12 Tips on Coaching Employees

Coaching isn't about telling, it’s about engaging the other person. First engage and then listen! Are you charged with inspiring, guiding and engaging others? If yes, that calls for you to “up your game” with coaching expertise. Put these tips to work for you as a coach.




Here’s a dozen tips that will improve your coaching effectiveness:

1. Have a clock where both parties can see it – even take off your watch and put it on the table. Confirm from the start how long the coaching session will last.
2. Quickly create an agenda if one wasn't established in advance and prioritize the central points.
3. Concentrate as much as possible; avoid thinking about your next response while the other person is speaking.
4. Take notes on what you hear; documenting and follow up are key.
5. Never coach from behind your desk.
6. Use affirming body language to show your employee you are focused on what is being said.
7. Have patience when your employee is speaking, especially if they need time to explain something.
8. Maintain as much direct eye contact as you can.
9. Keep your cell phone out of the coaching session.
10. If you are in your office turn on the do not disturb button on your desk phone.
11. Hang a sign on your door requesting to not be interrupted.
12. Smile and be as friendly and sincere as you can when your employee is doing the talking.

If you are the coach put these to good use. If you are the employee that is fortunate to have a supervisor that strives to excel as a coach take note. You have many of the same responsibilities that your coach has and you can tap into these twelve suggestions in order to make MVP!

Still learning,

Honey

Performance Booster Series - Garner Support at Every Level

Garner means to build and store; to succeed at being an exceptional supervisor you will need to build and store support at every level professionally.

Team

Successful supervisors create an atmosphere where team members can fully use their skills, knowledge and creativity to work toward the goals of the department and the company. You will want to encourage the team as well as organize the ongoing work, provide direction and articulate the goals.

Your responsibility will be to use the strengths of each team member and challenge them to build a plan and execute it.  Help them to see the value of what they do and how that value relates to the success of the team.

Peers

Work at building lines of communication and support with fellow managers will be keys to your success.  Give what you want to get.  An exceptional supervisor learns to listen to others and also considers opposing points of view.  Manage your confidence and sense of respect with your peers.  It’s no secret you won’t like everyone you work with but practice caution spewing your opinions and showing your distain for others, especially your peers. Watch out for sharing your negative thoughts and feelings about others at work with anyone you work with.  It’s a practice that will bite you back. 

Management

Make your manager look good; feel pride that you are on his or her team.  Always look and act professional.  Self evaluate where you are with accomplishing the look and actions of a pro.  Use a mirror to check the outside and an internal exam of your thinking and behaving.  Don’t be known for making excuses and being a chronic complainer.  Keep your manager well-informed.

Act the way you want others to treat you, give support to others and you can count on the boomerang theory coming true for you.  You get what you give.


Still learning,


Honey

Coaching Yourself & Others - It's a Process

You’ve dedicated a spiral notebook with five sections to this endeavor called, Coaching Choices. 

Step 1 Wanting

Coaching yourself begins with identifying what you want to have in your life, keep in your life, work for in your life, and discovering what you have that needs attention and what you might need to give up.  You will be adding to your wants and adjusting your wants so the first section is for your ongoing work about what you want.

Utilize the other four sections of your notebook to create four separate categories.  Write on the section dividers the subject headings.  Here are categories you can consider:  

Relationship Matters

            Family

            Friends

            Work

            Others

Health and Welfare

Spiritual

Work

Financial

Fun, Fears and Feats

            Pleasure

            Learning

            Avoiding

            Achievements

Planning

            Prioritizing

Overcoming obstacles and objections

            Boundaries

Next, select your first set of ten “wants” you are ready to go to work on and stop there.  Each of the ten will need to be shaped into a goal. 

Coaching Choices continues with what you need to know about goal setting.  This is a process that can change your life, improve your personal and professional effectiveness and ramp up the quality of your relationships.  Are you willing to engage in the process?

Goal setting is coming up next…

Still learning,


Honey

Coaching Yourself & Others - The Beginning

Having a personal development coach was one of the best investments I ever made of my time and money. For over three years, several times a month, my coach taught me key factors to put to use in all kinds of situations.  I had someone encouraging me, gently confronting me and teaching me the importance of planning, evaluating and progress.

I think coaching done well is life enhancing, if not life altering.  Today I coach myself and others.  I work passionately at teaching others how to coach themselves.  I've learned first hand you can coach yourself. It's not magic. It's not quick. It works. It helps create an awakening, accountability, compassion and the importance of self-evaluation.

Coaching Choices is a method I've developed and utilize myself. The method incorporates the teachings of William Glasser, MD who authored a theory on motivation called "Choice Theory."

Here is the beginning of the first of 5 steps to take to get Coaching Choices working for you:

Step 1. Wanting

This step is about learning what you want, what you want to have happen. Purchase a spiral notebook with five sections. The first section is about Wanting. List everything you want to have happen. Look at what you wish was different, look at what you have you want to keep, look at how you want to be perceived. Write all that down. Focus on your Wanting. Dig for what you've wished was different, examine what you frustrate over and about.  Ask yourself, "what have I wanted for a long time? What have I put off wanting?" Write everything down on your mind that comes up.  No rush, but do it.  Maybe do this for ten days.

Review what you've written. Maybe you have a relationship in jeopardy, maybe you want to quit smoking, maybe you want to go back to school or obtain a promotion. Maybe you want to quit worrying, maybe you want to lose weight or change jobs.

When you think you've listed your hopes, dreams, wants, frustrations, fears and ambitions, it's time prioritize what you want. Now create your Want list and begin to number them by priority, immediacy, need and your desire to achieve them. Your list could also include important facets of your life that you think are going well and that you want to keep doing well.

Coaching yourself begins with identifying what you want to have in your life, keep in your life, work for in your life, and discovering what you have that needs attention and what you might need to give up.

Coaching Choices continues...tune in to tomorrow's blog as we work on helping you get what you want through coaching yourself.

Still learning,


Honey