In today’s market, startups have heaps of money from investors, sky-high evaluations, and aggressive targets to scale their organizations. These assertive environments for young organizations have become the norm, but a severe lack of training programs can hurt startup employees. Enter micro-coaching.
“There’s really no time to focus on enabling your employees,” says Justin Cardillo, Pavilion member & CEO of Stride, a new organization aiming to provide support and micro-coaching to employees who aren’t in the C-suite. “When you’re running that fast, if you don’t focus on your people, you end up creating bottlenecking that costs months, or even years, of growth.”
Many employers provide development training solely to executives and team leaders. But experts find that a lack of coaching for underrepresented employees, who often need support the most, creates more struggle in the workplace.
“What these core employees most often get is one training session a year, over a couple of days, with no system to reinforce it,” says Cardillo.
In response, many businesses are turning to real-time micro-coaching services to avoid burnout, fatigue, and anxiety among their employees. Organizations like Stride provide a safe, unbiased environment for underrepresented employees to receive professional and confidential coaching, while also giving actionable insights to employers.
And as the workplace environment has shifted dramatically in the last two years, these new processes are becoming more valuable than ever.
Take your sales team for example,” says Cardillo. “A team that is usually fueled by collaboration. They’re now working remotely, making a hundred dials a day, just grinding it out with very little connection or support — it’s a very lonely job that is leading to severe fatigue and burnout across the board.”
On tough days, many employees are now finding relief sharing challenges with micro-coaching teams without worrying about it getting back to the head of their departments.
With remote and hybrid work becoming the new normal, employers are turning to resources that seamlessly integrate into their company’s existing communication channels (Slack, Teams, text, etc.) Organizations like Stride provide directories of frameworks, models, tools, and articles for employees to draw from as resources. And dashboards offer a confidential place for employees to track development goals and notes from coaches.
But the most valuable tool these new support services provide is the certified coaches available for micro-coaching sessions at a moment’s notice.
“The beauty of the process is the real-time coaching,” says Cardillo. “No matter the type of situation — it can be wellness related, maybe someone doesn’t think their manager hears them, or they want to focus on career development — you don’t have to schedule anything. You don’t have to wait for a manager to be out of a meeting; the coach is always there and available in a few minutes’ notice.”
On the backend, there’s a whole host of actionable data for employers to benefit from.
“Even though all these sessions are completely confidential, we’re able to take data, aggregate it, and give insights and visibility to employers.”
Now, team leaders are receiving resources that show the top challenges across their organization, such as trouble connecting with team members or increased employee burnout.
“We’re helping people be their best, but then also giving leadership the aggregated analytics to make better decisions for their company and their employees,” says Cardillo.
These trends also help businesses win top-level talent during one of the most competitive recruitment periods in recent memory. Many companies say they prioritize talent and employee development. But, businesses that take advantage of micro-coaching are proving it with access to executive-level coaching for all employees across the organization.
“When top-tier talent hears that, it’s a no-brainer for them to choose that organization.”
With the hybrid workplace now in a constant state of change, companies find that micro-coaching equips their employees with a confidential sounding board and a trusted source of help. Amid “The Great Resignation,” it’s not just employers who are scrambling; underrepresented employees are finding themselves struggling as well. Thankfully, micro-coaching is proving to be a crucial, one-stop shop that empowers employees while simultaneously reinforcing, supporting, and driving engagement of a company’s most important initiatives.
“The main goal is to help employees realize their full potential,” says Cardillo.
Learn more about Stride’s approach to on-demand, executive-style coaching for all or email Justin directly at justin@strideapp.co.