3 Components of Effective Employee Coaching

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Organizations want high performance. It helps them achieve their goals. Becoming a high performing organization starts with having high performing employees. The way to get a higher level of performance from employees is by coaching them. 

I think one of the mistakes that organizations make is thinking employee coaching is only for situations when employees aren’t meeting the company’s performance standard. And yes, employees do need to receive coaching in those situations. But that’s not what we’re talking about today. 

Workers who are doing good work need employee coaching as well. You could equate this with coaching athletes. Team coaches don’t say, “Hey, you don’t need to be coached. You’re doing fine.” Same applies to employees. Managers should be continuously coaching employees so their performance stays at a high level. 

Which brings us to today’s conversation about what it takes to effectively coach employees? Here are three things to consider.

Competent managers. By competent, I mean that managers have been trained on how to have employee coaching conversations. And they understand why having those conversations is important. Frankly, organizations might have to spend time connecting the dots between coaching employees and bottom-line success (which leads to making bonus and other rewards). Setting performance expectations. Some of this happens during interviews, orientation, and onboarding. But once an employee has been with the organization for a while, how do they learn about expectations? For instance, if the company implements a new policy or procedure, how are new expectations communicated? Personalized coaching. I’d like to think this goes without saying but let me say it anyway.  Every employee is not the same . Even when we have two good employees … they’re not the same. Their motivations are different so coaching them is going to need to be personalized for each employee. It reminds me of employee rewards. Employees respond to rewards differently so their coaching needs to align with what how they respond best. 

The good news is that employees want coaching from their managers. According to a report from DDI, over 30% of frontline employees want more coaching than they’re currently getting. There’s a real opportunity for organizations to place an emphasis on employee coaching and develop a culture that encourages it. 

An organization’s desire to perform at a high level isn’t going away. It’s always been there. What hasn’t always been there is the coaching element. Now is a great time to bring this conversation to the forefront. If there are managers who do coach, get them to champion the business case. They can share operational stories along with the results.

Yes, employee coaching is hard work. However, managers who do a great job at coaching see the benefits in higher employee engagement, increased productivity, and lower turnover. It’s better to spend time proactively coaching employees than reacting to what happens when you don’t. 

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while exploring the streets of Savannah, GA

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