Bring Your Inner Coach to Work

by | Mar 10, 2020

Darcy Luoma is one of America’s most highly credentialed coaches. She’s worked in 48 industries, with more than 500 organizations, and has impacted tens of thousands of leaders and employees.

Coaching at Work

What do you do when you have a new hire? Tell them what to do and how to do it, right?

And what about when a long-term employee comes to you with a problem? Do you tell them how to fix it? Or maybe even fix it for them?

Stop Telling and Start Asking

I want you to ask yourself if all this telling and fixing is really getting your organization where you want to be.

 Seems like maybe not, as recently I’ve noticed that we’ve been getting more calls from companies asking us to come in and do some training with their managers and supervisors on how to bring a coach approach.

I love coaching, so this makes me really happy! I am glad to see that people are starting to understand that top-down approaches, annual performance evaluations, and managers who fix everyone’s problems are not always the best way to build a high-performing team. The world is changing fast, so it only makes sense that we need to change with the times.

Is Coaching Really Worth the Effort?

Coaching helps people get from where they are to where they want to be. When used as a management style, the manager listens and asks questions, empowers employees, challenges them to create and innovate for improvement, and holds employees accountable for results.

It may sound like a lot of work, and while it can take a bit for everyone to get used to, I firmly believe it’s worth it. Why? Well, here are a just few things you’ll likely get if you can use a coach approach to managing:

  • Improved communication
  • Better problem-solving
  • More employee engagement and loyalty
  • An environment where the employee feels safe and empowered to explore new perspectives and options
  • Stronger and more creative results

Be a Coach Boss, Not a Therapist

Coaching is a partnership. However, as you bring coaching to your workplace, it is important to remember that a coach is very different from a mentor, consultant, or friend. And even though coaching managers often do have more open relationships with their colleagues, allowing for better exchange of ideas and opinions, they should definitely not feel like your therapist!

If you’re feeling frustrated by a lack of engagement or innovation on the part of your team, it might be time to think about the way you manage. Coaching can help you inspire a little more creativity and accountability. It will also mean that your employees feel more invested in successful outcomes and pride of ownership when things go well.

Try to bring your inner coach to work, and let me know how it goes!

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