Coaches at Intellect (YC S21), including me, offer 5 tips to help you better handle remote coaching and hybrid teams:
Here are the 5 tips:
💡 Tip 1: Remove potential distractions
💡 Tip 2: Dedicate the first few minutes to work-related matters, if necessary
💡 Tip 3: Have a framework, but be flexible
💡 Tip 4: Guarantee confidentiality
💡 Tip 5: Get comfortable with asking ‘basic’ questions
Here are my contributions for a few of the tips:
Tip 1: Remove potential distractions
Respect the coaching process by properly planning your schedules and taking intentional steps to remove potential distractions.
“Deliberately setting aside time to focus on the conversation, the person, and the matter being discussed is key to effective virtual coaching. If you’re conducting a session between meetings, set aside a half-hour buffer to help you decompress and focus on the next meeting.”
Tip 3: Have a framework, but be flexible
Select a coaching framework that you’re most comfortable with, such as the one highlighted in this 18-minute podcast by Zenger Folkman - F.U.E.L. model.
“The beauty of coaching is that you make it possible for your coachees to come up with their own conclusions and action plans. You don’t give instructions - you explore an issue together to arrive at a solution together. Having a proper coaching framework helps enable this process.”
And finally, believe and commit to the coaching process. It’s tempting to just offer a solution, rather than go through the entire process of letting the employee come up with their own solutions in a collaborative way. “We may think: ‘The faster I get out of this online session, the more time I have for other matters’.”
“But if you stay committed and follow through with your coaching framework, you’ll be surprised at how you might open up new ideas for your team and allow them to reach those a-ha moments for themselves!”
Full write-up on the tips may be found here.
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