Myth: Capable People Don't Need Coaching
There are, in fact, coaching and mentoring practitioners who give short shrift to the importance of screening prospective employees in the interview process. It's as if employees arrive on the job by some sleight of hand.
Really, though, making a thorough effort to vet job applicants should be job one of a coach and the beginning of a sweeping and conscientious coaching journey. You want to employ the best and brightest people, don't you? Down the road, it'll make your managing duties a lot less complicated and a whole lot more successful, too.
This is an incontrovertible fact: One of your principal coaching duties is to find good men and women to fill any open job positions at your disposal.
You want to select the most capable people possible to work for you. But the reality is, because you're only human, you won't always pick perfect employees to labor under your wise and guiding hand. And, even those employees who are top-notch performers will require direction to further develop in their job roles and improve their overall skills.
As a managerial discipline, coaching and mentoring views learning as infinite and readily available to anybody and everybody. Each and every individual employee — irrespective of his or her level of knowledge and overall skills — requires a guiding hand of some kind while on the job.
Just as it is for those struggling along to get tutored and acquire new skills, the support of an astute manager — a coach — is necessary for the best and brightest employees, too. You want the best and the brightest to be better and brighter.
It's incumbent upon you in your coaching efforts to not only reward the successes of your employees, but also to see that they appreciate the reasons for these accomplishments. Generally, success is the result of strong skills and good work habits, and not mere “luck” as some employees claim.
Coaches support all of their employees — without exception — by providing hands-on managing and individual attention. Hands-on, remember, does not amount to micromanaging. The most capable people become even more capable under the smart and forward-moving leadership of coaching.
And those persons who need a more thorough and recurring upgrade of their knowledge and skills often find that a good coach and coaching program delivers the goods.
