Learn the answer to: what is employee coaching? This includes the difference between coaching and mentoring as well as how it can be used in performance management systems.
What is Employee Coaching?
Coaching is a part of everyday management and happens between each employee and their manager. It involves developing people within their current role.
When that relationship ends then the coaching ends. This is usually due to the employee’s role changing.
Coaching by managers takes place both formally and informally. It can take place day-to-day as well as one-to-one meetings with staff.
Coaching and Mentoring
Whereas, coaching and mentoring are similar but not the same. Management Mentors says, “A mentor may coach, but a coach is not a mentor. Mentoring is “relational,” while coaching is “functional.””
Therefore, the managerial relationship focuses on the aims of the department, setting team and individual targets. These are then subject to review.
The manager tries to make the most of their employees, individually and as a group. Their role does not involve long-term aims for individual’s career trajectories nor helping them to develop more than need be for their current role.
Effective coaching from managers can increase employee engagement, improve productivity and customer service. Therefore making work fun and motivating employees are valuable coaching skills for managers.
Read: What is Employee Mentoring?
Leadership Coaching
Leadership coaching is also known as corporate coaching and helps employees progress in their career. It teaches them about the behaviours and perceptions they need to adapt to move into a higher position.
This is when coaching involves the transitional period between the employee’s current role and future one. It takes place in the hope of preparing for an internal promotion and can include shadowing, for example.
Leadership coaching can be outsourced with other companies coaching a group of employees to see if an internal promotion is possible.
Mentoring is a more direct and productive approach to helping an employee outline their personal career targets. Whereas, corporate coaching is used to fulfil the needs of the organisation.
The assumption that employees leave managers not companies has been disproven by recent great{with}talent employee research. Yet, managers are key to any staff engagement strategy communications plan.
Improving manager’s coaching abilities is just another part of their role and can easily increase buy-in to employee engagement initiatives. Therefore improving productivity and saving resources.
Contact great{with}talent and find out more about their TalentEngage employee engagement surveys.
(Main image from LMC International)