High performance stems from great leadership. But a crucial part of leadership is clear direction. Without it, employee performance suffers. To make sure employees know they’re on the right track and how to improve, they need consistent constructive feedback.
One great way to introduce this is through performance coaching.
Performance coaching helps boost workplace productivity and accelerate talent development with structured, actionable guidance. This article outlines how performance coaching works and offers a step-by-step guide for success.
A performance coach is someone who works with individuals to develop their skills. Coaching often focuses on areas an employee needs to improve, such as:
Initially, a performance coach may discuss career plans with an employee, set goals to help them grow, and outline skills they need to advance. Later in the relationship, a performance coach may simply provide accountability or encouragement.
Although professional performance coaches exist, anyone can engage with the process. For example, managers might work with their reports to coach development. By using data-driven insights, they can set precise performance goals that support employee growth. Platforms like Workleap Officevibe collect real-time feedback and personal growth insights that managers can use.
Performance coaching can improve employee productivity and efficiency, benefiting the entire organization. According to an insight report from coaching company BetterUp, organizations with a strong coaching culture see 27% higher year-on-year growth and a 24% boost in individuals’ performance.
BetterUp’s research also indicates that when employees feel supported through coaching, they’re more likely to be engaged. They report higher job satisfaction, leading to higher retention. Coaching can even teach workers valuable skills around work-life balance, stress management, and focus techniques.
A performance coach guides employees toward better results in the workplace. Here are a few ways how:
Workleap Performance centralizes feedback and performance history, letting managers easily measure employee growth over time.
Although specific guidance varies from employee to employee, there’s a standard coaching structure.
Here are the steps that professional performance coaching follows and how you can implement them.
The first stage is taking stock of where your employee currently stands. Assess their current skills, review their strengths and performance history, and outline initial areas for improvement. Performance management works best when the coach is completely clear about how they plan to help the employee.
Using the right tools can help paint a clear picture of an employee’s current performance and engagement, so you can establish a baseline that demonstrates measured improvement over time.
Work together with your employee to pinpoint where they’d like to grow or improve. If they have any specific career goals or aspirations, try to prioritize these. Collaboratively, define clear, achievable objectives that align with the employee’s personal and organizational needs.
An effective coaching strategy will outline the actions, timeliness, and metrics used to monitor progress and success.
After defining which goals your employee will pursue, outline exactly how to achieve them. Begin by breaking goals into smaller milestones, providing the resources and guidance needed to meet them at each stage. A progressive, iterative approach makes objectives feel more achievable, avoiding employee burnout.
With goals in place, it’s time for your employee to work toward reaching them. Remind them of the resources available to them throughout the process. It’s important to regularly check in to monitor their progress, while also providing encouragement. Regular coaching sessions also provide accountability and keep objectives front-of-mind.
For example, if an executive is undergoing leadership development, coaching sessions may focus on skills development. For more junior employees, sessions may involve reviewing constructive feedback and identifying how to apply it.
A two-way feedback cycle helps the process run more smoothly. Employees can offer insight on how sessions could be more useful, and coaches can let workers know if they’re approaching things correctly. Continuous constructive feedback can give employees a better understanding of exactly how they can improve performance. Manager feedback also acknowledges efforts being made, boosting engagement with the process.
Workleap Officevibe streamlines the requesting and collection of feedback. The platform’s easy-to-use feedback forms allow employees to share their thoughts about the process without interrupting their workflow. Coaches and managers can then see and act on their comments in the Officevibe interface.
Revisit the initial goals after the first few months. This provides an opportunity to review progress and celebrate how far your employee has come. Recognizing their work and highlighting their accomplishments keeps them motivated and feeling positive.
Using Workleap Performance, coaches can analyze how much an employee has improved against criteria established early in the process. This data-first strategy brings a level of objectivity to feedback, showing measurable progress and reinforcing accountability.
Business performance coaching benefits individuals at any stage of their career. Here are a few examples that demonstrate how coaches provide guidance.
When choosing an employee for a leadership position, it's important that they already have the necessary skills. Leadership development coaching offers structured guidance and targeted feedback to accelerate this process, helping prepare employees for advancement at the company.
For employees already in leadership positions, coaching can help them improve through project-related performance goals. For example, objectives such as high team engagement and performance enable them to demonstrate their people management skills.
A performance coach can help a client-facing employee hone communication and negotiation skills. Objectives may include higher close rates or customer satisfaction scores. Regular check-ins allow individuals to discuss strategies they can employ, thereby enhancing their confidence and leading to improved overall performance.
Coaching can focus on developing specific skills that allow an employee to thrive in their role. For example, it could teach them about a new operational process or how to master new software.
Setting measurable goals like speed, proficiency, or accuracy helps track performance over time and demonstrate improvement.
Performance coaching helps accelerate employee improvement and leads to organization-wide productivity gains. A coach oversees an individual’s progression, providing guidance, actionable feedback, and data-driven insights. It’s a powerful strategy that every organization should turn to.
Workleap Performance centralizes all the data needed to provide the best possible guidance. Paired with Workleap Officevibe, which captures real-time employee and manager feedback, individuals will have all the support they need to hit their performance coaching targets.
Discover how performance coaching can drive employee productivity with a Workleap demo today.
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