Do you want the best out of your team? Being a team leader doesn’t just mean you are the director of strategy or the ultimate decision-maker. Strong leaders hone their coaching skills on a regular basis through a focus on developing their people. Effective coaching skills are fundamental to building a strong team and driving desired results for the individuals on your team, and your organization.
We know teams aren’t perfect. Personality conflicts, disagreements, and low morale can all impact your team’s ability to complete a project and do their job. Employees who have a strong leader, one who is able to coach them through all these challenges, will be positioned to perform at a higher level, and deliver better quality work.
How Can Coaching Skills Help My Team?
Being a strong leader doesn’t just mean you are organized, have strong management skills, and are experienced in your field. It also means you are a coach, you have developed emotional intelligence and can be empathetic, and you communicate well. These skills, often referred to as soft, are incredibly hard and equally as important for developing the potential and realizing the performance within your team.
At Bright Wire Leadership, we have seen the positive and often exponential impact of effective leaders who know the importance of coaching their team regularly. Teams that have a leader who is also an excellent coach are more engaged in their work and achieve better overall results. These team members feel respected for their contributions, are in a position to own their own development, and are held accountable to deliver in a way that is motivating and engaging.
Organizations that have strong coaching cultures experience higher employee morale that results in greater discretionary effort, and increased alignment and collaboration between team members. And, where strong coaching cultures exist, productivity and profitability are enhanced.
The benefits of coaching also extend beyond the workplace. A well-coached team will have improved morale and communication skills, as well as the skillset to overcome personal barriers and limitations.
To have a strong team, you need a great coach — someone with emotional intelligence and excellent communication skills, and someone who genuinely cares about helping employees learn and improve. In this article, we’ll share 9 tips for inspiring greatness in your team!
How to Inspire Greatness with Your Team
If you believe in the benefits of team coaching but are unsure where to begin, here are some easy ways to get started.
1. Get to know your team members
As a leader, it’s essential to spend the time to develop strong relationships and learn about your team members on a deeper level, including their strengths, weaknesses, and motivations. When you really know your team members, you’ll gain a clear understanding of the value they currently bring to your team and organization as a whole as well as the ways in which you can leverage their underrecognized strengths and competencies.
Developing strong one-on-one relationships, also better equips you to understand whether a team member requires a different coaching style to reach their full potential, how to retain valuable members by ensuring they are consistently motivated and engaged in their role, and how to combine the strengths of different team members to overcome obstacles.
2. Build trust through honesty
Creating a culture of respect and mutual trust begins with honesty. When coaching employees, it’s essential to be honest in your assessment and feedback. Providing honest feedback on employee performance shows that you are committed to helping your employees reach their goals and are confident in their ability to grow and learn.
Moving forward, your team members will have a clearer understanding of how they can make real change and experience meaningful professional growth.
3. Encourage collaboration
Whenever possible, encourage employees to work together. Pooling their resources and working as a team will help build strong relationships which, in turn, will increase your team’s momentum.
Collaboration can also be an effective means of knowledge transfer. When team members are actively engaged in transferring learning amongst each other, entire teams begin to evolve concurrently.
According to Bit, companies and organizations that communicate effectively are also 4.5x more likely to retain the best employees. When employees feel a sense of belonging and community, they’re more likely to stay with the company for a longer period of time.
4. Ask open-ended questions
Good questions beget good answers. Asking open-ended questions during coaching conversations beginning with “Why”, “How,” or “What If?” encourages a full, thoughtful answer and helps to develop a coaching culture rather than an authoritative environment.
As a good coach, it’s a best practice to guide conversations in a way that empowers employees to think more critically about the problems at hand. Open-ended questions also allow you to gain greater insight into the ways your employees think so you can mentor them more effectively.
5. Give constructive feedback
Observing your employee’s behavior allows you to learn their habits, strengths, and areas in need of improvement. In addition to consistent and structured coaching sessions that allow you to give regular feedback and track performance improvement, it’s also important to provide real-time feedback. This performance management approach allows employees to better monitor and adjust their behaviour on a regular basis, driving improved performance and professional success. By giving directives and feedback based on micro-moments of employee behaviour, employees will be more engaged in their skill improvement.
6. Celebrate accomplishments
Acknowledging significant achievements and milestones is a great way to foster a positive work environment and ensure your team members feel like their efforts are recognized and rewarded. Celebrating accomplishments and putting in the extra effort to recognize when team members go above and beyond also brings a human side to the workplace and can help with employee morale and retention.
For example, after a successful project is completed, acknowledge how certain team members enabled the project’s success through their hard work and unique contributions. Celebrating team members and their accomplishments shows them that you care and makes them feel like they’re part of a cohesive team.
7. Ask for their ideas
To be an effective coach, it’s also important to be open to new ideas. Workplace communication should go both ways — up and down the ladder. Innovation can come from any level.
Different people within your team will all have a unique and valuable perspective. Asking your employees for their ideas on how the team can improve and reach its goals will show that you are actively interested in the success of your team and value the perspectives of your team members.
8. Ask for their feedback
During your coaching conversations, ask your employees for feedback on how you can improve to better support them in reaching their goals. Ask them to be specific about what they like and dislike about your coaching style and aim to keep an open mind. Asking for your employee’s feedback will help you improve your own skills and become a better coach and leader.
9. Invest in Team Coaching
Professional team coaching is an effective method to bring your team to a higher level. While you may be a great leader, it always helps to invest in professional support and expertise. A professionally trained and certified coach can provide key insight from an external and neutral perspective. This unique perspective allows them to empower your you and your team with the strategies and execution plans necessary to promote collective learning, enhance team dynamics, and help you achieve your desired business results.
Additionally, investing in professional team coaching is a powerful step towards developing a strong coaching culture. It shows that you are committed to the betterment of your teams and it opens the doors for more consistent and ongoing coaching conversations within an organization. Consistent coaching helps create more engaged employees that feel motivated to deliver exceptional results while owning their own professional development and growth.
Let Bright Wire Leadership Help You Bring Out the Best in Your Team
Bright Wire’s mission is to empower your team and elevate your business. Our Team Coaching service will provide you with a coaching program that’s tailored to your team’s specific needs through a combination of team and one-on-one coaching sessions.
Whether this is an existing team or an entirely new group, our accredited and professional coaches design a unique program based on your unique team dynamics and business goals.
Contact us today to get started!
