Effective coaching is a skill that requires an understanding of human motivation and behavior. It also requires plenty of practice. To coach, according to most dictionaries, means to “tutor, train, give hints to, or prime with facts.”

The role of a supervisor or leader as a coach is to stimulate the person being coached to look within himself to develop the requisite skills for effective job performance. A coach helps a person learn by unlocking that person’s potential to maximize his own performance.

Supervisors must reevaluate the way they manage. An effective coach or mentor must take the performer beyond the limitations of the coach. A supervisor, as a coach, must believe that the person being coached possesses more capability than is currently being exhibited. A supervisor must think of the person in terms of potential and not simply current performance.

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