Effective coaching and mentoring are essential components in helping any member of staff to perform more effectively and helping a business to function more smoothly. As we see our economy on tenterhooks and we look over the edge of the cliff of a potential second lockdown, many businesses will welcome ideas and inspiration to lead their teams through this tough time, so this blog post runs through some ways in which coaching and mentoring are good leadership techniques.
Investing in success
When you’re applying coaching and mentoring techniques to develop a colleague, you’re helping them to succeed. Taking the time to carefully coach someone can seem difficult when your days are filled with important work, but the time invested in the short term is likely to 
lead to more productivity and effectiveness in the long term. As an article in the Houston Chronicle suggests, give positive and meaningful praise as part of your coaching and mentoring practices to boost morale and improve wellbeing.
Empowerment
Positive reinforcement from an effective leader allows team members to realise their full potential. Self-doubt can result in poor performance and a good leader should be able to boost and employee’s confidence through coaching and mentoring, helping them to recognise their abilities and feel able to act with autonomy. This has a positive impact on the overall team performance as well as the individual. Empowerment as part of a coaching and mentoring programme will help you to work round potential barriers and help employees to shine.
Clear communication
The processes of coaching and mentoring involves lots of one to one time and lots of talking. An essential ingredient to being a good leader is the ability to foster good communication with your team, so coaching and mentoring provides a good opportunities to do this at a deeper level.
Frequently, leaders may think they’re conveying clear messages to their team, when in reality there may be confusion or misinterpretation. A good leader helps their team members to understand their purpose, their role in the organisation and supports them to interpret complex messages.
Broadening perspective
Mentoring can be a very effective tool to help you hone your leadership skills. It can help you to see things through new eyes, particularly if 
you choose to mentor those with different abilities and skills to your own, for example someone of the opposite gender, age group or someone with a disability. As author and columnist Bruna Martinuzzi said, if you learn to embrace different viewpoints this can give you multiple perspectives, which in turn could lead to better problem-solving skills. In a fast-paced business world, being open to fresh ideas is essential and a good leader should always be willing to listen to their team and embrace progress, incorporating a whole-team approach.
Find out more about coaching and mentoring for better leadership
If you’d like to apply effective mentoring and coaching techniques to help your teams flourish, please get in touch. If you’d like to talk about the steps you can take to become a more productive, more effective leader, I’d love to chat. I’m setting aside part of my day to offer free mini Executive Coaching and Mentoring to people who would value some help in adopting new ways of working. Get in touch if you’d like to talk.
