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Coaching Your Team

Written by Mitch McCrimmon

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.