Coaching
The Effective Manager will be constantly looking for opportunities to coach her direct reports. Effective coaching will provide targeted learning opportunities for the report both in areas of weakness and in possible future delegation opportunities.
It is important to make the distinction between coaching and teaching. The Effective Manager will not assume teaching responsibilities for each coaching opportunity that is uncovered. Rather the Effective Manager will facilitate learning, helping to identify resources that the direct report can utilize. The Effective Manager will also help track progress of an improvements that are made in the area of opportunity and to provide feedback on results obtained.
The steps to effective coaching are as follows:
- Work with the direct report to identify coaching opportunities
- Set SMART goals around the desired improvement
- Identify resources that will assist the direct report
- Agree on a plan to track and evaluate progress
- Follow up regularly, giving feedback on results
