As part of Almo’s Learning Network program, I recently completed a series of four training sessions on coaching. Considering I had not previously studied this topic, I was delighted to find the information immediately relevant to my management responsibilities.

Below are a few of my favorite takeaways:

• A coach must be naturally curious, interested in others, and have a desire to build relationships.
• Mastering coaching is understanding what it is not. A coach’s role is not to find the solution, or even to lead the coachee to a specific solution. Similarly, a coach does not provide advice or consult. All of the answers come from the coachee only. As a coach, this takes discipline!
• A coach’s primary role is to ask questions. Importantly, the questions must always be open-ended, serving a few critical functions. The biological component (I love it when business and biology collide) is that open-ended questions spark creative problem solving in the coachee’s brain, which leads to greater “stickiness” for whatever insights they draw from this thought process. Asking open ended questions also prevents leading the coachee in any predetermined directions, toward any of the coach’s subconscious biases. We make stronger neural connections when the solution is our own idea, increasing retention.
• Coaching should be future and action-oriented, especially in a professional setting. After the coachee has developed some potential solutions, the coach should encourage them to think through implementation. How will you make this happen? Who will support you? What obstacles might get in the way?
• A summary of the session by the coach, including go forward actions, will help push the insights discovered by the process deeper into the coachee’s brain. But the coach must be careful to only summarize what the coachee came up with themselves!
• As a manager, a successful coaching program can help your team take more responsibility, drive action, and achieve goals faster. But this requires regular relationship-building through one-on-ones for each individual on your team. It starts with trust!

At first glance the idea of coaching might seem simple and straightforward, but it turns out there is a lot more to it when you peel back the layers. Having a good framework as a guide helps, and of course mastering this skill will take years of practice. I plan to consistently apply these coaching insights to take my team’s success to another level.