Coaching in the

Workplace
What Does Coaching Mean at Work?
“Coaching is a two-way communication process
between members of the organization (leaders to
team members, peers to peers, team members to
leaders) aimed at influencing and developing the
employees’ skills, motivation, attitude, judgment or
ability to perform, and the willingness to contribute to
an organization’s goals.
“Coaching is an ongoing process of building a
partnership for continuous improvement within an
organization.”
–Coaching for Results by Steven J. Stowell, Ph.D.,
Eric D. Mead, Cherissa S. Newton.
Why Is Coaching Important in the
Workplace?
In order to maximize the full potential of your
organization and the people who work in it, you
must engage people in conversations about
their performance and contribution to the
organization’s mission and goals. When people
have clarity about their roles and
responsibilities, well-defined expectations, and
regular coaching and feedback about their
progress, better results will follow. Without 
open and transparent coaching, people often
assume that everything is going well and that
“no news is good news.”
Effective coaches help team members
understand their strengths, opportunities for
improvement, and how to continue growing and
developing in their careers. World-class coaches
have the courage and skills needed to engage in
productive, formal, and informal interactions
that are aimed at utilizing the strengths of the
people who will ultimately help the organization
achieve its purpose and strategy. When you
grow people, you grow the business.
What are the Three Roles of a Coach?
There are three primary roles of a coach.
1.Recognize the strengths and achievements of others,
celebrate success, and map out ways to expand and
reinforce progress.
2.Courageously and skillfully work with team members to
address issues, concerns, and challenges that routinely
occur in an organization.
3.Be coachable. Be open to feedback and input from
team members, colleagues and peers. Be willing to grow,
develop, and learn.
How Can You Provide Coaching in a Work Environment?
Opportunities to coach in the work environment are abundant.
Coaches need to be observant and prepared to seize each
opportunity to optimize performance and engage the people
who drive results in the organization. Coaching in the work
environment typically occurs in two ways.
1. Informal coaching moments when you have an opportunity
to coach others on the spot. These are unscheduled
interaction points or events that occur every day.
The following are examples of informal coaching moments:
•When people achieve positive results
•When people experience a setback or challenge
•When a conflict suddenly emerges
•When someone on your team is late, misses work, or doesn’t
meet a critical deadline
•When someone has a new idea and wants advice and
guidance about how to implement it
•During a project review

2. Formal coaching opportunities that are

planned or intentional coaching conversations.
The following are examples of formal coaching
moments:
•Onboarding of new employees
•Setting performance goals
•Engaging people in career planning
discussions
•When people have advanced to a new role
•During a periodic or annual performance
management reviews
What Is the Process for Effective Coaching?
The coaching process is not linear or mechanical.
Coaching is a dynamic and fluid process using a set of
integrated steps or skills. Based on over 40 years of
research through double-blind studies, the following are
the steps to effective coaching:
1.Provide a supportive climate for the coaching
conversation and share positive intentions.
2.Provide a clear picture of the situation, offer data, and
be open to the other person’s point of view.
3.Help the other person discover blind spots, gain more
awareness, and see the coaching topics or issues from a
different perspective.
4.Whenever possible, construct a plan of action, solution,
or agreement with the person being coached that will
address the concern or topic. The plan is not complete
until both parties signal their commitment and buy-in.
5.Establish a follow up process to assess progress with
the change, action plan, or commitments.
6.Respond to obstacles, challenges and resistance to the
message, solution, or plan of action.
What Are the Five Primary Coaching
Skills?

