What is the situational coaching approach?

Situational coaching is about having the ability and agility to talk to people regardless of the situation. This requires the coach to know what questions and what strategies to use depending on the situation. Coaching is a type of situational leadership style that involves a great deal of practical participation in the employee's work process. As a general rule, a coaching approach works best when the employee shows weaknesses that need to be improved.

For coaching to be effective, the employee must recognize these weaknesses and indicate their desire to improve. An example of coaching is when a sales manager spends time away from home making calls with a salesperson struggling to improve their performance, or when a new or newly promoted employee is adapting to a certain set of tasks. The situational approach is that the manager or coach has mastered the art of judging and balancing when to impart knowledge and when to help others discover it for themselves depending on the situation in question. Situational leaders tend to maintain close communication with team members.

They evaluate and adjust their approach to provide what's needed to support success. This helps them to establish strong relationships with the team. As a result, it creates a better work environment in which employees feel valued as individuals. Situational coaching provides a confidential platform for people to contact a coach and receive guidance and develop development capacities.

Its real-time reporting capabilities accelerate decision-making thanks to quick access to employee data. To be most effective, situational leaders must develop their capacity to train at a wide range of levels of development. She was also named head coach of the United States Women's National Basketball Team, which took home the gold medal from the 1984 Olympic Games. The ability to adapt to different people and situations can make a leader more versatile than those who do well in a diverse team.

Situational leadership is a flexible leadership style that adapts to employee needs and situations. One of the common challenges for those involved in coaching is to know when to give the answers, rather than encouraging people to find the solutions on their own. The authors suggest that the best way to develop skills in situational coaching is to first develop the skills of non-management coaching until it becomes natural, and then to balance them with “useful management training”. Leaders are exposed to various training tools, as well as to a proven framework for unlocking and maximizing the capabilities of their teams, developing their individual and collective capacity to achieve higher levels of current and future performance.

RiverRhee offers training, workshops and individual guidance in a variety of management and team member skills. Effective coaching enables organizational success by promoting cultural alignment, performance excellence, and employee engagement and retention. Effective coaching promotes creativity, excellence in performance and the qualities of individual resilience that improve an organization's ability to excel in an environment of continuous change and gain a competitive advantage. Her college basketball team won eight national titles and more than 84 percent of the games during her 38-year career as head coach.