"Coach your staff. Coaching consists of: highly structured, personalized guidance on professional growth; narrative-based advice using stories, analogies and tangible examples; helping staff expand their professional networks; identifying work challenges; and teaching new skills. Coaching is more effective than classroom training, mentoring or leadership-development programs."
- Finance Leaders Bemoan Talent Shortage, cfo.com
Much of my consulting and business success over the years has been based on coaching clients and team members on the key attributes necessary to build success and generate business results. New research, as noted above, highlights some of the key attributes necessary for building high performance teams.
One of the attributes described is coaching for success. We all need coaching. Few people come to a company, project, or task with all of the skills and experience necessary to perform at the highest levels. We should instead seek to recruit and hire intelligent, energetic, inquisitive people who are coachable.
The ability to coach is also an essential skill for those who would lead organizations successfully. Although some people may be natural coaches, most people are not. But coaching, like most skills, is something which can be learned. There are coaches for that as well.
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