“Your teams are coached perfectly for the results they produce today.”
What does this mean, exactly? As the leader of a team (whether you’re a tenured CEO, new frontline manager, or something in between), your team’s performance is a direct result of how you are leading them. Thus, if you want better results from your team, you need to improve your coaching. However, telling a leader to “coach better” is like telling a sprinter to “run faster” – most leaders know they need it, but they don’t know what actions and behaviors specifically lead to better coaching.
Improving your coaching may sound like a daunting task, but we’re going to break it down into four approachable activities:
- One-to-one meetings
- Team meetings
- Performance feedback
- Career development discussions
When each of these coaching activities is done well, they serve as the foundation for all great leaders. They may seem simple, but our research shows that few leaders actually know how to execute them in a way that leads to better performance. In this short series, we’ll share exactly how to optimize these activities (including free downloadable templates) so that your teams can achieve their best results yet.
The activity
One-to-one meetings
How to define it
Regularly scheduled, individual coaching meetings to proactively address business, personal and developmental needs.
Why we do them
- Build relationships: Getting to know team members personally builds rapport.
- Create order: Having team members define next steps drives accountability.
- Drive complexity: Asking questions teaches team members to think.
