Importance of coaching skills training

Coaching skills training

Coaching skills training is very important for every Manager. And I got proof of that once again while conducting a Managerial Skills session.

The role of a Manager encompasses looking after his team along with getting the work done. Unfortunately, many Managers tend to focus on the latter while completely forgetting the former. They are so busy with deadlines and piles of projects that they forget that in order to get the best out of their team, they need to spend time developing them. They also need to understand that delegation is not just about dumping work on your team members. Its about supporting the team complete the tasks so that they learn through them and are able to go to the next level. And this is exactly where coaching skills training comes into the picture.

So why does a Manager need to have good coaching skills? Simply to support their team members. And why coaching skills specifically and why not training skills? Because some team members need support when it comes to their attitude and its coaching that will be able to fix that.

We all know how difficult it is to change our behaviour. So, you can well imagine how tough it would be to alter our attitude! And the depth of the intervention and attention required for the same can only be met through a suitable coaching intervention.

Coaching Skills training is therefore extremely important for every Manager.  He must have the right skills to be able to coach his team members. And what may be the right coaching skills you may ask? Well he needs to be able to listen well without interrupting, ask suitable questions and be comfortable being silent wherever required. He should be able to provide a safe space for the team member to open up and share his thoughts and emotions on the issue at hand.

The Manager also needs to be a facilitator and allow the team member to find his own solution rather than providing him with ready-made solutions. This not only increases their buy-in towards finding a solution, but also the commitment with which they take appropriate steps towards the solution. This in turn helps the team member think on his own feet, thereby making him independent and self-sufficient for the future.

Being able to coach his team himself also increases ownership and accountability of the Manager. Team Bonding improves with team members and the Manager works towards creating a strong cohesive team. It also increases the respect that team members have towards their Manager. It makes them more open and able to share not only professional issues but also their personal issues.  And you know who is the happiest person of all? The human resources manager. He can now focus on his work as all the Managers are capable of handling their own teams and do not need the HR to intervene every now and then.

In short, it’s a win-win for everyone. The Manager, his team, other teams that interact with this team, vendors, customers and the organisation on the whole. And how did we do this? By simply giving coaching skills training to our Managers. A magic wand that can really create wonders!

Hmm… So, have you taken your coaching skills training?