I’ve always admired Dan Rockwell and his concise blogs on Leadership Freak. One of his recent blogs, How Busy Managers Practice People Development, reinforced my belief that great managers who incorporate coaching skills into their management style, separate themselves from the average managers.

In the blog he states that “equipping people to do things without you and cheering more than correcting” are part of people development. I totally agree and know that with good coaching a manager can accomplish both objectives.

Coaching is both asking questions of an employee to get them to come to their own solution and catching them doing things you want them to do more of. Questions help develop an employee and provide the employee with a higher sense of ownership for the solution. And praising them, in the moment, for behaviors you desire, will get you more of those behaviors.

For those of you new to coaching or looking to improve, my Five Steps for Coaching, will help you master the art of coaching.