Coaching Others: Short Term Pain for Long Term Gain

I believe in the power of coaching others. I teach coaching skills to groups of managers regularly; every individual executive client I have gets taught coaching skills in some way or another; and of course, I practice coaching myself (I call it “practice” on purpose). I guess you could say that I think it’s important for managers to learn and use coaching skills as part of their leadership tool kit.

One of the biggest pushbacks I get from those I teach almost always has to do with the time that coaching takes. Admittedly, it can take longer to coach others than to either ignore them or to bark orders. Coaching is a methodology to help people figure things out for themselves, so you can see why it might require more time and effort than other methods a manager could use.

Let’s call using coaching skills “short term pain for long term gain”. Like a lot of things in life and in leadership, coaching others well isn’t easy and it isn’t quick. The great news is that if you are dedicated to it, and spend the time it takes there are some wonderful long term benefits for you and your employees. The major benefits are:

Self correction: People who are consistently coached well can develop the capacity to correct themselves, without you there. Having had several coaches myself, I can attest to the truth of this. I became more mindful of my thoughts and actions, and was therefore better able to “coach myself”. What a great thing for your employees, and for you! Can you imagine the day when they are no longer expecting you to figure stuff out for them because they’ve developed the capacity to do so themselves?

Ongoing improvement in performance: Once self correction takes hold, your employees will continually strive to do their best. The best will raise the bar on their own performance on an ongoing basis. Can you imagine how much easier your performance reviews will be when that happens? How about the gains that your organization makes due to the improvement in performance of your employees?

So don’t just attend that coaching skills class and complain about the time it takes. If you believe in the potential of others, you will try it. If you are observant, you will find immediate results from coaching others. Use your new skills consistently over time and you’ll reap the benefits to you, your organization and your company.

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