Coaching is the #1 thing leaders do to drive the performance of their teams. Not surprising then that the Sales Executive Council found that sales reps who received 3+ hours of coaching per month had 17% higher goal attainment than reps who received less than 2.
Do more listening by asking questions
The personal and professional journey of your people should always be the focus of the 1:1 meeting. As Ben Horowitz, co-founder of prominent VC firm Andreesen-Horowitz states, that means that the manager should only do 10% of the talking and 90% of the listening (the opposite to how many 1:1’s actually work). Since striking that balance may be tricky for some, the best way to train yourself to do as much listening as possible, is to prime the conversation with questions!
Some questions can be outlined in advance and even baked into the agenda. For example:
Where are you forecasting to finish the period in terms of commited / most likely / upside revenue?
How much pipeline have you generated for the future period?
What skill(s) would you like to focus on developing this month?
How can I help?
Additional questions can be used ad-hoc to drive conversions around culture, motivation, or reveal blind spots, such as:
Are you doing your best work? What’s holding you back? Why?
Are you happy? Are you having fun?
Do you feel you’re growing in this role? How so?
If you were me, what changes would you make?
What’s the biggest opportunity you feel we’re missing out on?
Coming prepared with a list of questions will not only help drive the conversation and keep you on track but also make the coachee feel like their success is the focus of it.