Any career goes through many phases and sometimes professionals need a little help to smoothly transition from one role to another.
Whether moving up to management level, leading a new team or division, or returning to work after a break, the right support and training is vital for successful transitions.
Rather than an optional extra, transition coaching has become an essential tool for the modern business. Enabling staff to excel at their roles from the get-go brings huge benefits – boosting productivity and ultimately, profitability. Effective support in – maximum performance out. Simple,
right?
Yet so often, employers get it wrong. How many times have you seen managers failing to lead or communicate effectively with their teams? How many workers are afraid to admit they don’t have the right skills for the job they’ve just been promoted to? How many new employees are left to sink
without a proper ‘onboarding’ programme?
Expectations for new employees or managers are always high. They have something to prove, targets to hit. But they can quickly struggle under the pressure and may not feel able to ask for help.
When people aren’t given the right tools and support to achieve, they feel de-motivated, dissatisfied and will under-perform, hurting your business. Sending staff on a course after they’ve started their new role might tick the training box, but it is not enough for them to achieve peak performance in
the long term.
The same principles apply when it comes to organisational transition, whether that’s a restructure, new services, mergers or acquisitions. Just assuming employees will move smoothly through the process is a recipe for failure. Make sure your people have the right skills and support through the
transition and your changes will be successful, leading to a stronger business.
What is transition coaching?
We work with the individual, identifying the personal and practical skills needed to succeed in their new role. These could be leadership and management skills, goal-setting, making better decisions, resilience, improving communication and relationships, building confidence and self-belief…the list
goes on.
We provide dedicated support before, during and after the transition through regular face-to-face sessions and over the phone support; flexibly whenever and wherever works for you.
If you’re struggling to integrate new employees or transition employees to new roles, here’s our checklist of six top tips and tools:
1. Give people headspace
Don’t bombard them with tasks from day one – allow reflection time
2. Allow them to fail
Create a climate that allows employees to make mistakes and learn from them
3. Provide the support that you would to a new employee
Just because they already work for the company doesn’t mean they don’t need support in a new role
4. Give regular forward-focused feedback
Don’t wait for appraisals. Regular, constructive feedback is key
5. Acknowledge the challenge of managing people who were your peers
Going from ‘one of the team’ to team leader can be a difficult shift and needs the right support
6. Give people access to independent and confidential support during the transition period
A transition coach can vastly reduce the time it takes to onboard new staff or make a success of a new role
Empathy offers one-on-one transition coaching that develops potential and improves performance dramatically. Get in touch for a free consultation today.