As the workplace changes, employees often ask for coaching to help them grow. One of our roles as a leader is to help others, and the ability to help others improve their skills and attitudes is extremely important.

Coaching is one-on-one mentoring that helps people develop their skills, set goals, and understand your company’s success. Coaching is a way of telling the truth, confronting tough issues, and using language to inspire.

The secrets of successful coaching include building on the positive, being diplomatic about the negative, and a commitment to never, ever yell.

When you are coaching your staff, you rely on your ability to listen, ask open-ended questions, support what you say with non-verbal language, and help to grow their career skills. This includes the ability to:

• Make eye contact
• Use supportive body language
• Acknowledge what the other person is saying or feeling
• Use open-ended questions

When you are working on your skills at performance appraisals, help your employee to discuss how they feel they are doing. Then, setting your own personal objectives aside, help them to set goals that make sense for their career and do not simply reflect your desires for them.