The Best Handful of Tips 9 – Coaching Secrets

Coaching skills are essential for all good leaders.
You will need to master these skills if you want to be a successful manager and leader.

Five of the best coaching tips used by good leaders

1. Don’t rush. Take your time

Spend time establishing a rapport with the people you coach. Be curious. Ask simple open ended questions.

Do not interrupt the speaker. Be attentive. Show you are listening with your body language and your comments.

Make sure the people you coach fully understand what is expected of them and explain to them the possible rewards for achievements.

2. Challenge people with interesting worthwhile tasks

Arrange for systematic coaching with graduated step by step experiences to build their confidence.

Set training goals to be achieved and get them to agree when they plan to finish.

3. Feedback is the key to improvement

Reflect back with accuracy the views and thoughts of the person being coached.

Give regular and positive feedback and helpful constructive reports on progress. People like to know how they are doing and how they could do better.

4. Reward effort and achievements

Praise good work and encourage people to improve.

Rewards can take many forms and they don’t necessarily need to be financial rewards.

5. New skills must be practised

People become frustrated if the new skills they have learned are not put into practice soon after coaching.
Give them new responsibilities. Let them have a go at new workplace challenges.

To review: First you need to establish trust and a rapport with the people you instruct. Encourage them with praise, build their confidence with graduated experiences and give honest and constructive feedback.

-Geoffrey Moss (mossassociates.co.nz)

“Coaching should inspire action rather than fill with knowledge.”

Source: “Training Secrets. Helping adults learn”. Moss Associates Ltd. “Training Secrets. A trainer’s handbook packed with proven methods and helpful hints”, Cengage Learning Asia. Also available as an e-book from Amazon.com.