This document provides guidance on employee coaching to support individual development. The goal of coaching is to help employees explore their strengths, opportunities, interests and aspirations through guidance and conversations that facilitate personal growth and career decisions. An effective coaching model is GROW, which stands for Goal, Reality, Options and Way Forward. Coaching differs from mentoring, which involves expertise sharing, and counseling, which is used in discipline processes. The SMART framework can be applied to goals to ensure they are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. Effective coaching involves asking open-ended questions, documenting development plans, providing regular reviews and encouragement.

1. Employee Coaching
Learning how to be an effective coach to support
individual Employee Development.
Desire’ Kane PHR

2. Goal:
O The goal of coaching is to help employee’s
explore their strengths and development
opportunities, motivations, interests, and
aspirations.
O Coaching allows for guidance along the
journey of making career decisions and taking
steps that result in long lasting positive
change and personal growth.
Did you know?
According to Forbes coaching has an ROI of 6x the cost and
increases productivity by 88%

3. Your role as a supervisor:
O Serve as a guide to help achieve common
team/ACC goals as well as their personal
developmental goals.
O Direct them on the way of self discovery to
support them to be the best they can be.
O Should be a positive collaborative effort,
as it benefits both the employee and ACC.
-Use open ended questions
to guide employees in the right
direction.

4. How is coaching different from
mentoring or counselling
O Mentoring: Mentors are expected to pass
expertise, through modeling or describing
a process that has been effective.
Coaching involves exploring new
processes or ideas, and many times the
coach is not skilled in the area they are
exploring.
O Counselling: The key difference is that this
is used during the discipline process, and
the employee is required to improve on
the area in discussion.

5. The GROW Coaching Model
OG- Goal
What do you want to
achieve?
OR-Reality
Where are you now?
OO-Options
What are the options?
OW-Way Forward
What is the action plan?

6. A SMART way to GROW
OS- Specific
OM-Measurable
OA- Attainable and Actionable
OR-Realistic and Relevant
OT- Timely and Tangible

7. S- Specific
(Goal)
O Is the goal specific?
O What will define the success of the goal?
O What skills or competencies need to be
strengthened or developed?
O What behaviors need to be changed to
modified and how?
O Does this objective fit their personal and
team’s targets?

8. M-Measurable
(Reality/Options)
O How will you measure success?
O What metrics or values will you look for?
O Is there enough information to track the
progress?
O How will you know when you have passed
the milestones of your goal’s journey?

9. A- Attainable and Actionable
(Reality/Way Forward)
O What do you need to attain this goal?
O What are some resources that can help?
O Is this done alone, or do you need
support?
O What are the actionable objectives?
O Can you take smaller steps to achieve
progress?

10. R-Realistic and Relevant
(Reality/Way Forward)
O Is the goal realistic?
O What are the possible obstacles?
O Is the goal so challenging it will be very
difficult to attain?
O Is the goal relevant to overall aspirations?
O Will it get you to where you want to be?

11. Tangible and Timely
(Reality/Way Forward)
O How will you demonstrate goal
achievement?
O What tangible evidence will there be when
you achieve your goal? Did you develop
the skills and competencies aligned with
your goal?
O What is the timeline? Is it reasonable?
Can you attain your goal in the time
outlined?

12. Focus on 3 goals or less to
allow for reasonable growth.
O This can be a formal
or informal process.
O Sometimes managers
will goal plan at the
time of the review
O Keep track of the
follow up dates to
keep you and the
employee on
schedule and
engaged.

13. Guiding the conversation
O Help your team member understand where
they are starting from.
O What are their strengths and opportunities for
growth?
O Ask questions- build awareness.
O There is no judgment in this process, try to be
open-minded.
O Be positive and supportive.
O Help the employee think through the process
to build a rapport, confidence and feel
engaged.

14. An activity for Team Members
to SOAR
OS-Strengths
OO-Opportunities
OA-Aspirations
OR-Results
This worksheet will help you assist your team with current
and long-term goal assessment, by helping them
understand where they are now.

15. Documenting the Individual
Development Plan
O Using the tools to GROW SMART make a
written plan with 3 or less goals that you
and the team member can agree upon.
O Make sure the goal , strategies, action
steps, timeline, and meeting review times
are clear and achievable.
O You are welcome to use the sheet
provided or any internal documents your
Human Resources department requires.

16. Questions to Ask During Review:
:O How do you feel about ______?
O What Concerns you most about_______?
O What seems to be your main obstacle?
O What could be holding you back?
O What do you mean by ________?
O Tell me more about it?
O What have you tried so far?
O What support will you need to accomplish
your goal?

17. Encouragement
O Follow up and interest in the
progress of the goal will ensure that
the project is completed, builds
confidence, and will help the
employee make progress toward
their career objectives.
O Acknowledgement: I have seen your
commitment to our team and ACC,
and I know you will have the
dedication to achieve your goal. I
believe in you.
O Help with more guidance during the
bumps, sometimes a new
perspective, and some positive
reassurance does the trick.

18. Soar to Grow Smart