Coaching employees addresses performance objectives and helps unleash the potential within each person. In fact, research suggests that coaching not only helps individuals perform better, but it also drives overall motivation and commitment to their work. A meta-analysis of multiple studies on organizational coaching found that coaching at work positively impacts employee performance. It also encourages a more positive attitude about one’s work and the company as a whole.

This raises the question, are your leaders effectively coaching their employees to improve their performance? Do they have the skills they need to do so? Whatever your answer may be, the following tips may help them begin or motivate them to continue coaching employees to improve their performance.

1. Connect and Communicate

Relationships are key to the success of coaching provided at work. Connecting with your employees in an authentic and genuine manner can drastically improve the chances of the employee being receptive to training and feedback, not to mention acting on it. Before you coach an employee, make sure you are building relationships with your staff that are based on trust, so that down the road you can provide coaching with candor and empathy.

2. Observe

Good coaching requires a leader that pays attention to their staff and observes their behaviors and actions regularly. It is very difficult to provide accurate and relevant coaching when leaders are unaware of the day-to-day actions the staff they are coaching. Watch and pay attention to your employees’ behaviors so you can identify what aspects of their performance need to be coached to improve upon their performance.

3. Assess

Prior to coaching employees formally, it is imperative that you take the time to fully understand the actual performance of the individual versus the expectation you, or the organization, has of them. Once it has been determined that they are not meeting expectations, or that they could improve in a certain area in order to perform better, then is the time to coach. At this stage it may be helpful to use tools such as 360-degree or 180-degree feedback tools, multi-rater behavior assessments, or questionnaires and surveys, to get a better understanding.

4. Clarify

Coaching at work requires leaders to provide clarity by discussing and reviewing the gap between performance expectations and actual performance with employees. This requires providing detailed examples of alternative behaviors that employees can try in different situations. When coaching employees to improve performance, it isn’t about telling employees what to do in every possible scenario, but giving clear feedback that helps them identify an ideal solution.

5. Explain

Leaders who provide effective coaching give individuals a road map for how to apply what has been discussed in the workplace. You should be prepared to explain why specific behaviors, results, or actions need to change, how they should change, and where you would like to see the person as a result of changing their behaviors or actions. This will make it much easier for your recipient to understand that you are trying to help improve their performance on the job, and how these changes will accomplish that.

6. Ask Questions

Ideally, when coaching, there is some form of two-way communication happening. While it is important that you as the coach speak, you will also want to encourage the recipient of the coaching to ask questions, seek clarity, and provide insight. Having a conversation about what is being coached makes it far more likely that the recipient will take what you are saying and apply it in order to improve their performance.

Coaching to Improve Performance: Next Steps

Coaching must always be delivered in the right context and at the right time. If it’s not, your coaching efforts will likely fall flat. Many of today’s employees crave in-the-moment feedback and words of affirmation that will help them improve their performance. By applying these tips on the job, you can play an important role in the success of your employees.

Have you heard of emotional agility? Coined by the Harvard Business Review, the term closely aligns with a more widely used term, emotional intelligence—but the two concepts are not interchangeable.

Emotional intelligence is defined as being aware of and in control of one’s own emotions. On the other hand, emotional agility is defined as approaching one’s inner experiences mindfully and productively, a feat that has become increasingly challenging during this COVID season.

The differences between emotional intelligence and emotional agility can have a profound impact on how leaders perform and how they treat others in the workplace. Just like emotional intelligence, emotional agility requires one to be in tune with their own emotions, but it doesn’t place emphasis on suppressing or controlling them. You can be emotionally intelligent but still lack emotional agility (though the reverse is not true). Leaders today are facing challenges surrounding mental well-being which are immune to demographics, thus, strategies that employ emotional agility are increasingly important. Becoming more emotionally agile will make you a better leader—while remaining emotionally rigid can compromise your ability to lead effectively and make the best decisions for your team. Here’s how:

How A Lack of Emotional Agility Affects Leadership

Leaders are always expected to be “in control”—so they tend to suppress negative emotions or push them away when in the corporate realm. In reality, though, they get hooked on these emotions, creating unhealthy and unsustainable habits to try to control them, as Susan David, the author of Emotional Agility, explained in HBR. When leaders become hooked on their negative emotions, their thinking becomes rigid and repetitive. They become stuck in old patterns. That’s bad news for leaders, since world-class leadership requires a high level of agility. Moreover, a lack of emotional agility in a leadership team can stifle innovation and stall personal development.

