How do you turn a group of average sales professionals into experts capable of closing any deal? Simple, you invest in their education.
After all, while some sales professionals naturally have characteristics that make them more effective in their role, such as confidence and charisma, the best salespeople are rarely born – they’re molded into shape. Some of the most successful salespeople of all time are the individuals who commit themselves to constantly learning, expanding their horizons, and discovering new skills.
Business leaders, therefore, need to ensure they’re providing the right educational opportunities to their staff, so they can develop the talents they need. High-performance coaching can be a fantastic tool for organizations looking to empower and optimize their workforce.
What is High-Performance Coaching?
Some people assume “high-performance coaching” means delivering educational opportunities for star employees, to help them make the most of their existing skills. However, this methodology actually focuses on converting all of your employees into “high performers”.
High-performance coaches work with students to develop customized strategies for success, tailored around the strengths, weaknesses, and abilities of each employee.
For instance, a manager may take on the role of “high-performance coach” for a new employee responsible for cold calls in the sales landscape. They would start by evaluating the employee’s performance and pinpointing problem areas. The coach would then offer step-by-step guidance and support to help the employee overcome their issues, and harness new skills.
How Does High-Performance Coaching Work?
High-performance coaching is similar in a lot of ways to regular coaching. However, a high-performance coach specifically focuses on pushing employees to be their best, according to the values and expectations of the company.
In some cases, high-performance coaching can be more challenging than traditional coaching, and more intensive. It can even involve the input of multiple business leaders from across the company. High-performance coaches may work in collaboration to identify the key areas where they want their team members to excel, before creating individualized training methods for each employee.
Often, high-performance coaching will include:
- In-depth conversations with employees: To help each employee achieve their true potential, high-performance coaches need to start by finding out the “starting point” for their staff. In other words, where do these employees excel, and where do they struggle?
- Forming collaborative goals: Once coaches have a clear idea of the strengths and weaknesses of each employee, they can set goals based on the needs of the business, and the personal ambitions and goals of the employee.
- Creating training plans: Focusing on the educational or learning style best suited to the employee, the high-performance coach can then start to introduce training plans, with specific targets, expectations, and timelines.
Where Does High Performance Coaching Work Best?
Because high-performance coaching is often seen as an intensive, long-term, and intimate form of coaching, it’s not always the right strategy for every use case. High performance coaching is generally best-suited to situations where businesses want to help employees overcome blocks in their performance, increase their motivation, and unlock new opportunities. It works well for:
- Long-range career planning: Some companies offer high-performance coaching as part of a long-term career plan for each employee. Evidence shows people who have specific goals for their career are generally more likely to achieve them.
- Navigating career changes: If employees are moving into new positions, or adapting to promotions, high-performance coaching can help to ensure they thrive in their role as quickly as possible. It can also help staff avoid common transitional mistakes.
- Making fundamental changes to performance: If employees are consistently making the same common mistakes, or struggling to reach their goals, high performance coaching can help with breaking bad habits and implementing new methodologies.
What are the Skills of a High Performance Coach?
The good news for business leaders is that virtually anyone can be a “high performance coach” for other employees. Typically, high performance coaches are leaders or experienced professionals in the organization, who already have a strong understanding of the company’s goals and values.
However, while anyone can be a high-performance coach, these professionals do need to demonstrate certain characteristics to be successful in their role. For instance, they need to be:
- Emotionally intelligent: High-performance coaches need to understand the emotions and feelings of their students, and ensure they’re treating each employee with empathy.
- Respectful: A high performance coach should always be respectful of the student’s skills as an individual, their ambitions and goals in life, and their time.
- Honest: A great high performance coach will be able to provide honest, constructive, and challenging feedback, with a clear level of transparency.
- Student focused: High performance coaches should never get their own ego or agenda get in the way of their coaching sessions.
- Flexible: A high performance coach should also be able to adapt their coaching strategy to suit the needs and learning styles of different students.
Improving your High Performance Coaching Strategy
There’s no one-size-fits-all guide to high-performance coaching. The more companies invest in this method of training and education, the more they’ll discover which strategies actually work for their employees. However, there are some steps you can take to boost your chances of success. For instance, high performance coaches should always:
- Use emotional intelligence: Great high performance coaches learn how to recognize interfering emotions in their students, and stop them from damaging the learning process. As a high performance coach, you’ll help your students to overcome issues like fear of failure, guilt, or worry.
- Set collaborative goals: The core focus of a high performance coach is often to make sure the employee can achieve the best results for the business. However, it’s important to set goals based on what the employee wants to accomplish too. The results of a coaching process should be beneficial to both the business, and the individual.
- Be ready to experiment: High performance coaching can be intensive, but it should also be fun, and tailored to the specific needs of the employee. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different learning styles and opportunities to see what really helps your employees unlock their true potential.
