NetworkNews | Network of Executive Women - Tools and Tips for Retail and CPG Executives

Outside coaches are increasingly popular -- but as helpful as many coaches are, they are no substitute for the internal leadership only you can provide to your employees.

You don’t need a degree in education to be a coach. Your business skills, leadership instincts and personal intuition can go a long way. And techniques developed by the coaching profession can help you train your team and counsel your employees:

Tailor your message
No two employees respond to the same coaching approach. Discover what learning style works best with each employee. Some respond to emotions, others respond better to logic, for example. Assessment tools like the Birkman Workstyle Analysis can offer insights into the best ways to coach individuals and teams.

Talk with, not at
Too many supervisors talk at their employees instead of talking with them. Listening is the least-effective learning method -- use every technique at your disposal to create a memorable learning experience, including experiential learning, dialogue, storytelling, and audio/visual.

Coaching steps
Just as different people respond to different coaching styles, different situations require different coaching methods. Clarion University uses a five-step coaching model:

Education -- Best used to impart fresh information or orient new employees
Sponsorship -- When a subject’s skills are highly developed
Encouragement -- To affirm good performance or make small corrections
Counseling -- To facilitate problem-solving
Confrontation -- Private communication to improve performance and give direct feedback

Action learning
Coaching is not a spectator sport. People do not learn much sitting passively listening to coaches and trainers. “They must talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences and apply it to their daily lives,” says the University of Hawaii.

Feedback loop
There are things learners know, things they don’t know, and things that they don’t even know they don’t know. Learners need feedback to benefit from coaching, including opportunities to perform and receive suggestions for improvement, review what they’ve learned, assess what need to know, and learn how to assess themselves.

Establish trust
Communicate objectively, directly and clearly. Share some of your own experiences, being careful to listen and not overwhelm the process. And remember that coaching is not about you but your subject.

Coaching the coacher
There are many excellent training programs that will help you improve your coaching techniques. Some programs provide certification in a little as four days. If coaching is a big part of your job, consider attending one of these training programs.