Coaching your team

• Why do you want to coach your team? Performance improvement? Development? So they will more responsibility for themselves?
• Coaching can be used to supplement conventional skill training.
• Use coaching when your team members have the basic skills but need to build their confidence or change unproductive habits.
• Coaching combines open questions, active listening and supportive feedback.
• Open questions cannot be answered with a ''yes'' or ''no''.
• Use questions beginning with ''What'', or ''How'', such as ''What approach would you take to this project?'' ''How else could we tackle this issue?'' ''What would be a novel approach to this problem?'' ''How might we avoid this risk?''
• If they are on the wrong track, don't disagree, ask further questions like ''If we do X, as you suggest, how would we get around Y obstacle?''
• Being supportive means ensuring that the tone of your voice is neutral or encouraging rather than critical or judgemental.
• Try to say something positive about their suggestions before asking further questions, i.e. ''I can see that A, B & C are strong merits for what you are suggesting, but what might be some unwanted implications of D & E?''
• How comfortable are you to withhold your preferred solutions?
• How willing are you to accept their approach even if it is not ideal?
• How willing are you to let others learn for themselves that it won't work?
• You might also want to explain your role as coach especially if they are used to getting direct answers from you.
• Be sure to make them feel that it is safe to experiment with new styles of working, that learning from mistakes is expected.
• Finally, you should set up a few periodic review dates in advance so your team will know that you will be offering them some further coaching support at specific times.