05/06/2015
FOUR REASONS WHY MANAGERS SHOULD SPEND MORE TIME ON COACHING
There are managers who coach and managers
who don’t. Leaders in the latter category are
not necessarily bad managers, but they are
neglecting an effective tool to develop talent.
We’ve been researching managers who coach
and what distinguishes them. What has stood
out in our interviews with hundreds of
managers who do coach their direct reports is
their mindset: They believe in the value of
coaching, and they think about their role as a
manager in a way that makes coaching a
natural part of their managerial toolkit. These
are not professional coaches. They are line
and staff leaders who manage a group of
individuals, and they are busy, hard-working
people. So why do they so readily give
coaching an important place in their
schedule? Here are four reasons:
They see coaching as an essential tool for
achieving business goals. They are not
coaching their people because they are nice —
they see personal involvement in the
development of talent as an essential activity
for business success. Most managers will tell
you that they don’t have the time to coach.
However, time isn’t a problem if you think
coaching is a “must have” rather than a “nice
to have.” Whether it’s because they are
competing for talent, operating in a highly
turbulent market place, trying to retain their
budding leaders, or aiming to grow their solid
players, they believe that they simply have to
take the time to coach.
There are two assumptions behind this belief.
First, that extremely talented people are hard
to find and recruit. If you are known as a
manager who will help those people thrive,
they will gravitate to you. Second, that an
organization cannot be successful on the
backs of the extremely talented alone. You
need solid players just as you need stars, and
they will need a manager’s help to build skills
and deal with the changing realities of their
marketplace.
They enjoy helping people develop. These
managers are not unlike artists who look at
material and imagine that something better,
more interesting, and more valuable could
emerge. They assume that the people who
work for them don’t necessarily show up ready
to do the job, but that they will need to learn
and grow to fulfill their role and adapt to
changing circumstances. Coaching managers
see this as an essential part of their job. They
believe that those with the highest potential,
who can often contribute the most to a
business, will need their help to realize their
often-lofty ambitions. As one manager told us
recently, “Isn’t helping others to be more
successful one of the key roles of a manager?”
The manager must adapt his or her style to
the needs and style of each particular
individual. This of course takes a good deal of
work on the part of the manager, but again,
this is perceived as being part of the job, not
a special favor.
They are curious. Coaching managers ask a
lot of questions. They are genuinely interested
in finding out more about how things are
going, what kinds of problems people are
running into, where the gaps and
opportunities are, and what needs to be done
better. Typically, they don’t need to be taught
how to ask questions because it’s a natural
strength. This curiosity facilitates the
coaching dialogue, the give-and-take between
coach and learner in which the learner freely
shares his or her perceptions, doubts,
mistakes, and successes so that they together
reflect on what’s happening.
They are interested in establishing
connections. As one coaching manager stated,
“That is why someone would listen to me,
because they believe that for that time, I really
am trying to put myself in their shoes.” This
empathy allows the coaching manager to
build an understanding of what each employee
needs and appropriately adjust his or her
style. Some employees might come to
coaching with a “Give it to me straight, I can
take it” attitude. Others need time to think
and come to their own conclusions. A trusting,
connected relationship helps managers better
gauge which approach to take. And coaching
managers don’t put too much stock in the
hierarchy. As a coaching manager recently
told us, “We all have a job to do, we’re all
important, and we can all be replaced.
Ultimately, no one is above anyone else. We
just need to work together to see what we can
accomplish.”
Achieving this mindset is doable. It comes
down to whether the business case is
sufficiently compelling to motivate a manager
to develop a coaching mindset. Managers
need to ask themselves a few questions: Does
your organization (or group or team) have the
talent it needs to compete? If not, why not?
Have you done a poor job hiring, or are
people not performing up to their potential?
It’s really either one or the other. If the latter
is true, it’s your job to help get them to where
they need to be.
For managers who want to start coaching, one
of the first steps is to find someone who is a
good coach in your organization and ask her
or him to tell you about it. What do they do?
Ask why they coach. Listen and learn.
Second, understand that before you start
coaching, you need to develop a culture of
trust and a solid relationship with the people
you will be coaching. In spite of your good
intentions, all the techniques in the world will
make little difference if those you are trying to
coach don’t feel connected to you in some
way. The relationship you develop is more
important than the all of the best coaching
methods that are available.
Third, learn some of the basic principles of
managerial coaching that will help you
develop your own expertise as a coach. One of
the core lessons for managers is that
coaching isn’t always about telling people the
answer. Rather, it is more about having a
conversation and asking good, open-ended
questions that allow the people you are
coaching to reflect on what they are doing and
how they can do things differently in the future
to improve performance.
Finally, the mindset should be focused on the
people you are coaching. Always remember
the main principle: coaching is about them,
not about you.