Lacking emotional agility can also impact a leader’s decision-making abilities. Leaders may try to avoid new situations or challenges that may trigger their negative thoughts, passing on opportunities that would actually be good for them and the company. Or they may take the opposite route, intentionally trying to push back their negative thoughts by taking on situations they’re not equipped to handle or that go against their values. Either way, they let their negative emotions—not rational business decisions—rule them.

Finally, a leader must always be thinking of how his or her actions influence those around them. Emotional inflexibility sets a bad example for employees. Employees take behavioral cues from their leaders, so employees will pick up on and adopt the negative emotional styles of leaders who aren’t emotionally agile. That can result in a toxic workplace culture, one where stilting emotions and not speaking freely or emotional outbursts become the norm. Consequently, when you account for the additional stress and pressure employees are tackling in work cultures that are struggling to accommodate the pandemic, you may well find yourself confronting a loss of camaraderie and respect amongst your team.

How Leaders Can Become More Emotionally Agile

The cost of remaining emotionally rigid is clear, while becoming more emotionally agile can help you become a world-class leader known for sparking change and embracing a vibrant organizational culture. Here are two ways you can become a more emotionally agile leader in the workplace:

1. Practice Acceptance

Instead of fighting or hiding from negative emotions, leaders should first accept them, allowing themselves to fully feel them. Unfortunately, this is especially tough for leaders to do because of the clichés associated with projecting leadership. For example, a survey recently revealed that the number one most important trait for a leader is positivity—expectations like this, of an always sunny and encouraging disposition, make it hard for leaders to accept their negative emotions. Doing so, however, gives leaders a chance to model healthy ways to deal with emotions to their employees while avoiding making important decisions based on said emotions.

2. Take Actions Based On Values Over Emotions

Of course, there’s a difference between acceptance and action. Just because you accept your negative emotions doesn’t mean you have to act on them. In fact, Susan David recommends that before responding from an emotional place, leaders should examine whether that reaction will further serve their own values or help others in the company. Making values-based, not emotion-based, decisions can also help leaders shape a workplace culture into one built on values. Leaders can use the stated values of their organization to guide their actions, instead of relying on their emotions.

3. Exercise Tolerance When Modeling Emotional Agility for Your Team

These practices will ensure that as a leader, you have the ability and skillset to handle emotionally laborious obstacles in a healthy way. However, you must take care to have patience when instilling these lessons in others, both in how they come to understand what emotional agility is, and in how they learn to apply emotional resolutions. Becoming emotionally agile isn’t something that will simply happen, nor is it something that all people will inherently understand. It will take time, and for many will be an arduous undertaking, especially for those who are unused to tactics that require being attuned to your emotions. They will be confronting their own negative or unwelcome experiences, which often perpetuates feelings of shame or frustration, and can manifest as disagreeable behavior. Being tolerant of this behavior, in yourself and in others, and of the time required to complete this education, is of paramount importance if you want people to grow to be emotionally agile leaders in their own right. As a leader, it is your responsibility to create an inclusive, safe space in which others can discover and progress along this journey for themselves.

Conclusion: Emotional Agility Impacts a Leader’s Effectiveness

How leaders deal with their emotions in the workplace has a profound effect on individual, team, and organizational success. Therefore, leaders need emotional agility in order to deal with negative emotions in healthy, productive ways. To encourage the development of this skill, organizations would benefit from including it in their leadership training and development plans.

Leadership is not just limited to a handful of individuals in the C-suite—leaders exist at many levels in an organization. Every supervisor, line manager, and department head should strive for a well-rounded and balanced skill set that will make them an exceptional leader. It might take time to develop all of the necessary skills, but each step in the right direction benefits both the individual and the organization.

