steps
It is about the steps and plan where both of you have to agree to bring the results
Coaching conversations are meant to yield changes and results, so be sure to clearly define and outline what needs to happen next.
This will ensure you and your employee are on the same page with expectations
and provide them with a clear understanding of the practical steps they can take to make changes and improve.
Always follow up with the results and give constructive feedback to keep the person on the track
Good Coaching – Means ‘Always be Learning’
This is our favourite.
Coaches need to keep upgrading their own skills so they can also learn while teaching
Pandemic has changed everything, the way we work and live and the way we do business.
Working remotely can sometimes be boring and stressful as you have
to balance both family and work at the same time
But apart from work, you need to take out some time to
upgrade skills, unlearn and re-learn in order to stay completive in the market
Always be Learning will keep you on track.
How Coaching Improves team performance depends lot on what you are learning everyday
Benefits of Coaching – Improving Team Performance
Most of us have experienced coaching that was intended to be helpful in the form of counsel or advice that was not helpful
In fact, it was detrimental to our growth.
When done correctly, coaching gives lot of benefits
- Collaborative skills both onsite and remote
- Individual & team performance
- Problem solving and thinking strategically
- Facilitating team dynamics to support enhanced performance & results
- Identification & inclusion of diverse talents in a global team
You can read a great article from HBR on The Leaders as Coach
Skills or Will – Improving team performance
We often hear team managers and team leaders speak about team members who are ‘ Not Motivated’
while this may be true, but it is important to understand why they are not motivated?
All employees are not motivated in the same way.
You as a coach need to identify the factors degerming motivation
It can be will ( motivation) or skill ( capability) that will help you to distinguish and you are more likely to build a more effective coaching strategy
One More Thing…
Mutual respect, trust, shared understanding and agreement are the cornerstone to a successful coaching relationship.
To be successful, buy in from the person being coached is critical.
Most companies feel coaching is waste of time, money and effort but they fail to realize how much it is costing hem in a long run
Due to pandemic, world has evolved, the way we work and live has changed. Working from home has become the new normal
Staying motivated during hard times, balancing both home and work can be challenging.
The way people communicate has changed, the way purchases are done has changed.
The way businesses are done has changed. Customers interaction with business has changed.
So if employees are not trained, skilled and coached, it is hard to catch up with fast changing environment.
We at Good 4 Nothing humanity help organization on Sales Coaching to increase sales & revenue for businesses
Do you have Coaching in place to take your business to the next level?