When I think about learning I think about employees who have gone to a class or maybe an online course and they’ve experienced knowledge dissemination or skill development. Where does coaching come in?
Let’s take two scenarios to illustrate this point. First, somebody attends an internal corporate workshop where he or she have learned the valuable material and engaged with his or her teammates throughout the company. Nothing else happens after this event and nor is coaching applied as a strategic reinforcement tool. Second somebody attends an internal corporate workshop but has a manager waiting asking a variety of questions such as:
- What did you learn about yourself that you’re committed to improving and changing?
- What are two things you could successfully share with your teammates where you feel they have an opportunity to benefit?
- What are three things you learned about yourself that pleasantly surprised you?
These are not the only questions a good manager-coach could ask but they certainly reinforce and solidify the learning. There is no greater strategy than coaching to help reinforce learning after it’s been experienced by employees.