To develop world-class leaders at your organization, ensure your training and development programs address these 10 qualities.

1. Charisma

Leaders must be likeable if they are going to be successful in the long term. Individuals gravitate toward those they enjoy working with, and if a leader doesn’t have this quality, they will have a hard time connecting with others and excelling in their position. Although many leaders naturally have a degree of charisma, this is a quality that can be continually developed and honed.

2. Clarity

Communication is a key skill for leaders, and the best ones do it simply, clearly, and memorably. When great leaders communicate, they focus on making the information easy to understand and recall later. Achieving a world-class level of communication takes practice, but the skill can be taught and improved over time.

3. Direction

Leading a team or an organization requires first having, and then sharing, a vision with clear goals. This involves creating a clear vision for yourself and then having the skills to effectively share it with others and translate it into actionable steps. Conveying direction requires a leader to have both clarity and strong communication skills.

4. Knowledge

Subject-matter knowledge is essential, but knowing how to use the power that comes from understanding is what makes great leaders stand out. Great leaders also recognize that they don’t always have all of the knowledge they need, and they take the time to read books, attend training events, and continually improve as leaders and individual contributors.

5. Decisiveness

Making important decisions is not always easy, but effective leaders take on this responsibility with confidence. They take the necessary time to assess a situation, and then act decisively. World-class leaders stand behind their decisions and are accountable for outcomes.

6. Conviction

Persevering in the face of challenges and displaying confidence in decisions comes from having strong conviction. Leaders who have this conviction will excel in their fields. When individuals recognize that a leader is firm in their convictions and believes in themselves, they are more likely to follow that person. The ability to set goals and persevere until they have been achieved is a sign of a true leader.

7. Accountability

Great leaders have the discipline to meet deadlines, fulfill promises, and follow through on commitments. Having the self-discipline to consistently deliver what they say they’re going to deliver and modeling the behavior they want to see in others are two strong leadership qualities that should be encouraged.

8.  Approachability

Leaders must interact with a lot of people in their daily work. The great ones are able to adapt and meet people where they are to make them feel comfortable. Leaders need to be approachable in order to stay in the loop and stay on track toward organizational goals. People are most inclined to approach others whom they trust, which is why leaders must have integrity and an affable demeanor.

9. Competence

Demonstrating skill in a range of areas is essential for leaders to earn the trust and respect of their team. Competence in a leader’s core field is critical, but great leaders seek to gain new skills as the world evolves around them. Continual learning to adopt new skills is a true indicator of a world-class leader.

10. Humility

A world-class leader might be a very skilled and talented person, but they won’t continue to improve and thrive if they don’t keep their ego in check. Don’t confuse being humble with being subdued or timid; it’s about controlling the ego, not eliminating it completely. Remember that humility and confidence are not mutually exclusive.

Conclusion

It’s rare to find an individual who excels in all of these areas, but it is possible to develop leaders with an effective training and development plan that teaches these qualities over time so participants can eventually master them. World-class leaders recognize that there is always room for improvement and will happily take the necessary steps to advance their skill sets. Work with each individual to Identify the qualities that could be better and invest the time and resources to improve them. This could include reading relevant books and articles, taking a course, going to a training event, and, of course, practicing every day.

For more tips on how to become a world-class leader yourself, read The Leader’s Pocket Guide for Leading Yourself, Others & the Organization.

Everyone experiences some kind of conflict in the workplace at some point. Something which Covid has added a realm of complexity to, to not only detect, but also resolve. Conflict can arise in many situations, but disagreements with coworkers commonly cause interpersonal strife. In fact, in an 18-month research study, nearly 100 percent of respondents cited interactions with coworkers as the primary cause of conflict at work. Conflict in the workplace also impacts employee productivity. According to one study, a single employee spends nearly three hours every workweek trying to resolve some kind of conflict. Even worse, unresolved conflicts can impact employee engagement and have negative implications for company culture.