If you are one of the millions of March Madness viewers, you’ve seen the coaches on the sidelines – suit coats and ties flapping, shouting their heads off, sweating and clapping. You might have thought, wow, that job looks stressful! It’s easy to forget that what we see broadcast is the tiniest little part of coaching. It comes after countless hours of working with the players. It’s when the coaches have to let go and see if all their work paid off.
If you’re a manager, you get this. Sure, people are probably not placing bets on how well you and your team are going to do (I hope!), but the pressure is there just the same. You may feel like doing some clapping, flapping, sweating, and shouting yourself. And when you step back and let your staff perform, you might feel like you’re in the spotlight, too. And yes, that can be stressful! Remember, like those NCAA head coaches, you are not alone. They have a cadre of coaching staff, and you have The Omnia Group!
What goes into coaching?
Coaching is more than training. A person who has been trained to play basketball knows the rules of the game and some of the skills, but they are probably not ready to jump into a Division 1 game. They need to know how to perform individually, how to work with their teammates, how to perform against certain teams, and how to adjust based on changing circumstances in the game. A great coach will prepare them for that, taking a different approach with each player, with the understanding that personalities and skill sets are not all equal.
Know your player.
To know how best to coach your performers, you must know who they are – their strengths and weaknesses and their preferences. A behavioral assessment, like the Omnia Assessment, is an excellent tool to help you understand an employee’s coaching needs. When you know, for example, a person’s communication style, you can adapt the way you approach them. Someone outgoing and expressive likes to brainstorm, talk problems through, and learn in a socially interactive way. Someone more reserved likes to explore information on their own first and learn as much as they can via playbooks or online training before trying to put things into practice. Are they ready to dive right in, or do they want to approach a skill more cautiously? Do they need unexpected variety in their coaching, or do they learn best when they know exactly what to expect? Knowing all these things can keep you from wasting valuable energy on a method that isn’t quite doing the job.
Know your team.
Even the most solitary of jobs involves some interplay with other members of the company. When coaching, you need to consider how well the team members work together. Do one person’s strengths complement another’s? Is one inclined to take on too much and another inclined to take on too little? If so, adjustments will be needed to ensure the work is equitable, everyone is pulling their weight, and mistakes aren’t being made because someone is overextended.
Know your challenges.
A good coach understands that different levels of preparation are needed depending on the situation. If the workload changes dramatically depending on the season or the date, you need to prepare your team to pace themselves and manage their efforts accordingly. If some work requires assertiveness or more readiness to smooth things over, you need to prepare your employee to identify that and respond.
At Omnia, we’re all about coaching. We have tools specifically designed to give you, the manager/employer, insight into how to coach your people to perform at the top of their games.
- Pre-employment testing: Believe it or not, the same tool you used to select your new employee can be used to help coach them. Even the person with the highest compatibility rating will have some challenge areas. We address those in the Custom Profile report as well as in the Target report.
- Professional development reports: If you want even more insight into your employee, check out our professional development reports. These can help your players dig deep into their own strengths and potential challenge areas while offering in-depth information about how to stay engaged and overcome possible difficulties.
- Position specific development reports: If you’re coaching an employee working in leadership, sales, customer service, or collections, we have reports tailored to each. These are written to address the specific challenges each player would encounter in any of these roles.
- Team development reports: If you want to dig deeper into how you and your team can work best together, our team development report provides a detailed breakdown of each individual’s key traits (including yours!) along with suggestions for personal growth. The report talks through communication preferences, strengths, and challenges with suggestions for working through challenge areas. It also highlights pace, attention to detail, motivators, and demotivators and ends with an action plan on ways to maximize personal success and professional growth.
- Workshops/webinars: If you like things a little more interactive, consider looking into our workshops and seminars. We offer a variety of webinar topics to help enhance your coaching skills. Don’t miss First Friday Fundamentals, our monthly webinar discussing the eight columns that make up the Omnia Assessment and how to use our reports to enhance your coaching efforts.
Have more questions or want to dig deeper? Reach out to your Customer Success Manager. They are always ready to stand on the sidelines, shouting and clapping, with you!
