7 Expert Tips for Using Coaching Skills at Work
How to use coaching skills at work: expert tips and insights from Performance Consultants’Global Coaching and Transformation Manager.
Opportunities to Apply Newly Learned Mindset & Skills
Even with a daily reminder, it is easy to miss opportunities to apply a newly learned mindset and skills. In fact, “learning transfer” has been a tricky topic in corporate education for many years.
At Performance Consultants we have been addressing the challenge of applying coaching skills at work ever since Sir John Whitmore founded the company and developed the Coaching for Performance program. So, what have we learned from the classroom about transferring a coaching mindset and skills to the workplace?
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7 Inspiring and Practical Actions Towards Applying your Coaching Skills
1. Connect to your Inspiring Goal
Without personal accountability and self-motivation, it is hard to stay committed to apply what you have learned.
Get really clear on how a coaching leadership style will move you closer to the future you want to create. Put a reminder near your desk of your vision and what you want to achieve. When you see it each morning set your intention for the day.
What is the best that could possibly happen if you applied your coaching mindset and skills to all your meetings?
2. Build a Support Network
If you leave one of our workshops and return to an environment where the culture does not support a coaching style, it can feel odd at first to apply your new skills.
Identify a buddy from your training group, an influential person in your workplace and others who you can share your successes and challenges with and who will hold you accountable for change.
3. Use the GROW model
It is simple, effective and versatile. The GROW model is a goal-setting and problem-solving framework which is leveraged by industry-leading businesses globally.
Even at the most basic level, following the GROW model and asking powerful questions and actively listening will make a big difference to your impact as a leader.
You can find out more about how to use this framework with GROW Digital™.
4. Educate Those Around You
If you return to your organisation and begin acting very differently – as you will if you are applying a coaching leadership style – your peers and team members might wonder why you are not acting “normally”.
When you explain the change you want to make and inspire by sharing your goal, others are more likely to support you and help keep you on track.
5. Trust in the Long-term Benefits
One of the biggest challenges for managers using coaching for the first time is overcoming the assumption that it is time-consuming.
It might feel that way at first, but as you empower your team, their skills, confidence, and capability will grow. This gives you more time to focus on planning, strategy, and vision – what leaders do best.
6. Maintain a Beginner’s Mindset
When you are new to something, you accept failure and this is core to the learning process.
It’s easy to feel frustrated as you spot your own mistakes if you’re new to coaching. Try to keep an open mind and remember that nobody is perfect at coaching. Even coaches with 20 years of experience are still learning.
7. Refresh Learning Where Possible
I have been on the Level 1 Coaching for Performance programme more than once. In fact, employees at Performance Consultants are actively encouraged to attend multiple times. The reason for this is that every time I gain a new insight or become aware of something else about my coaching style. A refresh or reset is advisable to embed mindsets and skills over the long term.
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