Professional Development Coaching Tools
Businesses and corporations employ professional development coaches or train managers in how to use coaching skills. When successful, professional development coaching increases the overall productivity of the organization by reducing turnover and developing the skills of employees. This reduces the costs associated with employee recruitment.
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Coaching Skills
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Successful professional development coaches develop their own skills in listening, curiosity, learning and self-management. Coaching skills are the tools that coaches use to foster development in employees. Using the skills facilitates building rapport in the coaching relationship, which allows the rest of the coaching process to flow smoothly. Listening, curiosity, learning and self-management are core skills and do not represent all the skills of a professional development coach. Professional development coaches continually build and sharpen their skills set.
Rapport
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Building Rapport creates the foundation of professional development coaching. Coaches build rapport by listening to the employee. A coach may share his experience to foster trust and encourage the employee to speak freely about his/her struggles and successes. Good coaches operate on the fifth habit noted in Stephen Covey's book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People." Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Operating on this "habit" allows the coach to help the employee feel and be heard. Employees who feel heard are more likely to listen, which builds on rapport.
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Self-Awareness
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Professional development coaching helps employees build self-awareness, which is essential to skill development. Employees set clear and relevant goals when fully aware of professional assets and deficits. Coaches employ many tools to develop self-awareness in employees.
Two self-awareness tools are the Johari Window and the Wheel of Life. Exercises based on the Johari Window allow the employee to confer with colleagues and supervisors to identify strengths and weaknesses. The Wheel of Life Exercise provides a satisfaction measurement tools on each area of life. However, the wheel can be altered to more work specific topics like skills sets and job responsibilities.
Skill Development
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The focus of professional development coaching is often skill development. Self-awareness tools are used to identify skills in which the employee is deficient. The coach and employee may seek additional information on skills needed by speaking with the employee's direct supervisor and reviewing the employee's job description. In situations in which the employee is seeking a promotion, they might consult job description for the advanced position for necessary areas of skill development.
Goals
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Coach and employee can set goals relevant to skill development. Clear goals allow the employee to measure and track her progress. Goals will have a specific outcomes and timelines identified. A majority of the time that the employee spends with a professional development coach centers on setting and completing goals.
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