Managers account for at least 70% of the variance in their team’s engagement, according to Gallup. Coaching is a skill that involves helping people reach their full potential by improving their performance. Employees who lack guidance and coaching will often stumble when attempting to accomplish individual or group goals in the workplace. When employees know what their goals are, what’s expected of them and how to add to the company’s success, they can better contribute to the growth of the business. Individuals who are coached also benefit from a boost in confidence, stronger communication skills and improvements in work performance.
Coaching looks different in 2026 than it did even a few years ago since teams are now split across offices, home desks and time zones, and many managers lean on AI-assisted performance platforms to keep coaching consistent at scale. Fitchburg State University’s online Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Management program prepares professionals across industries to lead high-performing remote, hybrid and in-person teams using proven management techniques, including performance coaching, team development and change management frameworks. Accredited by the International Accreditation Council for Business Education (IACBE), the 30-credit-hour, 100% online program can be completed in as few as 12 months.
What Are the Benefits of Coaching?
Daily or weekly coaching between a manager and an employee produces many benefits. It provides positive feedback, clear directions for the employee and an opportunity to correct performance issues before they become bigger problems. The goal of coaching is to improve employee performance and to communicate how they can excel in their role. By encouraging employees to receive encouragement and feedback, coaching can also help employees better define their career goals.
This type of engagement can also contribute to increased productivity and employee retention, while helping individuals relate to each other. By mindfully coaching employees, managers can equip individuals with the knowledge, tools and opportunities they need to succeed professionally and personally.
Helpful Coaching Techniques
Successfully coaching employees takes time and practice. Gallup research on manager behavior finds that the best managers act as coaches rather than bosses, focusing on individual engagement and having frequent, meaningful one-on-one conversations rather than treating feedback as a group announcement. Healthy motivating techniques help build confidence while unhealthy pressure causes distress and anxiety. Leaders who recognize that failure and mistakes are part of success can coach their employees through times of hardship. Creating a positive space for all employees can help them improve their strengths, create a close-knit work environment, work through adversity and handle stressful situations.
Active listening is also a quality of effective leaders. Supporting employees by carefully listening, making eye contact, clarifying, repeating back what was said, talking less and asking questions will help employees feel heard. A successful leader can maintain business goals with a connected and motivated team by being compassionate and understanding. Managers should avoid constant evaluation of their employees and instead focus on positive coaching for the best outcomes.
Coaching Remote and Hybrid Employees
Coaching principles do not change when a team goes remote or hybrid, but how they’re communicated and applied must. Forbes recommends keeping regular one-on-one video or phone check-ins on the calendar and using a mix of tools, from video conferencing to project management software, so touchpoints do not depend on a single channel. These conversations work best when they open with a simple question, such as what the employee wants to talk about, rather than a status update a manager could get from a dashboard.
Asynchronous feedback fills the gaps between live check-ins for teams spread across time zones. Harvard Business Review suggests closing out written updates with a quick prompt, such as asking whether a message was clear, so feedback keeps moving even when a manager and employee are never online at the same time. Building this kind of asynchronous habit supports the same employee motivation that keeps remote workers engaged.
Accountability does not have to mean micromanagement. Forbes notes that many managers grow hesitant to hold remote employees accountable at all, but specific, forward-looking feedback that focuses on outcomes rather than hours online shows an employee that a manager is paying attention and invested in their growth. Fitchburg State’s online MBA in Management program includes a Leadership and Culture course that works through this balance, examining the communication and cultural challenges of leading teams that are not all in the same room.
AI-Powered Performance Management Platforms
A growing set of performance management platforms now build artificial intelligence directly into the coaching workflow. Betterworks, which won Newsweek’s 2025 AI Impact Award for best HR outcomes, embeds AI tools called Goal Assist, Feedback Assist and Conversation Assist directly into a manager’s daily workflow to help set clearer goals, write stronger feedback and prepare for performance conversations.
15Five‘s AI coach, Kona, joins virtual meetings to give managers real-time guidance drawn from past performance reviews and engagement survey data, then tracks how a manager’s behavior changes over time. Lattice has taken a similar approach, building an AI Talent Suite that integrates with Workday’s HR platform so managers can see performance, engagement and growth data in one place.
