Coaching for employees and management can be highly effective to improve employee performance and keep the organization agile.

However, hiring external coaches or having a full-time internal coach can be a sizeable investment that not all organizations can afford.

The solution is to have managers and employees learn the skills of coaching. Skills such as active listening and asking questions are easy to learn but not so easy to apply. That’s because habits are hard to break, and coaching must be something that people want to do and get rewarded for. Rewards for practicing coaching can be recognition and positive feedback.

The key is for the organization’s leadership to be committed to embrace coaching and to be an example. This is often the biggest challenge to having coaching become common practice.

Some managers have a stronger tendency to coach employees than others. Those that have a high interest in activities related to people service tend to find coaching enjoyable and understand that it is a key responsibility.

In fact, the younger generations of employees today prefer having managers who can provide coaching and practice a participative leadership style.

Leaders of organizations who want managers to can coach employees need to assess the interest in people of those they hire and promote for a management role. Just because someone is an expert in their field and shows they can take charge does not mean they can or will coach people.

An assessment to like the PXT Select that measures occupational interests including an interest in people would be a valuable tool to use. Creating a culture where coaching is highly valued and practiced regularly by managers would propel performance to great heights and be a workplace that attracts top talent.