The power of coaching for your team

When you’re in a leadership position, you’re in charge of helping people grow and thrive within your organisation. Leaders who have undergone and experienced great coaching are able to transfer important skills to their own teams and other individuals within their organisation by developing a coaching mindset.

By coaching your team you can improve their performance, build their skills and drive engagement. Skills like communication and strategic thinking are crucial for business success and can boost employee engagement. When individuals are given the time by their leaders to communicate openly and productively, they are more likely to be loyal, engaged and self motivated. Gaining communicative skills through coaching can help managers to develop the skills needed to help other individuals reach success.

Some numbers from the International Coaching Federation (ICF) on the benefits of coaching reveal that a vast majority of companies (86%) say they at least made their investment back. (Source ICF). Coaching generates learning and clarity for forward action with a commitment to measurable outcomes. It builds the self-confidence of employees to face challenges, critical to meeting organisational demands. Coaching also maximises potential and therefore unlocks latent sources of productivity in your team.

So, what is coaching?

Coaching is a process that enables the individual to develop and achieve their full potential. It’s about helping someone evolve and advance in their business, role, or life. Coaches collaborate with individuals and push them beyond their comfort zone through unlocking their barriers and facilitating awareness and accountability.

For more information on how coaching can help you check out our article on this topic.

Why is coaching such a powerful business tool?

Once only reserved for leaders, coaching is now commonly implemented with success among managers and teams alike, and everyone reaps the benefits.

Coaching is a valuable, cost effective and motivating tool a business can utilise in order to achieve success. It helps you, as a leader or manager, to reach your highest potential so that you can drive success among other individuals within your organisation.

Here are some of the benefits of coaching for your team:

Improve individual and team performance

When managers adopt a coaching mindset, they can help their team to improve collaboration, problem solve more effectively and strategise to reach business goals more efficiently.

Reduce turnover and help you to retain high performing staff

Coaching is a vital organisational tool for developing talent and also for reducing staff turnover rates. Improving the staff retention rate within your organisation means that you can dedicate less time to training new staff, and more time to achieving your important business goals. A study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management found that it can cost the equivalent of six to nine months of an employee’s salary in order to recruit and train a replacement. When you consider an employee with a salary of $100,000, this means it would cost over $50,000 to replace them! Coaching gives individuals the opportunity to discuss how they can grow within the organisation and also how they can help their company to grow.

Boost team morale

A team in which individuals feel comfortable to communicate openly is one that can thrive. By employing  a coaching approach you can communicate collaboratively and productively within your team and organisation. Rather than telling your team what to do, you’ll be equipped to be a more intent listener and coach to your team, where you can pull on your strong communicative skills and ask them open ended questions to reach a resolution. For those that may wish to read further on how leaders can work more effectively with their team, there is an excellent book by Nancy Kline called Time to Think – listening to ignite the human mind.

Foster company growth and success

Coaching can help your team to meet important business goals. Fostering an environment in which employees reach their highest potential can make a company’s growth-potential limitless. Through coaching your team, they gain first hand access to skills that can propel them forward and lead to success.

For more information on how to develop a coaching mindset check out our article on the three coaching skills you need to be a great manager.

Directions Unlimited’s Director, David Leahy, graduated from the prestigious Institute of Executive Coaching in Sydney, and has coached executives internationally in South America, USA, Europe, Asia and Australia – helping many individuals and companies attain their goals.

If you would like an obligation free discussion, contact us today and see how your team can leverage the power of coaching for success!