Employees need to perform for a company to reach its goals and objectives. However, there are many different ways to encourage and motivate a team. By upskilling managers in coaching, you can integrate this type of mindset into the workplace and unlock potential in teams and organisations. Additionally, you can help to reach and exceed business and individual goals.
But what exactly is coaching, and what are the benefits of learning these skills as a manager? In this post, we discuss the concept of coaching and the benefits of developing a coaching mindset. We’ll also touch on some of the skills you can learn to develop teams and organisations as a leader.
What is coaching?
The concept of coaching is well known in the sporting industry, but this approach to training and development applies to both individuals and teams in any setting. To give it a broad definition in the workplace, it is a way of getting the best out of individuals, by having progress-oriented conversations.
By having these kinds of conversations, and by developing skills that can effectively encourage and inspire others, managers can help team members discover new insights, set goals, choose actions and be accountable.
For example, with this approach, you can play a more active role in getting your team to bring their relative strengths and skills to the table while working on a project. This is a much more constructive way to build a team and create more effective processes than waiting until a project is completed to see what could have been done better.
Why learn coaching skills as a manager?
Employee performance is not just about the bottom line. For expert managers, implementing this kind of coaching approach in a team setting makes the most of a valuable opportunity for development and growth.
By developing effective coaching skills, managers can help employees and their company to meet their goals. These can include financial goals. It can also involve creating a constructive company culture that provides more overall value than just meeting sales targets and growing profit.
If you’re in a management or leadership role, you’ve reached this level because you have been coached, or have coached yourself, to believe that you can advance. By developing this kind of self-belief and self-motivation in yourself, you can also help your team and other company members to reach their next level of performance, for individual and company benefit.
This involves commitment, clarity, responsibility, awareness, and making considered choices. These are all essential to evolving as a person, both in the workplace and beyond.
Key benefits of coaching skills in the workplace
We’ve given a broad overview of what coaching is and the benefits it can provide in the workplace. Now, what knowledge and skills does it teach you?
By choosing to develop a coaching mindset, you will develop capabilities in different areas:
Broadening your knowledge of psychological approaches and models
Both coaches and managers work with many different kinds of people. This requires an understanding of basic psychological principles, as well as the intricacies of human behaviour and what motivates people.
When developing your coaching skills, you will learn about topics such as change principles, and what steps are involved in behaviour change. You’ll learn more about neuroscience and how the brain works. Additionally, how positive psychology can guide you to build on your strengths to help you thrive.
By digging deeper into frameworks like the GROW Model, you’ll also learn practical tools for setting up simple processes for goal setting and problem-solving, which is invaluable in the workplace.
Overall, by making the effort to understand yourself and others better, and applying frameworks that can assist with building awareness, taking action and promoting accountability, you’ll have the tools and ability to get the most out of your team.
Learning about the importance of ethics
When working with others, it’s important to understand ethics and to have an awareness of what should and shouldn’t be done when coaching people. Ethics is critical when developing any kind of supportive relationship. As a manager, you might not be having formal coaching conversations, but ethics are still important when dealing with employees. It can also help to avoid any conflict or other problems within a team dynamic.
Becoming an effective communicator
Effective communication skills are essential in the workplace. When you learn about coaching skills, you learn about how to communicate with others in an empowering way. In addition, you can help to evoke awareness in others about where they can grow their communication abilities. People in a team might have different communication styles. Therefore, developing more awareness about how people in a team think can lead to greater harmony and productivity.
In a management capacity, developing effective communication skills is essential. It will ensure that you are growing a productive team and that you can resolve any conflict or miscommunication effectively.
By building relational skills like active listening, empathy and asking the right questions, you’ll also improve your capacity to interact with anyone that you come into contact with while setting a positive example for everyone else around you.
Helping yourself and others to grow
If you choose to learn the skills that can empower others to maximise their work-related potential, performance and growth, you’ll empower yourself by being a part of the process. In this mutually beneficial process, you can help others while learning where you need to learn and grow too.
By taking this approach, you’ll also start to build more mutually beneficial relationships with the people in your professional and personal life, as you’ll have a better understanding of how to have constructive progress-oriented conversations and work towards shared goals.
Building coaching skills with SACAP Global
SACAP Global offers a variety of short courses online, grounded in Applied Psychology. Courses are hosted on an interactive learning platform. It allows you to interact online with other learners, and practise building your skills in an accessible format.
Our Coaching Skills for Managers short course offers the following outcomes:
- Exposure to the International Coaching Federation (ICF)’s core coaching competencies
- Learn how to apply the models and skills that you’ll learn during the course when working with employees, colleagues and team members
- Be able to put basic psychological principles into practice, which will enhance your understanding of human behaviour and what motivates people.
- Engage with an internationally accredited ICF coach in a group mentoring session (after you complete your first practice session).
Do you have an interest in other areas of Applied Psychology? Our list of micro-credentials, online workshops and other flexible short courses can help you achieve your personal and professional goals.
Contact our team if you need any help or assistance, or if you’d like to find out more information.