02.14 - Leadership Fundamentals: Coaching 101 Tips for Becoming A Leader Who Coaches Their Team to Success
Set the Standard
How can you create standards of excellence that people willingly adhere to?
Evaluate the Current Situation:
- To what extent are people living the values your organization needs to be known for?
- How consistently do they deliver on your brand's promise?
- How much do you hear people talking about how to do things better?
Communication Skills For Coaching
Asking great questions is key to helping others gain insight.
Ask questions:
- That are open-ended to create greater clarity, possibility or new learning.
- In ways that that reveal the information needed for maximum insight.
- That clearly indicate that you understand your colleague's perspective.
- That provoke commitment or action.
- That move your colleague toward the future.
Want to be more of a coach?
- Don't slide into the middle of your employees' work. Set challenging expectations, give them the resources, watch their progress and help them adjust their course.
- Facilitate conversations between people who need to come together to get the job done. Building the social network of your organization to increase nimbleness and agility can grease the path to sustainablity.
- Coaching is advice from the sidelines. And, it's also demonstrating how things are done the right way.
One regional CEO who gets the importance of coaching. Russell Barksdalte, Jr. MPA, ACHE, President and CEO, Friendship Retirement Community
Russell describes the practices at Friendship Retirement Community:
Coaching and mentoring are extremely important tools that we use here at Friendship Retirement Community to develop tomorrow's healthcare leaders. While some companies incorporate coaching and mentoring as supplemental training techniques, our foundation for learning and staff development incorporate each independently based upon the individual. As an example, coaching is part of every manager's role in leading their team. The premise being those receiving coaching have already been taught the information required to succeed. They have their degree in nursing, physical, occupational, or speech therapy. They sometimes need to just dig beneath the surface for cause and effect, or ask the right questions, or find the internal motivation to help them move forward to reach their personal and performance goals. Coaching is an everyday event and to be our manager, you must have the ability to get a great team of well trained professionals all moving in the same direction. The employee must also have a sense of support, confidence, and appreciation from their coach.
