Wearing a Jersey over Your Suit: Coaching Tips for HRM Professionals
Human resource management professionals are delegated to wear a number of costumes in the course of their careers. As they’re primarily in charge of the physical, mental, emotional, and psychological well-being of the people in the organization, they must don the roles of a teacher, mentor, parent, boss, friend, and even coach at any time of the day. While most of these roles are like second skin for HRM practitioners, the idea of being a coach appears ambiguous to many of them. One question remains on top of their minds when it comes to coaching: how do you use it to motivate employees in general?
Tips for Coaching for Overall and Mutual Success
HRM experts mostly use coaching in the training aspect of their jobs. They have found out that employees tend to respond better when their superiors are coaching, rather than teaching them. There is a fine line between coaching and teaching, but this line must be drawn, acknowledged, and incorporated by HRM professionals if they wish their employees to become more productive and happier in general.
Ask Permission to Avoid Disrupting the Balance
Before taking the role of coach to effectively train employees, make sure that you’ve informed the employees’ direct superiors of your intentions. Employees might get confused on which superior to follow when you accidentally give them a lesson that seems to countermand the orders of their managers. Also, managers might resent you if it appears that you’re trying to wrestle authority from them.
It’s the Team that Counts
Between a trainer and a student, learning is always one-sided. Between a coach and a student, however, learning may be a two-way street. Employees will respond better to your lessons and advices if you treat them the way coaches treat their players. Coaches are always willing to listen on their players’ feedbacks and suggestions because they’re eager to use anything that could improve the performance of the TEAM. By emphasizing the fact that you and the organization’s employees are a TEAM and both of you are working for a common good, they’ll be more inclined to listen to you because they know you’re not working for any personal gain.
Make an Effort to Listen More
As we’ve mentioned earlier, coaches are always willing to listen to whatever their players have to say. That’s something HRM practitioners must mimic as well if they wish to obtain similar success with company employees. As a coach, it’s your responsibility to listen, and this responsibility must not be implemented selectively. To become a fair coach, you must listen not only to the people you wish to hear from but to everyone. You must listen not only about the things you wish to learn more but even about the things you don’t want to hear of.
Coaches Know the Value of Reward and Punishment
As with the relationship of trainers and students, it’s very rare that trainers would go so far to punish and reward his students for their performances. Most trainers are apathetic on whether their students had made the effort to learn; as long as they’ve done their jobs, it’s the students’ problems if they weren’t smart enough to see the value of what they’re being taught.
Coaches, on the other hand, have an entirely different view. Since it’s still and always about the team, coaches are aware that an inappropriate response from his players will affect and reflect on him negatively. They therefore use rewards and punishment to elicit the desired response. HRM professionals must do the same if they wish employees to learn the value of what they’re being asked to learn.
The transition from suit-wearing HRM professional to tough coach may be difficult at first, but it’s sure to become easier and definitely worth it in time.