Question: There seems to be such a lot of fuss these days about coaching in the workplace, but who really needs it?

Answer: You do! And so do the people on your team, if you want them to produce exceptional results.

Coaching is probably the most effective way to build employee engagement, skills and motivation. While there are other ways to build skills, such as external or internal training, most of them will require a significant level of resources. The resources required may be an investment in time, money or more frequently both.

Coaching on the other hand, when you know how to do it properly, may take you only a few minutes of your time and requires no additional resources or money invested in it.

Coaching is in fact quick and easy to do — once you know how. Of course, there are some traps you want to avoid. Like any skill, coaching can be improved through experience and effort. But once you decide to begin coaching your people your coaching skills — and the results you see — will improve rapidly.

Coaching is an essential skill that really should be a part of your leadership and management tool kit.

It offers a powerful way to boost the results that even a good team can produce.

Elite sportspeople wouldn’t dream of preparing for competition without a coach. Select a coach that you admire and think about how he or she would coach your people to better results. A good coach challenges and motivates, encourages and supports. Ask yourself how you could do this with you or team.

You will consistently see the best sports people attributed their success to the efforts of their coach. If you want to get the best out of all your people you need to care about coaching. In fact, you need to become their coach.

Learn how to easily and effectively coach employees in the workplace