National Learning Institute

Coaching

Tips for improving your coaching skills

We use "coaching" to include all of the things that a manager might do to develop his/her people e.g

• Formal and informal training, specific skills coaching, delegation (for development purposes) etc.
• Building an atmosphere within the team where people have the freedom to try new things knowing that they will be supported if they fail rather than blamed

Tips for improving coaching

• Develop a skills matrix for all the roles within the team
• Ensure each staff member has an individual analysis of where his/her skills match the matrix and whether they need to develop further skills
• Identify team members who are good at coaching/training others and formalise this process by setting specific training tasks to other people
• Arrange rotation and temporary placements (within the team when someone is on leave and in other units/teams for further development)
• Encourage people to suggest new ways of dong things and look for ways to improve work flows
• Allow people to make mistakes without feeling threatened (remember, most of us learn by trying things out!)