Did you know that Employee Development & Coaching is a competency that you can develop? We define the Employee Development & Coaching competency as, "Facilitating, supporting and contributing to the professional growth of others." Who do you know who is highly skilled at Employee Development & Coaching?

With practice, you can grow and develop this skill just like other "hard skills" you might be good at like cooking, public speaking, employee coaching, or playing golf.

How do I grow as a leader: Employee Development & Coaching?

Those with a highly developed skill of Employee Development & Coaching exhibit the following:

• Inspires confidence in others' ability to grow professionally.
• Identifies and facilitates developmental opportunities.
• Encourages initiative and improvement.
• Provides opportunities for enhancement.
• Gives new and challenging work assignments.
• Acknowledges and praises improvements.
• Supports, coaches and mentors the development of others.
• Views mistakes as opportunities for learning.
• Promotes learning and professional growth.
• Understands the uniqueness and current level of each participant.

Behaviorally, it comes more naturally and requires less focus for some of us to develop and coach employees. For the rest of us, it is a skill we may need to invest energy into developing in order to be more effective. Our Driving Forces will reward for some skills and not others. If your job or your environment demands something from you that isn't naturally present in your Behaviors or Driving Forces, you can develop it in your Competencies. 

What about you? How developed are you at the competency of Employee Development & Coaching? What about the people on your team? Is this something you want your team to be strong in?