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Want to Boost Coaching Conversations? You Need These Skills

Published Tue May 25 2021

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How would you rate your coaching skills on a scale of 1 to 10? It’s a great question to help anyone reflect on their current coaching skill set and understand where development must start. It also introduces the key coaching competencies for managers and the skills needed to close any gaps. Most individuals rate themselves a “5 or below” for their general coaching skill level. And then, a few typically rate themselves an “8 or above.” But regardless of rating, all participants agree there is room for improvement. While coaching is a skill leaders want to get better at, it’s also something leaders want more of and something their team members are craving. Coaching is a critical enabler of learning in the flow of work.

According to DDI’s Global Leadership Forecast 2021, most leaders are asking for more personalized and objective development experiences. This includes coaching to understand their strengths better and grow their leadership skills. Coaching from external coaches, internal coaching (including peer coaching), and coaching from their current manager make up three of the top six learning modalities leaders want more of. Companies engaged in any change or transformation recognize that building their leaders’ coaching strategies and fostering a coaching culture is crucial. Why? Well, if companies want to transform, they need an environment where giving and receiving feedback is encouraged, bold thinking and action are common, and workers are engaged and productive. And these are the benefits of having a culture that supports coaching.

What Coaching Looks Like in the Workplace

Coaching is an attitude and behavior—it is as much about the approach as it is the outcome. Ultimately, coaching is about helping individuals or teams achieve the best outcomes. As a beginner, coaches feel pressure for each coaching conversation to yield great results. But over time, coaches learn that while coaching can look different across different situations, the objective is always the same. At its heart, it aims to help the other person or team achieve an outcome they can’t achieve on their own at that time. And sometimes, as a coach, you don’t get the satisfaction of immediately knowing if your coaching has had an impact. But it’s not about you as the coach. Good coaches create a relationship based on trust. They do this by applying the right mix of interpersonal skills and influence to meet the other person’s needs in the moment. Thus, coaches trust that their coachee has everything they need to succeed on the job within them. The coach’s role, therefore, is to engage in a conversation that addresses the personal and practical needs of the coachee. This helps to energize the coachee toward achieving their goal. It also supports them through the ups and downs of that pursuit.

Tips to Get Really Good at Coaching

The International Coach Federation (ICF) outlines a core coaching competency model that addresses the key coaching standards, which apply to any coach, peer coach, or leader-as-coach. Based on the ICF’s coaching competencies for managers, here are some tips and key actions to have an effective coaching conversation:

  • Check your coaching mindset.

  • Consider personal and practical needs.

  • Learn authentic listening: hear the story, emotion, and intent.

  • Balance seeking and telling.

For a deeper dive into each of these tips, as well as some key coaching moments, check out DDI’s blog.

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