You admire him and know that his ability as a coach and developer of people is legendary. Many of his direct reports have gone on to executive positions in your company and in many other firms. His name is Jack. When he walks into a room people seem to automatically relax. Unknown to him, he has become a coaching role model for you. You don't have his experience, but would like to begin coaching the people who report to you the way Jack has done for so many years.

Like the person in the above scenario, you may not have a lot of experience coaching people. The purpose of this article is to give you five structured steps to help you start coaching today. The centerpiece for these steps is the "Career Development Profile" that is described below in Step Two. If you follow these steps, you will build a foundation that eventually takes you to the level of coaching mastery that our fictional executive, Jack, has acquired.

Step One: Clearly define organizational goals -
Before you start coaching, make sure your strategy, plans and goals are in place. In addition, know how each individual's role contributes to reaching these goals. Be prepared to talk about where you see the organization going and the opportunities for each person to contribute. This information will be a powerful resource in helping you make the most of your coaching meetings.

Step Two: Meet with each of your direct reports -
To help you in these meetings, first have people complete the "Career Development Profile." You can find a copy of the profile on our website "Coaching Tools." Have each person complete the profile prior to meeting with you. This tool will give you a solid structure for your coaching meetings. If you have an unusually large number of direct reports, you may want to consider working with the top performers first to best leverage your time.

In your initial meeting, go over each person's completed profile. Ask a lot of questions and plan on listening at least seventy percent of the time. People have a hunger to be heard and understood - it is one of the greatest gifts you can give. As we pointed out in last month's newsletter, these meetings are about the employee, not their projects. Make it your objective to learn as much about each person as you can.

Please understand that you don't have to be a professional coach, psychologist or human resource manager to coach. What you bring to the table is unique and no other person can fill your managerial role. You know more about the coachee and the organization than anyone on the planet.

Step Three: Work with each person to help them excel -
Talk about how you can help them reach their career goals. Explore which assignments, training and/or formal education will have the highest payoff for each individual. Ask what keeps them up late at night, and look for ways to ease their anxiety through clarification and information. You are looked up to as someone who is experienced, savvy, connected and successful. Your questions, prodding and suggestions can shorten the time it takes for each person to reach his or her goals. By doing this you will, as my friend, executive coach Bob Silva says, "achieve a 'triple win' for the individual, the organization and you."

Don't limit your discussions to career issues. Let's face it, in some organizations career opportunities may be limited. Invite the coachee to talk about struggles with difficult people and functions. As an objective listener, you have a lot to offer. Encourage each person to discuss ways you can communicate better. Are you communicating too frequently, not enough? Help them deal with higher levels of management that might appear daunting. Share your wisdom on what works with the key players in mahogany row. There are a myriad of topics where your coaching will be invaluable.

Step Four: Make commitments that you can keep -
Choose concrete actions to help each person move towards their goals and dreams. Don't agree to send someone off to Harvard for a month, if it's not in the budget. Often times, small actions, like arranging an introduction to an internal technology expert or someone who can give the individual a more broad perspective, can be catalyst for important change.

Step Five: Schedule regular meetings to continue the coaching process -
Once a year will not cut it. Employees need an ongoing dialog with their manager in order to be optimally successful. I know you're busy, but these meetings can result in higher motivation, reduced turnover, increased initiative and ultimately, higher productivity. So download the "Career Development Profile" PDF file from the Coaching Tools section on our Web site. Give each one of your direct reports a copy to fill out and set up individual meetings. Start implementing this five-step process and let me know about the results that are sure to come.

Recommended Reading:

Say It Right The First Time by Loretta Malandro, Ph.D, McGraw Hill, 2003, Paperback This is an excellent book to help you improve your leadership communication. It is written in an easy to read format. You can open to any page and receive practical advice that can be applied immediately. Some of the topics I found particularly useful included: How to be a more impactful leader, How to prevent communication breakdown, How to increase employee discretionary effort through your communication.