The greatest resource of your company isn’t your product or service; it’s your people. Happy, motivated and caring employees make up the cornerstone of any business. This is especially true in the business of public relations, where a pivotal part of the job is communicating and representing multiple companies with energy and grace. Outside of vacation time, promotions and raises, how can we work to support and encourage our employees to continue to level up their game?
Over the past year, our agency has implemented the use of a performance coach, and we’ve seen a dramatic change in our team, including better communication, less burnout and increased positivity. Through working with a coach, our team has not only been given customized tools to help them reach the next stage of their careers, but they are also being shown that the company is actively investing in them.
Considering taking the plunge? Here are a few things I found to be effective in making the most of bringing in a coach:
Introduce the idea.
In order for your coach to be most effective, each employee has to be on board and open to participating in their sessions. We introduced our coach at our company retreat and ran team-building exercises before splitting off into one-on-one sessions. This allowed our team to become comfortable not only with the idea of coaching but also with the person conducting their sessions. After a day of laughing through the exercises and becoming familiar with the process, the team was ready to dive in.
If you don’t have a company retreat coming up but still want to engage your employees, I’d recommend calling a brief meeting to introduce the coach and their role at the company. Make sure to frame it as a positive experience and that the coach is here to help them meet their full potential. The more open an employee is to the experience, the more they will get out of each session.
Widen the scope.
As we all know, not everything affecting our ability to work is confined to the office. Before their one-on-one sessions, I’d suggest encouraging your team to talk about anything that is holding them back, even if it originated outside of the office. Although these sessions aren’t designed for therapy, we found that this encouragement helped team members to identify any problems and compartmentalize them — therefore, leading to better results at work. In order to foster a safe space, we keep each of our employee’s sessions confidential so they would feel comfortable sharing their experiences.
Understand that it’s not just a solo mission.
In addition to offering one-on-one sessions, I’d also recommend asking your coach to conduct two-on-one sessions between managers and each of their team members. The goal here is to help establish clear lines of communication from the beginning versus fixing a problem later.
As a company with offices in different countries, we found this technique especially helpful, as it aided our teams in perfecting their communication skills across borders. For anyone working with a performance coach, I’d highly recommend trying these joint sessions.
Get feedback.
When implementing a new tactic, it’s important to check in regularly with your team regarding their progress. After a few sessions, we polled our team to gauge if they felt the sessions were helpful and what they thought of the process. Were they feeling more confident at work? More supported? How have they seen changes? This check-in is helpful in gauging who is getting the most out of their sessions and how you should adjust the frequency moving forward.
These are just a few ways I’d recommend approaching working with a performance coach. Thinking of trying one? Give your employees a few sessions and see what they think!
