Performance coaching is a vital process that enhances the growth and performance of an organisation ‒ it encourages individual responsibility and accountability. It is an on-going process which helps build and maintain effective employee and manager relationships. Performance coaching can help identify an employee's growth, as well as help plan and develop new skills. Using their coaching skills, managers are able to evaluate and address the developmental needs of their employees and help them select diverse experiences to gain the necessary skills.

People are an organisation’s single greatest asset and their high level of engagement and performance determines the success of any organisation ‒ employers and managers need to have a vested interest in their development and growth. Dale Carnegie Training provides seven steps to improve employee performance through coaching: STEP ONE ‒ IDENFITY THE OPPORTUNITY:

There are six different ways to identify opportunities through performance coaching:

•      Identifying an opportunity for another person.

•      The person identifies an opportunity for themselves.

•      A customer, vendor, or other outsider identifies an opportunity.

•      The individual identify new skills needed within your team.

•      A situation creates an opportunity.

•      An assessment tool uncovers a need for a person’s development.

These different opportunities may arise due to a new need in the organisation, from taking on a new position that requires a new skill, taking on a project that requires a new skill or the opportunities can result from the outcomes for a performance review. There may be multiple opportunities that may arise for a team, prioritising these will become essential to not overwhelm employees. It is important to note who on the team will be best suited to take advantage of these opportunities.

Step two ‒ picture the desired outcome:

One of the most important concepts in coaching is having a vision or end goal in mind. Without that, people often lose sight of the importance of making the needed changes. How this picture is created is a central competent in the coaching process.

Once the opportunities are identified, it is important to determine the desired outcome once the gaps are filled. This step is essential in order to avoid confusion, misunderstanding or frustration for all involved. Individuals with a clear vision of what the end result of coaching is, tend to move in that direction more efficiently. This way the goal is owned by both the coach and trainee to ensure that the motivation to achieve the goals are not lost.

Step three ‒ establish the right attitude:

This step is a critical part in order to coaching effectively, without this step, a coach will spend a great deal of time trying to overcome resistance by trainees.

Change is inevitable, and often employees are not actually resisting change – they will only resist when they don’t see the need, don’t want to do it or believe that the change is impossible to achieve. Whenever people are asked to change without their buy-in, it creates resistance. Coaches need to create an atmosphere where employees are consistently motivated at high performance levels through effective leadership, communication, building trust and getting commitment for these individuals to complete the process with less fiction and disgruntlement.

Step four ‒ provide the resources:

In order for the performance coaching process to be successful, it is important that the appropriate resources are available including designating time for training, equipment, training information and upper level buy-in and support for the individuals.

Step five ‒ practice and skill development:

Once the resources are in place and the correct skill set has been identified, explained and demonstrated, it is now time for the trainee to practice and apply what has been learned. In order for knowledge to evolve into a skill, it has to be practiced and perfected with the help of a coach. This practice will allow coaches to ascertain strengths and opportunities for improvement.

Step six ‒ reinforce progress:

Making progress is one thing, but without a way in which to reinforce it and keep individuals encourage to use it and not fall back to old habits is the challenge. One of the biggest fallacies manages hold on to, is the assumption that if people know how to do something, they will do it. People don’t do what they know; they do what they have always done. Reinforcement when coaching can be done by empowering employees to get results, giving the right kind of feedback and handling non-performance issues.

Step seven ‒ reward:

One of the best ways to cement growth and progress is to reward it. What is rewarded gets repeated, what gets repeated becoming habit.

“Change in the workplace will always be uncomfortable for employees. That is why people often revert back to former ways if reinforcement and rewards are not there. Habit is stronger than knowledge in any organisation. Performance coaching is collaboration between the coach and a trainee to up skill individual’s for a relationship that is mutually beneficial,” says Neville De Lucia, New Business Development Director at Dale Carnegie Training.