Coaching is a powerful tool that can help employees reach their full potential. It is a dialogue that leads to awareness and action, and it is especially useful when an individual has the skills and ability to complete a task, but lacks the confidence, focus, motivation, drive, or bandwidth needed to do their best. Coaching can be used to reinforce an existing skill set, and it has been proven to create stronger bonds within teams, improve company spirit, reduce friction, and even boost sales. The International Coaching Federation (ICF) is one of the largest accreditation organizations in the world, known both for accrediting coaches with high-quality training and for helping coaches find quality training.
Leaders who have the opportunity to use their coaching skills should not dismiss the needs of their employees by saying no. Training is the best way to ensure that leaders can perform at a high level, and an external coach provides an impartial perspective rich in learning from different contexts. To distinguish between training and counseling, it's important to look at the root of these approaches. Training is generally done to help people excel at something they are already doing well, while counseling is used to address attitude problems such as motivation, confidence, energy, focus, and determination.
In an experiment in which a control group was compared to an experimental group of managers who received training, trained managers reported significantly higher levels of self-efficacy. Microsoft sales teams were provided with technical and industrial skills to accompany corporate customers in their transition to the cloud, followed by workshops, tools and an online course designed to help company managers develop a coaching leadership style. Great and successful managers and leaders are making consistent efforts to improve their training skills. Whether a leader is focused on their own development and growth or is determined to help others grow, coaching is a methodology that must be applied carefully and carefully.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents from organizations with a strong coaching culture rate their employees as highly engaged, compared to only half of organizations without a strong coaching culture.
