Performance coaching is an invaluable asset for leaders striving to reach their goals and hone their skills. It is an ongoing process that helps build and maintain effective relationships with employees and supervisors, while also aiding in the identification of an employee's growth and the planning of new skills. Coaching can focus on achieving goals within a leader's current job or on moving in new directions, and it can even help executives who have failed to improve their performance. The capacity and training of a coach are just as important as the development of the person receiving the training.
A coach can help a leader recognize skills that need to be developed, key strengths, and strategies for improvement. Supervisors and employees can work together to create plans that may include training, new tasks, job enrichment, self-learning, or job details. The data collected at the IMD business school clearly demonstrates the positive impact of coaches and training on participants every time they are used in a program. After six months, participants with coaching experience score higher than untrained programs.
With the support of their trust-based coach, employees understand that, even if they fail to try something new or difficult, their coach will still be there to help them take advantage of the failure as an opportunity for learning and personal growth, rather than using that failure as a club during their next performance evaluation. Establishing trust is essential to any coaching relationship; when employees receive ongoing support from someone they trust to back them up, they develop the psychological security needed to honestly reflect on what drives and inhibits their performance. The advantages of coaching are numerous; 80% of people who receive coaching say they have greater confidence in themselves and more than 70% benefit from better work performance, relationships and more effective communication skills. To reinforce the development of training capacity and clarify the expectations of coaches, talent leaders must consider how to create responsibility in training. Many organizations address this issue by combining positive feedback, identifying and tracking key training metrics, adjusting managers' performance criteria, and even considering training capacity before promoting employees to a management position. Learning experiences should include “real world examples” of training opportunities and scenarios to help managers practice key training conversations. Performance coaching is an excellent skill that can be used to improve growth and performance, as well as to promote individual responsibility and accountability.
It is an invaluable tool for leaders looking to improve their skills and reach their goals. With the right coach by your side, you can unlock your potential and achieve success.
