Coaching is a powerful tool for developing the skills and potential of team members and is the most highly saught after skill by employees1. Coaching can help leaders create a culture of ongoing development and growth, leading to increased productivity, engagement, and retention.
There are many benefits of having leaders attend coaching training, and we've highlighted just a few key ones from our experience:
1. Psychological safety and teamwork
Leaders who take our programs learn how to create a safe and supportive environment in which team members feel heard, valued, and motivated to achieve their goals. Psychological safety is the most important factor in effective teams, impacting communication, teamwork and even individual creativity. Leaders that know how to nurture such environments are well-placed to drive high performing teams.
Coaching also helps leaders to build stronger relationships with their team members, and improve communication and collaboration within the team.
2. Capacity building of the team and saving time
Coaching can also help leaders to identify and address any challenges or issues that may be affecting the performance of their team. By using a coaching approach, leaders can help team members develop skills and capacity to overcome these challenges and achieve the company's goals as well as their own personal goals.
"One of the biggest benefits leaders report is that they save time longer term."
One of the biggest benefits leaders report is that they save time longer term. Their team members develop their critical thinking skills as well as their confidence and willingness to face challenges themselves, without needing to come to the leaders for advice everytime (or worse, not raising these issues until it causes a larger problem that is much more difficult to solve).
This is in contrast to the popular belief and excuse amongst leaders that the reason behind taking a micromanagement 'command-and-control' approach to leadership is that they "don't have enough time" to take a coaching approach. Coaching approach is in fact the fastest way for adults to learn something new (contact us to experience this for yourself, or watch this video). Moreover, unlocking the potential of the team to solve their own problems saves time for leaders in the long run rather than solving the problem for them everytime they encounter an issue.
3. Rediscovering their personal drive
Good coaching training are experiential. This means that the skills being "taught" are learned through active practice so that the learning is embedded into the nervous system and not just theoretical. What this also means is that those getting trained in coaching also experience getting coached - walking the talk.
One thing that the leaders who come to our coaching training often report is that they reconnect with their core, their purpose, their mission, their raison-d'etre. Every leader at some point in their career can experience a loss of direction and true passion for the work. Perhaps they get lost in the challenge of putting out fires everyday, or have forgotten what lit them up early in their careers, replaced with a sense of responsibility as they progressed higher up in the organisation. The coaching classroom is one space where many leaders can reconnect with their inner passion, returning to with renewed vitality.
Knowing how to coach is an essential skill for leaders, enabling them to effectively support and develop their team members, driving performance and success for themselves, their teams and the company.
Cambodia Coaching Institute is Cambodia's first and only provider of coach training, delivering courses bi-lingually with a combination of local and international trainers. Our Head of Faculty, Joey Ra, is a Professionally Certified Coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) and is one of the most senior and experienced coaches in the country.
1. 'Great managers still matter: the evolution of Google’s Project Oxygen'. https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/the-evolution-of-project-oxygen/