5 Coaching Skills that will boost Your career

Coaching Skills Make a Difference. No doubts, right?

Coaching Skills for managers and entrepreneurs is a popular topic on leadership development programs. In reality, it doesn't matter what is your job or your area of expertise. Your ability to be successful in your career and in your life is related to your ability to motivate, inspire and develop other people, including yourself.

These are 5 ways you can start to develop your coaching skills, without being a professional coach.

1. Listen, listen, and listen!
Practice putting your ideas and thoughts aside and fully concentrate on what the other person is saying, even if you don't like what you are hearing.

2. Summarize
Practice summarizing what the other person just said. Say "If I understood correctly, you said that..." and then give space to your partner to validate your summary.

3. Clarify
Practice clarifying what other people are saying. This will help them to gain clarity and focus on what they really want. Say "It sounds like you would like to...., am I wrong?" and wait for your partner response.

4. Ask open ended questions
Practice asking open ended questions instead of closed ones. This will push the other person to think more deeply and out of the box. Example: Instead of asking  "Do you agree with what I just said?" ask "What are your thoughts about what I just shared?"

5. Help the other person to focus on goals, not on problems
Practice helping people to switch their focus from what is not working to what they want to achieve. Say:" I understand this situation is very challenging for you. What could be an ideal solution?"  

I trust the above 5 steps will open up for you new ways to communicate with people.

If you want to learn more about this topic, check out this online certificate program for managers and entrepreneurs, “Act Like a Coach: Inspire and Develop Your People”. It's entirely self-paced, and it is based on my book “Improvise and Succeed”.

With passion,
Katiuscia.