“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 culture and goals.”
–Coaching for Results by Steven J. Stowell, Ph.D., Eric D. Mead, and Cherissa S. Newton
Effective employee development is essential for any organization’s success. The quote above by Stowell, Mead, and Newton perfectly captures the essence of coaching: a collaborative process that empowers team members to grow and contribute to the organization’s plans and strategies.
Below, we explore the different types of coaching in the workplace and the benefits coaching can offer. Whether you’re a seasoned leader or an aspiring professional, you’ll gain valuable insights on how to leverage coaching to unlock the full potential of your workforce and long-term success.
Popular Types of Coaching
The versatility of coaching methodologies can be a significant advantage for your business. It allows coaches to tailor their approach to the unique situational personalities, needs, and goals of each individual or team they work with.
Here are some types of coaching to consider in the workplace.
1. Executive Coaching
Executive coaching focuses on enhancing the confidence and skills of executive leaders. These leaders must confront the daily challenges of making key decisions across a variety of stakeholders and balancing competing demands. Executive coaching helps them maximize their leadership effectiveness through personalized development efforts that target their strengths and opportunities for additional development that executives need.
2. Leadership Coaching
Leadership coaching aims to help current and prospective leaders set and meet the objectives of their team or department. Areas of focus include developing strategic thinking, building a high-performance team, developing a purpose, and aligning the team. These elements provide leaders with the competence to create and revise organizational goals, handle relationships judiciously, and maintain accountability.
3. Performance Coaching (Coaching for Results)
Performance coaching, or coaching for results, assists team members in identifying opportunities for performance improvement. This coaching methodology is at the core of CMOE’s Coaching TIPS²™ Model. This proven process helps coaches maximize performance and develop key skills and competencies of team members.
4. Sales Coaching
While most sales leaders have extensive sales expertise, many lack the knowledge on how to coach their sales force. Sales coaching focuses on helping leaders engage in productive dialogue with sales representatives about selling skills, sales activities, and maximizing sales performance to elevate the organization’s bottom-line.
5. Strategy Coaching
With strategy coaching, leaders are coached in establishing a blueprint or implementing strategic priorities, initiatives, and actions. The goal of this type of coaching is to help leaders create a competitive advantage through the organization, departments, or teams.
6. Success Coaching
Success coaching aims to reinforce the right behaviors in team members. It can also help people identify ways to maximize their strengths while developing strategies to overcome limitations or blind spots. This empowers individuals to cultivate a growth mindset, leading to greater career success and fulfillment.
7. Team Coaching
Team coaching fosters team cohesion and aids team members in utilizing their individual strengths to bolster work performance and team morale. The coach often uses a collaborative coaching process, equipping the team with resources that promote inclusion, resilience, productivity, and collaboration.
8. Communication Coaching
Communication coaching helps professionals communicate more effectively in the workplace. This may include reviewing various communication styles and which ones to utilize in specific situations. With this knowledge, team members can strengthen relationships, work through differences, and provide more constructive feedback to others.
9. Safety Coaching
Organizations are responsible for the safety of every team member. Safety coaching engages leaders and teams in productive dialogue about workplace safety issues and expectations. The goal is to create a successful two-way conversation and improve compliance with safety procedures and protocols, creating a safety-first culture and mindset.
What’s the Difference Between Coaching and Mentoring?
Although there is some overlap between the two, coaching typically focuses on improving a team member’s performance and skills, while mentoring focuses on career guidance and personal development opportunities.
Let’s take a closer look:
- Coaching: Coaching is a formal or informal constructive two-way feedback process. It follows a framework that includes measurable milestones and goals. These goals are often linked to a team member’s current role, responsibilities, and expectations related to areas that serve the best interests of the team or organization.
- Mentorship: Like coaching, mentoring also involves a two-way communication process between the mentor and mentee. But rather than focusing on team and organizational objectives, mentorship leans on broader wisdom, career guidance, and advice. It empowers individuals to discover their full potential and is centered on serving the best interests of a team member. Participating in a mentoring program helps the individual discover hidden talents, expand on their current abilities and seek guidance as they navigate challenges and opportunities in their role or career.
