Coaching Skills

Coaching skills are not the same as management skills though they share many common factors. To be an effective coach, it is necessary to construct a cohesive team environment, pulling factions together that will work as a unit to achieve a specific goal. You, as the coach are the mentor--the facilitator. It is your job to provide the necessary tools for the team to accomplish their goals produce a result of which they can be proud.

Coaching does not mean being a drill-sergeant where you bark out orders and the employees fall into line like good little soldiers to do your bidding. This approach has been proven ineffective and lowers team morale. Coaching skill is more like mentoring or training. You provide the motivation for the employee to do their best. Good coaching empowers them to develop their own processes for getting a job done. As a coach, you will collaborate with the team leader and/or employee to put their methods into action. An employee who is able to have some input into how their work is done feels fulfilled will be more devoted to doing an outstanding job.

Proper coaching skills training will ensure individual as well as team achievement and breaks down barriers between management and employees. Employees that have been properly coached will feel that they have an investment in the success of the project and subsequently in the success of the company. An effective coach is someone who is willing to relinquish control of the work and develop accountability from the employees for the completion of their projects. As the leader, the coach has to put together the best team possible based on each person’s strengths. Once a good working relationship is forged, employees feel more in control of their future with the company. This will tend to encourage them to develop more creative ways of being productive. In addition, they become more dependable and work harder to ensure the continued success of the company.

Coaching skills involves teambuilding which is a separate skill within itself and skills of a coach will need to be possessed to put together an effective team. Once you have all the members of the team together, this would be a good time for the coach to sit back and observe how the team members interact. This interaction will provide the coach with invaluable information on the team’s members. Is there one person who wants to do all the talking? How do the other members react to that person? Do they sit silently? Pay close attention to the other team members’ body language. Is there a display of resistance or negative responses from the other team members? If so, you may not want to make this person the team leader. If all, or many, of the team members contribute equally, the team should be allowed to select who they want as their leader. Everyone in the team needs to feel valued and they won’t if there is one person who does all the talking and takes credit for everything that is produced. It is necessary to put together a team that will be cohesive in their efforts to complete the project. When one or two members of the group feel they are not valued, you will not receive optimal performance from them.