Communication skills are very important when coaching your employees.  There are a few key things that you need to keep in mind…

Coaching is meant to motivate employees to work harder and provide them with the guidance they need to perform their job more productively and efficiently.

Regular coaching helps ensure that employees work harmoniously in a team and that each one is reminded of their roles and job descriptions.

Managers with good communication skills in the workplace should be able to provide proper coaching that will build staff potential and not tear them down. Ultimately, work coaching is meant to encourage, inspire, and guide staff toward improvement, and better work habits, and behavior.

With this, you need to be careful in the way you coach your team, because you may end up with a discouraged and unenthusiastic staff if you say or do the wrong things.

What NOT to do at the Office

#1: Don’t bark orders at people like you’re a prison warden. Talk to them like grown-ups who are able to follow instructions. Treat people with respect.

#2: Never expect people to be able to read your mind. During coaching, be as honest and vocal about what you expect from your staff, and what changes you would like to see in them.

Effective communication skills in the workplace include the ability to give specific instructions without being condescending.

#3: Never ignore people just because you don’t like them. Coaching is for everyone. As a manager, you need to be very objective with how you treat people. Never take things personally.

#4: During coaching sessions, stop reminding your staff that you are the boss. Instead, assure them that you are a friend willing to guide them every step of the way.

Believe it or not, everyone knows that you’re the boss, so stop stressing it on them—coaching is to boost their morale, not your ego.

#5: Never highlight the negative traits of the employee alone. Always celebrate the good things that your staff achieves.

Using your communication skills in the workplace properly will help you reward your employees with encouraging words of affirmation.

#6: Never manage people in fear. Coaching sessions are not to intimidate staff and scare them to productivity. No, it doesn’t work that way.

#7: Never use coaching sessions as ‘gossip sessions’. Never talk about other staff and their negative attitudes or private lives during coaching sessions. Managers must act professionally.

#8: Never resist ideas from your staff. Always welcome ideas and suggestions, and everyone should always be welcome to speak out what they think will be good for the team.

Don’t take it the wrong way, you don’t always have to implement every suggestion—but you need to always hear them out. A good leader is a good listener.

Communicating with and coaching staff is very important to ensure that they stay happy working for your organization. Managers should learn the art of using communication skills in the workplace for coaching sessions.