According to Keith Webb “Coaching is an intentional ongoing conversation or series of conversations which empowers a person to fully live out their calling...but for a work situation it would be to achieve organizational objectives.” Are you empowering others? You may think you are coaching your employees but are you actually advising them instead? There are definitely differences between advising and coaching. As you consider your business’s organizational health and your own leadership development as you work to create a healthy team at work, there are some key elements to coaching that can help you with employee engagement!
Disengaged employees are not productive and can cost companies a great deal of money on their bottom line. This is a huge problem but it can be fixed. Effective coaching on the part of management and leadership can turn this around. However, it is important to know the difference between advising and coaching.
Advising vs. Coaching
Advising is basically telling people what to do based on your experience, education, and what seems right. It is telling, teaching and training. However, coaching is much different. Coaches need to listen, ask questions, and draw information out of others—using open lines of communication.
The surface level of coaching is problem-solving or to reach one’s goals. However, the deeper level of coaching is transforming the person. In management, it involves equipping your team members to develop their own solutions by thinking through and finding their solutions. Then they own them and can take some responsibility for them. As Keith says, “By using a coaching approach, we can solve the immediate, develop them as people who can think more deeply, reflect more intentionally, and find solutions they maybe didn't even know.”
Giving Employees What They Want
When you think about employee engagement, consider what employees want from their work and their time at the office. Employees want to be heard, be respected, and be involved with the decisions affecting them. Simply asking employees for their input and getting information from them helps them to feel appreciated, respected, and valued. Being able to contribute their thoughts makes them feel as if they have a voice...empowering them. This is what makes them like their manager and want to work with their manager—building trust and opening lines of communication.
Leadership Through Listening
Considering leadership development, a key element to coaching is listening to your team members. People can think three times quicker than we can talk. Sometimes our brains are way ahead of a conversation. We have to slow our brains down so we actually hear the person who is speaking. It may be necessary to ask questions so you are on the same page as the other person. For example, if an employee doesn’t understand something, it is important to ask enough questions to know what they don’t understand. This can also be an effective method of time management, saving coaching time with the employee if you are actually addressing their exact issue from the beginning. And, again, the employee is engaged in the conversation. Your listening skills can be an opportunity for growth and development as you work to create a healthy team.
Engaging employees is critical to your business’s organizational health. Keep the lines of communication open with employees, listening to their questions, and input as you coach them to be the best versions of themselves. Move your team forward as you build your coaching skills!
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