Coaching Best Practices
“A Coaching Conversation”
At its core, coaching is a conversation—in fact, many conversations—that helps someone take measurable steps toward a clear goal. In other words, to get off their duff and make some needed changes. The process facilitates a person’s effort to change and enables him or her to deliver on it.
Coaching conversations are based on trust and confidentiality—key to helping the person being coached to feel safe, heard, and supported. Your role as a manager must not conflict with your ability to ensure trust and confidentiality when coaching your people. If you ever tackle a topic that must be shared with others, then you need to clearly explain this to your coachee.
Whatever the situation you’re engaged in—performance review, professional development, or team building—keep in mind the essential coaching behaviors in this chart. This is your guide to navigating the conversation in a fruitful way.
Presence: Be in the moment. Get rid of any internal or external distractions.
Coherence: Be clear and succinct in your questions and comments.
Placement: Establish where you both are in the conversation.
Framing (and reframing): Provide a perspective or context.
Clarification: Distill what’s been said and play back the salient information.
Paraphrasing: Summarize or restate what you’ve heard.
Feedback: Focus on performance, not on the person.
Acknowledgment and respect: Recognize, empathize, understand—these are important measures in validating someone’s worth, feelings, and contributions.
Where have you experienced the impact of applying any/all of these behaviors in your communication with your people?
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