I recently had a bit of a lightbulb moment when I heard someone say that they ask their people if they are coachable? I noticed in myself that I stopped for a second to think about what I had just heard.

I was amazed that someone would even ask their people if they thought they were coachable? And get them to fill a form in!!! I was genuinely really shocked at this statement. Why would they not be coachable? If they were your staff and you asked that question what sort of judgement would come from that!

Coaching is a development and takes place between two people. The two people work together to change past patterns, that is if they want to change. Everyone wants to change if they are honest with themselves. If they don’t is it because of the lack of confidentiality, not feeling safe, not feeling they can trust? I would say you need to look at the practices in your workplace to establish this.

Coaching requires energy, commitment and work to change patterns. Everyone can be coached once they understand what coaching means. The world of possibilities as a team is for everyone, maybe share your knowledge of coaching with your team. Make it known that everyone can be coached; why wouldn’t you? Coaching is fantastic and can create so much improvement in oneself, creating self-motivation and positivity which helps individuals both personally and professionally.

As a manager, you need to be able to recognise the coaching boundaries and what coaching is. Just asking that question of your staff could create such boundaries and judgement which could cause issues that don’t need to be there. Language and procedures can create such problems without anyone realising.

Understanding coaching is essential; what is it? What it can do and what takes place in a coaching session. If you wish to know more or receive some coaching, you will understand more, what coaching is then educate everyone around you.

Claire Moody is our head coach at Target Training, and you can read more about her here.  She delivers training on coaching for managers courses, and you can learn more about these courses here and see dates here.