If you’re struggling with low employee engagement in training programs and sluggish skills development, it’s time to get creative! With Bridge LMS, you can say goodbye to stiff, ineffective development strategies and help employees take a more proactive role in their own career development.
It all starts with allowing employees to set their own career goals and identify how they can drive results within your organization. But don’t let them go at it alone. Pairing employees with mentors or coaches is essential for helping them identify growth opportunities, stay on track, and bridge skills gaps.
Making a good match is key. You’ll want your mentors and mentees to have a natural rapport and a productive relationship.
If you’re not sure where to start, we’ve got you. Read on to see how to find good coaches and match them with employees so your organization can close skills gaps faster and thrive.
KEEP READING | ‘How to Empower Your Managers to Be Coaches’
What Makes a Good Workplace Coach?
What separates a good coach from a bad coach? Whether you're trying to identify natural leadership potential or helping managers hone their coaching skills, it can be hard to know what characteristics to focus on.
Fortunately, there's a rich body of research to draw on. The research organization Training Industry conducted a five-year-long survey on leadership across a broad range of industries. Researchers asked 2,100 leaders and individual contributors to list the three qualities they most want to see in their leaders. Here are the characteristics and skills the respondents valued most:
1) Communication Skills
45.2% of respondents mentioned communication skills as one of their top three characteristics. The ability to listen stood out as particularly important to people. Employees want to be heard! They crave two-way dialogue and open lines of communication.
2) Interpersonal Skills
44.2% of respondents included interpersonal skills on their list. Emotional intelligence, supportiveness, approachability, empathy, and patience all fall under this umbrella. It seems that people value leaders who are self-aware and able to build interpersonal relationships that make their reports feel respected.
Top Tip: Try Bridge Drivers for boosting open communication between leaders and employees!
3) Values and Ethics
42% of the survey respondents said they want leaders to demonstrate strong values and uphold high ethical standards. While values differ from person to person, it seems that employees value leaders who ‘do the right thing’ and model ethical behavior at work.
4) Personal Attributes
30.2% of respondents put a range of leaders’ personal attributes on their top-three list. These attributes include personality traits like optimism, flexibility, passion, and accountability. It seems that employees want their leaders to be consistent and reliable but flexible when needed.
Top Tip: Use Bridge Analytics to check in on how often managers and reports are meeting to keep relationships on track!
When identifying coaches in your organization, it can help to keep these kinds of skills and characteristics top of mind as they may represent a natural aptitude for leadership.
But, with the right tools, the ability to be a good coach can and should be taught to those committed to leading effectively.
Bridge’s powerful training features can turn shrinking violets into thriving leaders. Try our feedback-collecting tools to get an overall picture of the skills would-be coaches need to work on. Then, match them with a library of curated courses tailored to bridge those skills gaps. Customized development plans will keep them on track and ensure they make steady progress.
MORE FROM THE BLOG | ‘4 Values Highly Effective Managers Cultivate’
Using Bridge to Create Skills Communities and Match Coaches With Learners.
Even if your organization is filled to the brim with natural or highly skilled leaders, your employees won't get the full scope of benefits coaching has to offer if the right tools and systems aren't in place. You need technology that makes it easy for mentors and mentees to pair up, while logistically streamlining every part of the process, no matter where employees work from.
Bridge is the answer—with powerful features designed to bring colleagues together, it’s the ideal LMS to support the coaching relationship.
Your employees can take advantage of Bridge Skills Communities, a built-in platform for connection. They can easily select which skills they already have and indicate which ones they’d like to develop. They're then easily matched with peers or leaders who are willing to help them bridge those gaps. Think of it as a match-making service between mentors and mentees! Skills Communities empowers employees to:
- Easily find like-minded role models and groups right from their LMS dashboard—it’s as easy as using a social media app!
- Join communities based on their interests outside of their jobs, to foster a sense of belonging and authenticity in the workplace.
- Instantly find the right learning content in a rich library of training modules to bridge skills gaps identified by mentors.
MORE ON EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT | ‘Give Feedback That Fuels Success: A Framework for Developing Your Employees’
Ready to Start?
According to the World Economic Forum’s ‘The Future of Jobs Report 2025,’ employers expect 39% of workers’ core skills to change by 2030. Using effective coaches to empower people to take the reins of own their career development and continuously strive to close skills gaps, will help your organization stay ahead of the game.
With Bridge, you can create a workplace where employees and coaches can help one another to thrive, equipped with all the resources they need to achieve their goals. So you can go beyond rote learning and unengaging training activities to create an environment where colleagues support one another and flourish.
Get in touch with us to set up a demo, and we’ll show you how you can make it happen.
