Page 4 - Manager Coaching Handbook

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Introduction to Employee Coaching

Coaching is an on-going process designed to help employees gain greater competence and overcome
barriers to improving performance. It is intended to help individuals change specific behaviors or learn a
more effective way to approaching a task.

As a coach, you have the responsibility of engaging with your employee to determine two things: (1)
What your employee is doing right and (2) What your employee can improve upon. Once you have
determined these two factors, it is your job to provide the necessary guidance to help direct your
employee into areas of improved performance.

The purpose of this guideline is to provide you with the necessary skills needed in order to implement
effective coaching in the workplace. If done right, your efforts will prove to have a lasting impact on the
performance level of your employees.

Coaching Behavior

As an effective coach you will need to demonstrate certain behaviors. Using the acronym COACH, we

will review the following behaviors:

Collaborate. The coaching relationship is a collaborative one. You need to work with the employee to
identify the performance problem, set standards and performance objectives, and develop a
performance improvement plan.

Own. You need to examine your own personal behavior and accept some ownership for the problem
along with the employee. Ask yourself: “Did I make my expectations clear? Did I provide the proper
training? Does the employee have the appropriate tools to do the job?”

Acknowledge. You need to acknowledge success through reinforcement and also acknowledge an
employee’s problems, feelings and concerns. Acknowledging problems and concerns is not the same as
overlooking them and excusing behavior that is not at an acceptable level. For example, you can

certainly understand an employee’s difficulty in adjusting to new changes, however the resulting chronic
failure of not adhering to those new changes is not acceptable.

Communicate. This is probably the most important behavior and the one most managers seem to find
the most difficult. As we noted in the above lists, communication skills including listening, questioning,
giving and receiving feedback are critical for success, you need to practice two way communication on a

daily basis. In particular, you need to clarify your expectations.

Help. As a manager / supervisor, you are not only a coach but also an advisor, serving as a resource
guide to other resources, both inside and outside the organization.

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