Three steps to effectively coach your team
Whatever kind of leadership role you have, you want to encourage your team to be proactive and focused on achieving goals. How can you motivate and develop your people to get the best results for both you and them?
Motivating individuals to achieve their potential in tandem with managing business goals and advancing your own professional growth can be a tall order. Consider these three steps to improve your own coaching skills.
1. Be adaptable to circumstance
Setting goals and targets surrounding innovation and personal progress is a great way to encourage new ideas and creativity among your colleagues. However, awareness of the context of these achievements is vital in order to have realistic expectations.
As your company's priorities change, so should your perception and communication of your team's direction. Not adapting your measurements of success to reflect different situations will put undue pressure on you and your colleagues.
2. Link work with development
Applying professional development opportunities to real work projects will allow both you and your team to learn and grow from experience while avoiding the pitfall of 'time constraints'.
It isn't always easy to design a personal development plan that simultaneously hits on high-priority business goals. However, assessing the needs of each person and considering their potential over both long and short-term projects should provide some insight on a path for success.
3. Communicate results
Accurate measurement of progress and clear communication of feedback should be at the centre of your coaching plans. Investing time and money into the development of your team without a quantifiable way to assess results can lead to difficulties.
Similarly, failing to celebrate successes and offer recognition at different levels of achievement can lead workers to believe they are not improving. Empower your team with the confidence of a job well-done and make a point of demonstrating the impact of every goal met.
International Coaching Week
This week (15-19 May) is International Coaching Week, a global celebration recognising the work of professional coaches.
Executives and senior-level managers rarely get the chance to prioritise their own development and career goals while leading their own people. This is where an executive coach comes in.
Leading Figures, experts in coaching and consulting for finance and business professionals, have produced the ICAS Masterminds Executive Coaching Programme to promote innovative thinking and accelerate the career growth of CAs.
A taster session for ICAS members will be held in Edinburgh on 25 May with the full exclusive programme launching on 28 June.