Happy Employees Are Productive Employees – Can Your Organization Benefit From Personal Coaching?
“If you’re happy and you know it …. support your team {clap, clap}, If you’re happy and you know it support your team {clap, clap}….. If they’re happy and you know it, then your bottom line’ll show it….”
Funny aside, research shows a happy employee is a more productive employee. As business leaders, as part of employee retention, we’re all looking for ways to reward and motivate our people. We want them happy. It can’t always be – and it doesn’t have to always be – money that incents. Personal growth benefits are always going to rank high in employee satisfaction. And, the great thing is your investment in employee development will pay off for you, too. Professional individual coaching is one effective way to provide personal, targeted employee development and support. Are you ready for happy employees?
About That Happy
First, before we jump into personal coaching, let me assure you, the happy concept is a real thing. Researchers have been studying “happy.” Author Shawn Achor, in his book The Happiness Advantage, summarizes and synthesizes the research well. He posits we’ve had it all backwards. It’s not “work hard, gain success and be happy.” It’s more like “get happy, maintain positivity and success will follow.” So, the solve is to get to happy.
Another great thing about happy is it is contagious! If you’ve got a happy employee, they’re likely to spread happy as they go about their business. As I’ve discussed before, emotional contagion takes place in groups large and small. Researchers Elaine Hatfield, John Cacioppo, and Richard Rapson, defined emotional contagion, a subset of empathy, as: “The tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize facial expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements with those of another person’s and, consequently, to converge emotionally.” In essence, happy has a ripple effect.
So, let’s talk about personal coaching as a tool for fostering employee happiness.
Benefits of Personal Coaching
The Institute of Coaching has researched the benefits of coaching in organizations. Most notably, they found 80% of people who have received coaching report increased self-confidence. Over 70% report improved work performance and professional working relationships. Importantly, 86% of companies surveyed reported they fully recouped their investment in coaching.
Many corporate trainers and HR departments have programs designed to teach important management skills such as maintaining authority and addressing conflict, but long-term results in this type of employee development require going deeper. Why? Because internal thinking is what will drive the employee’s behavior. When the employee is confident, when they believe in their abilities, their actions are going to reflect their self-assurance. To use the buzz words of the day, the “story the employee is telling themselves about themselves” will no doubt color their behavior.
Your thoughts impact your choices, opportunities, and results, whether you realize it or not. Personal coaching creates an opportunity for an individual to focus and reflect on their thoughts and beliefs. Through the coaching partnership one is able to broaden their perspective – perspective of self and of their environment.
Perspective of Self
We think we know ourselves well, but studies show this isn’t always so. Comprehensive self-awareness can be very insightful. We’re talking about both the positive and the negative attributes of self here. A good personal coach will use research-backed tools and peer, subordinate and superior feedback to thoroughly identify strengths and weaknesses. With this information, a roadmap to personal improvement can be developed.
A recent article in the Harvard Business Review outlined the benefits of studying our own successes. Working with a personal coach, individuals are able to review their behavior and better understand what they brought to a given situation that contributed to their success in a specific endeavor. Once strengths are identified, an individual can begin to focus their efforts on leveraging what they are already good at and gifted in.
Some f us are better able to identify our shortcomings. In fact, in the extreme, this can become a real detriment, resulting in second guessing and missed opportunity, or worse, evolving into low self-esteem. Having an understanding of where we can improve provides a foundation for the roadmap to personal growth.
Perspective of Environment
The one-on-one coaching dynamic gives individuals the chance to talk through their circumstances thereby gaining valuable perspective. They will come to understand tendencies and biases they bring to the table. They will be able to assess the behaviors of their coworkers and look for ways to improve on and/or capitalize upon their coworker’s own tendencies. With the help of a coach, an employee will be able to identify new ways to respond to challenging situations. We are all creatures of habit but a personal coach can effectively pull someone out of their comfort zone and on to a greater opportunity.
Make A Difference In Your Organization
All Happy and You Know It song aside, happy employees pay off. Personal coaching, with its output of personal improvement, is a benefit your employee will value and benefit from. The coaching is going to show up in the work your team member brings to the table. Where can coaching make a difference in your organization?
Are you ready to become Your Best Version? Do you believe your team hasn’t met its full potential? Brain Basics Coach-On-Call program may be the perfect solution. Kathy Walter has been helping teams and individuals become their best through individual coaching, team development and assessments like the Energy Leadership Index and the EQ-I 2.0. Visit Brain Basics at www.brainbasics.com to learn more.