One of the best ways leaders can help their team members to be successful is to provide coaching in the workplace – not just coaching in the formal sense, but learning how to use “in-the-moment” coaching as a leader or mentor.
(Though as certified executive leadership coaches, we will say that there are definitely additional benefits to professional coaching and learning how to take a COACH Approach!)
Supervisors, managers and leaders can learn to routinely use in-the-moment coaching in the workplace. This addition to your leadership toolkit doesn’t require months-long training or certification.
What In-The-Moment Coaching Involves
Instead of telling team members what to do, leaders who use coaching techniques ask questions and listen carefully – without labeling people as difficult “blockers” of change or as resistant to ideas or processes.
In-the-moment coaching requires:
- Observing others and tuning into how they feel.
- Being curious and asking open-ended questions about a situation or experience.
- Listening to responses without judgment (by that we mean listening to understand, not to respond).
- Sensing when folks might need a different approach or encouragement to consider a change or something new.
- Asking questions more than offering solutions so that team members discover their own way forward.
- Learning to be comfortable with silence because when your team members have time to think and space to share, they are more likely to contribute.
- Using curious follow-up questions to help folks discover limiting assumptions and/or beliefs, uncover how and why they’re stuck, and work through concerns, worries and conflict by finding their own productive next steps. (Remember that our ladder of assumptions can be a very helpful tool to use.)
- Encouraging people to find the emotional courage to learn from mistakes and try again – or try something new and different.
When leaders use coaching in the workplace in this way, they help their team members to think for themselves and find confidence in their own ability to problem-solve.
What In-The-Moment Coaching is Not
With practice, leaders can learn to employ in-the-moment coaching very naturally. To accomplish this, it can be helpful to be aware of what NOT to do.
When using in-the-moment coaching, leaders avoid:
- Dictating what folks should do.
- Getting frustrated and providing a solution to be implemented (“Just do it like this!”).
- Using the interactions in a punitive way, making people feel bad for not knowing something or making a mistake.
- Laying blame or encouraging people to blame anyone else.
- Berating team members for things not going well or for not having the answers.
- Rushing the process.
- Trying to influence discussion and decisions. (For example, asking, “Have you tried X?” or, “Why haven’t you tried it this way?” might be questions – but they’re leading questions. You might as well just say, “You should do it this way,” and be honest about wanting to tell them what to do and how to do it.)
Examples of In-The-Moment Coaching Questions
In-the-moment coaching is an important tool that helps to foster feelings of compassion for yourself and others. It’s a positive way to work through many challenges.It works well for a variety of situations, including when a project stalls, planning needs to be modified but team members can’t agree, there are conflicting priorities or when there’s a disagreement to be resolved.
Here are some examples of curious questions that invite the sharing of more details:
- What can you tell me about what’s been happening?
- Can you tell me more about that?
- What are your biggest concerns?
- I never thought to look at X that way. Can you tell me more about how you see this?
- I hear that you are concerned about Y. Can you tell me more about that?
- I have had Z raised as a concern by others. What’s your perspective?
- What do you think might be preventing you from taking action on this?
These are questions that are helpful to work through situations or challenges:
- What worked or went well? (To focus on positive aspects.)
- What was challenging, a barrier or unexpected? (To reflect whether there are areas that require improvement or resources and supports that were lacking.)
- Looking back, can you see anything you’d do differently? Is there anything that could have helped you to feel more prepared? (To encourage self-reflection and learning from mistakes or missed opportunities.)
- I hear a lot of fear about learning/doing X. I felt worried when I had to do this at first, but then it wasn’t so challenging.
- What would help you feel better about this? (Sharing a personal experience to help people manage change successfully.)
If there is a conflict, these are questions that can be useful to try:
- What are your biggest concerns?
What do you think person X or Y is concerned/upset/worried about? - How do you think they view this?
- Are there skills that would help you address this better/differently/with more success?
- Are there skills that would help person X or Y address this better/differently/with more success?
- I notice that you and X or Y have different ideas around this. What are your thoughts?
- What are some things that we could consider common ground?
- What could you accept that would lead toward compromise?
These questions can help to move folks forward:
- What is the first thing to do
- What are some good next steps?
- What support could help get things going?
The Benefits of Using In-The-Moment Coaching
There are many ways that companies benefit when leaders use this style of coaching regularly.
- People learn to identify their fears and articulate their concerns.
- Staff can address any gaps in skills or experience that might help them to overcome challenges.
- Folks get to learn from their coworkers and alongside each other.
- It establishes shared connections.
- The questions and resulting discussions help people discover answers and solutions themselves.
- Employees learn to leverage their strengths, fill any gaps in knowledge, define their objectives and determine the path forward.
- In-the-moment coaching builds trust among team members. Stronger teams can work through difficult situations more effectively in future.
- By finding common ground, this style of coaching in the workplace inspires action and creates forward momentum in real time.
- It helps to build a coaching culture as more and more employees start using in-the-moment coaching themselves with their peers or those who report to them.
Experts say that using in-the-moment coaching in the workplace is far more effective to help employees learn and grow than traditional instruction techniques. We know that organizations with a coaching culture win big and have employees who feel much more engaged.
Coach’s Questions:
What would your team members gain if you tried to use in-the-moment coaching routinely? When do you think it would be most helpful? How can you start to use this tool?