Take the stickiness out of coaching conversations
Practice these steps and build your confidence in this area of your leadership role
Coaching is necessary. It shouldn't be scary or intimidating. Coaching moments are productive, educational and builds trust within a team.
More often then not, we are nervous to have coaching conversations. Why? Well because we make them personal. We are nervous that the information won't be heard. We are nervous we may hurt someone's feelings. We are nervous that the team member won't like us anymore. We are nervous that they may start spreading rumors or give us a the cold shoulder. There are so many reasons as to why we avoid them instead of diving right in. We also believe that they can be time consuming - I hear this often " I didn't have the time today to address this."
Building confidence within your leadership voice requires you to get really comfortable with coaching moments. To flip the fearful stories about them and create your toolkit around these productive conversations. It doesn't matter if you are a new leader or have years of experience. What matters if you know how to set up the space, both from within and for your team member, for all parties to feel safe to listen, learn and grow together. The reality is, a coaching moment allows you to learn so much from your team member and they get to learn from you. And you'll be building a stronger foundation based on trust.
Here are the steps to add to your toolkit to transform your relationship to coaching moments.
Setting up the space:
Setting up the space for a coaching conversation is the secret sauce to navigating the sticky energy. When we create a safe space, the tension and nerves are lessened. Both the person giving the coaching moments and the person receiving it, both need to feel heard, seen and participate. Not all coaching conversations need to be long or seated. A lot of times, coaching conversations happen standing, in the moment. But what’s important no matter when and where you are having one, that the space is created before jumping in.
Making an agenda:
Again, it doesn’t matter if this a 2-5min meeting for a 30min one. Having an agenda ensures you are sticking to the facts, keeping it professional and it also shows the team member that you have given this some thought and preparation - that you care about supporting them in this moment and role.
Putting together an action plan for accountability:
Before closing out the meeting, you both need to put together at least two action steps to help the team member reach the goal. What are two things that you will ask them to do, that's in their current capability, so you can hold them accountable. Depending on how big of a shift they need to make, scheduling a follow up meeting will be necessary. Expressing how you are going to hold this team member accountable to these action steps is important. This way there are no surprises.
Show gratitude and appreciation:
Thanking your team member for being honest, sharing this time with you and having a productive conversations. Express that you are looking forward to supporting their growth and you are always available to support them whether it's in the moment or if they need more time, they can schedule a time with you when you are both off the floor.
Coaching moments shouldn't be intimidating or sticky. We are here to help you navigate them
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