Coaching is a critical skill for leaders but many struggle with how to have these conversations with employees. The benefits of having meaningful conversations are improved employee performance, increased engagement and decreased turnover. In fact, a recent Metrix Global study found that 93% of companies reported significantly less turnover when they offered coaching to employees. Let’s review five tips to improve your coaching conversations starting with the following example.

Think about a basketball coach helping a player improve their free-throw percentage. The coach evaluates the player’s mechanics, suggests changes in their form and helps the player shoot free throws at the end of practice each day. They monitor the player’s statistics to track progress and over time start to see improvement. The same holds true in business.

Leaders should schedule regular (weekly or at least monthly) meetings with employees. These sessions should be conducted as informal conversations, not performance reviews.

Five Tips for Your Coaching Conversations

The following are five tips to help with these coaching conversations:

• Start with a quick status of how things are going…successes, concerns, etc. to break the ice. Acknowledge successes and wins to positively reinforce these behaviors.
• Review a scorecard or KPIs to track if their performance is on track or if there are any potential issues.
• Review the status of any goals…are they on target, or do they need any assistance?
• If there are issues, have a quick discussion to identify steps to work towards a solution. You don’t have to solve it right there but help frame the next steps.
• Close by reviewing the next steps to ensure alignment, the desired outcomes and the time to completion.

The results of these coaching conversations will reinforce positive behaviors, create an environment of trust and honesty that promotes open dialog, and provide direction and focus on critical issues.

Good coaching is one of the key responsibilities of leadership and having open, honest conversations is one of the most important steps. There’s no magic, it takes practice. Try using these five tips to improve your coaching conversations and you’ll begin to see progress.