There are five core skills that play a critical role in

effective coaching.
1.Listening: The ability to hear, understand, and
respect the point of view of the other person.
2.Inquiry: The ability to seek out information, ask
questions, and spark a two-way discussion.
3.Assertiveness: The ability to share and call out
issues, challenges, and opportunities for change and
improvement.
4.Collaboration: The ability to facilitate win-win
solutions and plans that are mutually beneficial and
founded on shared input and data.
5.Creativity: The ability to think outside the box and
generate innovative ideas and ways to achieve better
results and create value.
What Is a Key Coaching Skill?
From over 40 years of research, double blind
studies, and investigation, the skill coaches
lack the most or find the most challenging is
the ability to listen deeply and truly understand
where the other person is coming from.
Whether you agree with what is being shared
or not, listening is a sign of respect and is a
signal to the other person that you have an
open mind about information you may not
have. When a coach doesn’t listen, he/she may
come across as being impatient or that they
have the right perspective or the best solution.
What Are the Responsibilities of a Workplace Coach?
Effective coaches feel ownership for the following
essential responsibilities:
1.Recruit and retain talented people who are coachable
and eager to grow and contribute.
2.Define expectations, goals, and objectives for each team
member.
3.Provide clear and candid feedback about
accomplishments.
4.Provide clear and candid feedback about shortcomings,
problems, or performance gaps.
5.Arrange for informal development opportunities on the
job as well as formal learning opportunities.
6.Engage in regular discussions to prevent unwelcome or
surprise information during formal performance reviews.
7.Be accessible and available when people want advice,
guidance, consultation, and feedback about their work
from their leader.
8.Know each employee and their unique needs and
preferences and use that information to engage in
effective communication and coaching.
9.Ensure all team members are aligned and working
cohesively to achieve tasks that depend on collaboration.
10.Incorporate coaching principles, processes, and skills
into the regular performance review discussions, as well
as onboarding conversations with new colleagues and
team members.
How to Implement Coaching in the
Workplace
Building a coaching culture in the workplace is based
on eight key factors.
1.Provide quality coaching training and development
to leaders and individual contributors who need to
coach others.
2.Have a robust application, sustainability, and
reinforcement plan that includes opportunities to
share coaching experiences and discuss how to
overcome coaching obstacles.
3.Provide refresher sessions to keep coaching skills
sharp.
4.Have a results forum where people can share
progress and goal achievement.
5.Create the expectation that coaches schedule short
coaching sessions with people once or twice per
month.
6.Incorporate coaching principles and skills into
meetings, group conversations, and organization
initiatives of all types.
7.Make coaching a fundamental job expectation or
requirement, particularly for leaders.
8.Encourage leaders to be coaching role models and
talk openly about the importance of it in achieving the
organizations goals.
What Are the Goals of Coaching in
the Workplace?
The primary goals of coaching include the
following:
1.Enhanced motivation, engagement, and
job satisfaction
2.New insights and greater awareness
3.Clear expectations
4.Innovative solutions and ideas
5.Greater trust and stronger relationships
6.Higher levels of candor, transparency,
and constructive openness
7.Better solutions and results for key
stakeholders
8.Ongoing development of team member
knowledge, skills, and abilities
9.Clarity of purpose
10.Greater team member confidence and
engagement
What Are the Three Main Styles of
Workplace Coaching?
The three main styles or approaches to coaching
include the following:
1.Directive: This is a more command and control style
of coaching. It relies on the coach’s ability to enforce
compliance with the direction and instruction provided.
It is typically a one-way dialogue where the coach
explains the coaching topic and directs the plan of
action.
2.Persuasive: This style of coaching focuses on the
leader’s convincing logic and reasoning. It depends on
the coach’s ability to sell or explain the benefits of
his/her solution or point of view.
3.Collaborative: The collaborative style is based on
two-way dialogue and reasoning. It depends on the
contribution, ideas, and reasoning of the coach and the
person being coached and the ability to work together.
Commitment is based on shared ownership and
genuine commitment to the solution or agreement.
There is a fourth style that is rarely discussed. This
style is often referred to as the teaching style. This
style relies on the coach being able to instruct and
teach new skills, knowledge, and abilities to the
coaching. Helping the people being coached with the
learning and development of new capabilities can be
incorporated in every coaching style.
What Is an Example of Coaching?
Let’s say you have a team member who has been a part of your team for
a long time.  Generally speaking they do a good job and have positive
intentions. In fact, this employee has grown and advanced in recent
years. However, this person has recently moved into a role that requires
effective interactions with internal and external customers. These
interactions require slightly different skills, knowledge, and capabilities
than this person is accustomed to.
In recent days, you have received feedback from customers about this
team member’s behavior and choices, which has created some issues.
You have gathered data and made some observations that confirm a
conflict is beginning to emerge with some important customer projects.
You decide that this is the right time to intervene and have a full coaching
discussion where you can explore all angles of the issue and raise the
awareness of the team member about their opportunity for improvement
before it escalates further.
You arrange a time that is good for you and the other person to discuss
their point of view, explore any blind spots they may have, and formulate
plans and agreements that are mutually acceptable. During the initial
coaching conversation, you share your point of view and listen carefully
while your team member shares his/her point of view. Together you
create a plan to address the issue. Arrangements are made to follow up
in one week to discuss progress with the plan of action and address any
obstacles. You and the team member leave the coaching conversation
committed to the adjustments and course correction.
Even though there were challenging moments when confronting the
realities of the issue, both you and the team member are more aligned
and the team member knows how to meet expectations and be more
successful in the new role.