Coaching and developing employees: 5 coaching strategies for leaders

Are you in need of coaching ideas for managers?

Coaching is the process of identifying high-performing employees and providing them with intentional, guided professional growth opportunities.

Through strategic coaching and development, organizations can build a strong andmotivated workplace culture. One of the greatest coaching skills for managers is the ability to drive that culture forward and produce desired results.

But coaching isn’t something that stops after onboarding or training is complete. In addition to asuccessful onboarding and training program, management must master:

• Coaching and developing employees
• Coaching for new managers
• How to be a coaching leader
• Workplace coaching skills
  
  

Are you searching for coaching strategies for leaders to upskill your workforce and build loyalty amongst employees?

We’re here to help you better understand coaching and know how to make it a priority in your workplace. Check out these five tips for coaching your employees successfully.

5 simple and effective coaching ideas for managers

When you’re busy with the day-to-day of the office, it can be difficult to create a strategic plan for coaching and developing employees.

However, workplace coaching is essential if you want to improve employee performance and meet company goals. Step one to successful coaching is knowing and implementing effective workplace coaching skills.

Here are five simple tips for coaching employees that will help you lead your team to success every time.

Tip #1: provide feedback often and regularly

One of the first key coaching skills for managers centers on feedback.

Giving feedback effectively is an essential part of the coaching process. Too often, managers wait until an annual review to share feedback and provide critiques.

Instead, try giving feedback often and regularly to your team. Don’t wait for a negative experience or missed opportunity to start coaching. Help shape your team by involving them in various discussions and training them in real-world scenarios.

Don’t forget to also provide personal, positive reinforcement. By mastering theart of positive feedback and praise, you’ll also:

• Improve productivity
• Enhance worker morale and job satisfaction
• Reduce turnover
  
  

The best coaching skills for supervisors balance positive reinforcement and constructive criticism effectively.

Tip #2: empower your employees to make their own decisions

Add employee empowerment to your repertoire of powerful tips for coaching employees.

While managers may want to control everything, it may actually be counterproductive. Managers should be involved in employee decision-making, but they don’t have to be the sole decision-makers.

By allowing employees to make small decisions that directly impact them, managers will enable them to take ownership of something larger in the future. Employees will also understand how these decisions affect others within the company and what it takes to get things done.

Leaders can empower their employees by implementing these coaching practices for managers:

• Bringing employees into decision-making processes that directly affect them, their team, or their role/responsibilities
• Allowing employees to choose what they work on each day, so long as it's related to their current projects or job function
• Opening the door for employees to propose new ideas or solutions
• Creating and encouraging a “safe-to-fail” environment where employees feel safe to make decisions and fail without any serious consequences
  
  

Even if managers don’t always agree with or act upon an employee’s suggestions, simply listening and acknowledging employee contributions can go a long way in making employees feel connected to the workplace.

Tip #3: encourage your employees to set personal development goals

In a cut-throat global economy, there’s so much focus on “hitting the numbers.” It’s common for managers to get too caught up in profit goals and their own busy schedules to reflect on or discuss their employees’ professional goals.

Beyond hitting those company objectives, understanding where employees hope to head in their careers shows them you value their contributions both as employees and individuals. This genuine interest in employee growth is one of the most overlooked workplace coaching skills.

Organizations can foster this management style by implementing dedicated coaching strategies for leaders, including:

• Training sessions on how to be a coaching leader
• Professional development guidebooks and references
• Providing tracking portals andcoaching tools
  
  

Are you dedicating time to inspiring and coaching your employees’ success?

Encourage employees to dream big and show them you’re there to guide them through the process. With professional goals, employees will be more motivated to perform effectively and work as a team.

Tip #4: offer self-reflection time

Workplace culture is evolving rapidly. With increased focus on intentional anddiverse workplaces, time for self-reflection should be standard. It’s easy for employees and managers to lose sight of the big picture when they’re focused on the daily grind.

To create a highly engaged and authentic workforce, managers need to set aside time during the week for their teams to check-in and reflect. By including mindfulness as one of the key workplace coaching skills, leaders will be able to:

• Gain a better understanding of what is going well in the company and what could improve
• Avoid making emotionally charged decisions
• Help their employees develop skills that will aid them in the organization and their life in general
• Become a better manager and listener
  
  

An important aspect of coaching and developing employees involves giving employees time and space to reflect on past, current, and future outcomes and goals.

Tip #5: keep your employees engaged with tailored microlearning and training

Another one of our top coaching ideas for managers is to create tailoredmicrolearning modules for their employees.

By creating interactive and easily digestible training sessions (1-5 minutes long), you’ll be able to keep employees competitive and at the top of their game. Plus, the personalized learning tracks will show employees that you care about their long-term career success.

With micro-learning, employees and managers both benefit. Employees willbenefit from upskilling and growing professionally. Managers can use these short training modules to evaluate strengths and weaknesses within their teams.

Start Coaching Your Employees for Success Today

If you’re responsible for coaching and developing employees, you’ll want to create a culture that motivates them to improve and grow by:

1. Providing them with feedback often and regularly
2. Empowering them to make their own decisions
3. Encouraging your employees to set personal development goals
4. Offering self-reflection time
5. Keeping them engaged with tailored micro-learning
   
   

Whether you’re looking for coaching ideas for new managers or are a seasoned coach in need of a refresher, these five tips for coaching employees are a great place to start.

However, if you want to supercharge your coaching culture further, then reach out to us at Unboxed Training & Technology today.

At Unboxed, we have the tools, resources, and creative expertise to make coaching a powerful part of your company culture. Two of the ways we can help you empower your managers include:

1. Custom training programs for coaches: If your managers need training in how to be a coaching leader, then a custom training program is where you’ll want to begin. Our training content is designed is tailor-made for your brand and business goals and equips managers with all the workplace coaching skills they need.
2. Spoke® Coaching Platform: Spoke is a Learning Technology Platform that helps managers stay organized and implement coaching best practices. It’s an easy way for managers to give feedback, encourage practice, and follow progress.
   
   

Whether you’re looking to enhance coaching skills for managers or learning and development resources for your team, Unboxed has the solution that will work best for you.

Contact us today to see how we can help you develop your managers into coaches!