These tools do not replace the fundamentals of good coaching. Strong communication, emotional intelligence and trust-building remain the leadership skills that make any of this data useful, but they do make it easier for managers to act on what they already know about their teams, whether those teams sit down the hall or across the country.
How to Effectively Coach
To emphasize employee potential and support their talent, managers should position their employees to succeed and grow. Here are a few tools for effective coaching.
- Give regular feedback: Employees want to know how they’re doing at their job. Let them know.
- Solve problems: Don’t just give an employee advice on how you would do it when they come to you with a problem. Encourage creative problem solving with active listening and probing questions.
- Set goals: Meet with employees to set goals that can propel their careers forward.
- Be supportive: This means being supportive during success and failure. Accepting failure with positivity will help employees move on and be solution oriented.
- Keep an open mind: Asking employees for their opinion or feedback can move a business forward and keep fresh ideas flowing.
These fundamentals do not disappear once a team goes remote or a platform starts flagging trends in engagement data. They are simply harder to see without deliberate effort, which is why regular check-ins, honest asynchronous feedback and the right technology matter as much as a manager’s instincts.
Coaching for Neurodiversity and Inclusive Management
Effective coaching also means adapting to how each employee processes information and feedback, rather than applying a single style to everyone. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability (EARN), notes that neurodivergent employees need managers who learn their individual ways of thinking and communicating rather than applying one format to the whole team.
Small adjustments make a measurable difference. EARN recommends training managers to learn how neurodivergent employees think and communicate, assess each person’s individual needs rather than apply a one-size-fits-all approach, and stay connected to HR support both during onboarding and afterward. Coaches who build on this flexibility from the start tend to get more candid, useful feedback from every employee on the team, not just the ones who are comfortable speaking up in the moment.
Build a Coaching Culture That Works Anywhere
Coaching remains one of the most direct ways a manager can improve performance, and that has not changed as work has spread across time zones, home offices and AI-assisted dashboards. What has changed is the toolkit. Virtual check-ins, asynchronous feedback habits, AI-powered platforms and an intentional focus on inclusive, neurodiversity-aware management now sit alongside the fundamentals of regular feedback, goal-setting and active listening.
Managers who combine these older and newer coaching habits are better positioned to keep every employee engaged and high-performing, whether that person sits three desks away or three time zones ahead. Building that skill set takes deliberate practice and, often, formal training in leadership and organizational behavior.
Learn more about Fitchburg State University’s online MBA in Management program.
Frequently Asked Questions About Coaching Employee Behavior
Coaching questions tend to come up as soon as a manager starts putting these techniques into practice, especially across remote and hybrid teams. Here are answers to a few of the most common ones.
How often should a manager coach an employee?
Most coaching guidance points to weekly or biweekly one-on-ones as a baseline, with additional informal touchpoints as issues come up. Gallup’s research on manager coaching suggests reserving dedicated time for these conversations rather than treating them as optional.
What is the difference between coaching and micromanaging?
Coaching focuses on outcomes, growth and specific, forward-looking feedback, while micromanaging focuses on controlling how and when tasks get done. Holding an employee accountable for results is not the same as monitoring their every move.
Can AI tools replace a manager’s coaching role?
No. Platforms like Lattice, 15Five and Betterworks surface data and streamline routine feedback, but the judgment, empathy and relationship-building that make coaching effective still come from the manager.
How does coaching differ for neurodivergent employees?
It typically means offering more than one way to receive instructions and feedback, such as written notes alongside verbal conversations, and building in time for employees to process information before responding.
About Fitchburg State University
Fitchburg State University is a public university in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, that has offered graduate business education for decades. Its online Master of Business Administration in Management program is accredited by the International Accreditation Council for Business Education (IACBE) and is built for working professionals, with courses taught by the same faculty who teach on campus.
The 30-credit-hour program can be completed in as few as 12 months, with no GMAT score required for admission. Coursework includes Leadership and Culture and Management Theory and Process alongside core business courses in finance, accounting and marketing, giving students the coaching and people-management skills covered in this article, plus the broader strategic training needed to lead in-person and remote teams alike.