Leveraging both approaches allows for organizations to address a wide range of developmental needs and apply a holistic lens when developing a culture of continuous learning and growth.
Bookmark our Leadership Development Through Mentoring guide to elevate the quality of your learning and development strategies.
What Are Some Coaching Techniques in the Workplace?
Leveraging proven coaching techniques can help leaders start coaching sessions on the right foot and improve relationships with team members.
Below are some techniques to consider:
- Practicing active listening
- Using open-ended questions in discussions to facilitate two-way conversations
- Providing feedback in a timely manner
- Collaborating with employees to establish goals and a plan of action
- Encouraging skill-building and development
- Creating hands-on learning opportunities
- Opening up time for reflection or a thorough review of the coaching plan and goals
- Holding team members accountable through periodic check-ins and milestones
While all of these practices are beneficial in a variety of work settings, with time, you can identify the techniques that work best for your team members and organizational needs as well as develop a more tailored coaching approach.
How to Determine Coaching Opportunities
Leaders and coaches must stay vigilant about coaching needs in the workplace. Our research shows that 75–80% of coaching opportunities come from casual, unscheduled conversations and connections with team members each day.
So, prioritize checking in with your team members regularly. This demonstrates a commitment to your workforce’s professional growth, thereby enhancing engagement, retention, and job satisfaction. Most employees like a check-in at least once per month to ensure there are no surprises when the time comes for performance reviews.
Signs a Team Member May Need Coaching
To help you check in with your team, here are 10 common signs a team member may need coaching:
1. Inconsistent performance: When a team member’s quality of work or frequency of meeting deadlines fluctuates, the individual may benefit from being coached on prioritizing workloads or addressing skill gaps.
2. Difficulty with change: Some team members may show resistance to new processes, product launches, or organizational shifts. They may have trouble adapting to these changes or display a negative attitude that disrupts progress.
3. Ineffective communication: Unclear written or verbal communication or difficulty collaborating with colleagues may call for communication coaching. A coach can help the team members understand and apply different communication styles and skills for various circumstances.
4. A lack of clear goals: A lack of goals may cause individuals to prioritize tasks ineffectively or feel unmotivated. With coaching, team members can learn how to define and establish SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) goals.
5. Interpersonal conflict: If there are frequent disagreements among peers and difficulties with productively resolving conflicts, a coach can step in to guide team members on conflict resolution, how to manage difference, and communication best practices.
6. Struggling with burnout or stress: Signs of someone experiencing burnout or stress include exhaustion, reduced motivation and productivity, and withdrawal from work. A coach can help identify the source of stress and work with the team member to develop coping mechanisms.
7. Complaints from colleagues: Receiving complaints about a certain team member from multiple colleagues can signal that the individual may need guidance on collaboration or addressing specific development needs. Examples include not supporting organization norms, values, or ground rules.
8. Issues identified by internal or external clients: A coach can step in to guide team members in addressing client concerns and refining their approach to client interactions.
9. Unsatisfactory results: Falling short of communicated expectations indicates a need for coaching to improve any knowledge gaps or time management strategies.
10. Attendance issues or abuse of policies: Coaching can help address the underlying reasons for these issues and assist individuals in adopting better strategies for adherence to company guidelines.
Leverage Coaching Workshops
Creating a robust culture where effective coaching is accessible to all team members at all levels is not only beneficial to each individual, but also vital to the overall success of the organization as a whole. Whether you are coaching a direct report, a colleague, or a leader, knowing and applying the right skills and techniques can make all the difference in ensuring a positive outcome to the coaching session.
The first step in creating and fostering a coaching culture is to provide comprehensive and specialized training. For over 45 years, CMOE has developed coaching workshops and training courses using a proven process backed by extensive research. These learning experiences offer tailored training that equips leaders and team members with practical coaching techniques and strategies. Hands-on practice opportunities reinforce learning and ensure that coaching principles are not only understood, but also effectively implemented.
Contact us today to explore how our customized coaching programs can transform your organization’s culture and drive improved team member satisfaction and long-term organizational success.
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