How to coach a new starter

Be inspired to be inspiring! Being given responsibility for looking after a new trainee is an opportunity to develop those fledgling management and delegation skills, says Calum Robson

Having to look after a brand new recruit who’s straight out of school or college may seem like a tiresome extra burden. You might even feel your boss can be accused of dereliction of duty, as you already have pressing job responsibilities and study obligations. Yet coaching can be immensely satisfying. Successful coaching will give you valuable experience, enhancing your CV and preparing you for leadership on a greater or more formal scale.

What is coaching?

While conventional trainers focus on delivering instruction and imparting knowledge, coaches assume a collaborative ‘hands-on’ approach. As well as the more intimate, one-to-one relationship that coaching nurtures, this means that even those with only, say, a year’s work experience can become effective coaches. There are no lines to remember and no PowerPoint slides to create. Coaching is all about giving people the confidence and space to try things out for themselves, so that the knowledge of how to perform a task becomes embedded through practical experience. Your role is one of a mentor, ready to catch your trainee should he or she fall, but primarily concerned with empowering and encouraging.

How do I point out mistakes without upsetting the trainee?

The chances are you’ll recognise some of those mistakes, because you made them yourself when you first started. Empathise. Your relative seniority and your familiarity with other colleagues (including your own manager) will command a respect from the trainee that’s unlikely to be diminished by admissions of imperfection.

But rather than immediately taking corrective action, push your trainee to figure out where they went wrong for themselves. Ask questions that will lead to the right answer. This technique challenges trainees and helps them grasp the right way to do things more effectively.

"Coaching is all about giving people the confidence and space to try things out for themselves, so that the knowledge of how to perform a task becomes embedded through practical experience"