Coaching skills have proved to be essential to managerial success, helping with employee onboarding and retention, performance management, knowledge transfer, and skill improvement.
5 best practices for optimizing coaching sessions from Forbes & BizLibrary include:
- Begin with open-ended, guiding questions to reduce defensiveness and encourage thought; listen to understand.
- Recognize what’s going well to build on strengths; be sure compliments are genuine.
- Coach in the moment; seize opportunities to teach.
- Identify and confirm next steps, and always follow-up.
- Commit to continuous learning; if the leader isn’t always improving, why should the team?