follow-up coaching

Follow-up Coaching is an Essential Leadership Skill to Develop

No comments Comments

Follow-up coaching on actions that employees commit to take is another essential leadership skill that leaders who want to adapt a coaching style of leadership need to develop.


This skill builds on the previous essential leadership coaching skills I wrote about in my previous articles and videos. They are active listening, asking questions and asking for action.


These skills are greatly needed in all aspects of leading and managing employees and also for teamwork. Team members can also coach each other and this is actually required when developing autonomous teams.


Highly effective leaders know that at times you need to coach and other times you need to manage. The reason to adapt a coaching style of leadership is to build more self-reliant employees who actually take initiative to develop new skills and work on continuous improvement initiatives.


When asking employees for action to solve a problem or work on a new improvement initiative there needs to be an accountability factor associated with the action. This is where the skill of following up on the action is required.


Here are suggested steps to the follow-up on action coaching session. I call it a coaching session because in challenging employees to take action to solve their own problem or achieve a goal, you are helping them develop their skills and build confidence in themselves.

  • Start the conversation with some open ended questions to check how things are going since your last meeting. The employee will probably bring up whatever action they were working on
  • If the action or goal was achieved congratulate them and ask them how they feel. This is another good opportunity to use active listening
  • If the action was not taken at all, ask them why and what has stood in their way. Whatever it is, go back to asking questions and help them to set a new action. Sometimes the wrong action was set and needs to be discussed and perhaps a new smaller step taken
  • If some action was taken and the problem is still unresolved or the goal not achieved, use the asking questions skill to define the next action step.
  • Always ask the employee to note down their action commitments in writing and you do the same.
  • Set the next follow-up date and time and add it to your mutual agendas. Send a calendar invitation.

By taking a coaching approach to following up on action commitments by employees you make the process more effective and enjoyable for both yourself and the employee. Employees will see you as a leader who wants action and improvement but also takes the time to coach and develop them.


coaching skill

Asking for Action is the 3rd Coaching Skill Recommended for Leaders

No comments Comments

In my two previous articles on coaching skills for leaders I talked about active listening and asking questions. These are two of the four essential coaching skills I recommend for leaders who want to adapt a coaching style of leadership.


The purpose of a coaching conversation with employees or even team members is to help them sort out a problem, set a new goal or any other subject that needs time away from discussing the day to day tasks.


Asking questions helps the person being coached sort things and also have someone they trust act as a sounding board. But at one point their needs to be action to resolve the problem or situation.


Asking the person what they can do as a first or next step will empower them to come up with their own solutions and get them to commit to taking responsibility to implement the action.


This is where the coach can challenge the person if they are not being realistic or setting an action that lacks challenge. Sometimes the coach needs to help boost the confidence of the person to express why they can achieve something more challenging. The coach needs to know the person well and be aware of their past accomplishments so they can remind them of past situations where they demonstrated their capability or perhaps where they may have overshot what they thought they could accomplish.


A useful tool here would be my goal planning worksheet. This can help the employee write down a goal and the action steps involved. The coach would guide them through the goal setting process if necessary. Putting goals and commitments in writing is a great way to make things clear and measurable.


It’s imperative that the coach sets a follow-up meeting to review progress. This will solidify commitment and drive accountability. Make sure to set appointments in both agendas once the followup date and time is agreed on.


I will go over following-up in my next article and video as this is the 4th skill I recommend developing to be good at coaching employees to solve their own problems, work on improvement initiatives an to promote personal development and training.


leadership

Asking Questions is another Powerful Skill for Leaders who want to Coach Employees

No comments Comments

Becoming a leader who uses a coaching style of leadership can be developed overtime using just four skill sets.


Each leader may have different challenges to incorporate these skills In their approach to leading and managing employees.


That is why it’s important for each leader to know themselves and understand their strengths and weaknesses when it comes to various aspects of leading,  managing.and coaching employees.


In a previous article and video I talked about the importance of learning active listening as a highly important skill for coaching employees.


Another skill is asking questions and this ties in very well with active listening. In order to use active listening you need to have people express what’s on their mind and sometimes that’s more than what’s on the surface.


Asking questions allows you to understand the person, What they are experiencing and how they’re feeling. it can be used in every interaction with an employee when it comes to coaching them and for employee development.


The more you understand what someone is experiencing and how they’re feeling the better you can guide and coach them. Asking questions is a way to facilitate that process.


Coaching is best done through regularly scheduled coaching sessions as it is a different conversation than what typically happens when managing activities on a daily basis.


Coaching is about helping the person grow and this related to their performance on the job as when people develop themselves their performance improves, they feel more productive and you and the organization benefits from their ability to perform better.


When asking questions use open ended questions unless you are seeking a factual response. This could be questions like:

  • How are you feeling about the job these days?
  • What challenges do you face to meet your responsibilities and tasks?
  • How can I better support you?
  • What on the job problems do you have that feel frustrating?
  • How do you see your career path?

These types of questions helps you to understand where the person stands with their employment and where they want to go. This can help with employee retention as you might discover an employee who is thinking of leaving or feeling held back.


Of course the questions could be more directly related to the job such as, how is the project your working on going from your perspective? How are you feeling about working with the team? What would you change if you could?


Combining asking questions with active listening are essential coaching skills that every leader who wants to adapt a coaching style of leadership needs to develop. This takes awareness of personal challenges in doing so and working on improving these skills consistently over time.


I have a video demonstrating active listening, so check that out, and there is also an active listening exercise you can download from my website.


active listening

A Top Quality of Every Leader to Develop

No comments Comments

Leaders need to develop their personal qualities and skills to be effective at leadership and coaching people.


The one skill that I think is imperative to become good at is active listening. Active listening is more than listening. You can appear to be a good listener by just staying focused on the conversation, keeping eye contact, and nodding your head.


Active listening is showing you understand and respect how the person feels. This is immensely powerful because when people feel you understand them, they are open to listening to your perspective on their situation.


Most people are taught to respond with their own opinion when someone is expressing something. But if someone comes to you to divulge or express something that they are upset or even happy about they are not looking for your opinion whether they are right or wrong. They are confiding in you and first need to know you are listening and understand what this means to them.


Active listening is a simple skill but not easy for many leaders and managers to develop. Like anything though, it takes practice. That is why it is important to understand the importance and benefits of practicing active listening.


Active listening will build trust with people as they will feel you show that you care about them and how they feel. It will develop better relationships and foster loyalty.


Watch the video to listen to an example of active listening. You can also refer to this article and video and download a practice worksheet from my website.


active listening