Breakfast Bite: Four ways every manager can coach their teams

Can every manager coach their teams?

The answer is an emphatic yes. In fact, your managers are in a unique position to drive your business forward.

We spoke to Jarred Associate and author of Think Like a Coach Jude Sclater about the power managers have to motivate, develop and engage their teams like no one else – whilst safeguarding their own health.

Signs your managers are struggling

With a background in organisational behaviour and in-house senior executive coaching, these days Jude is an independent coach. Having seen the challenges leaders and managers face from both perspectives, she lists several tell tale signs that all is not well. Things to look out for include:

• Team members who are demotivated and don’t feel like they can think for themselves, even when they know they’re more than capable.
• Performance may be struggling as a result.
• Initiative seems stunted and teams feel unable to come up with fresh, new ideas.
• Frustrating bottlenecks reoccur.
• Time and energy are needlessly lost to conflict.
• Long hours reflect time siphoned off by micromanaging and lack of effective delegation.
• People don’t feel like they can move forward and progress is slow.

Meeting the challenges of 2025

Business leaders believe technology shifts, political disruption and rising inflation are likely to be the most influential external forces next year. Uncertainty about the impact of AI continues to dominate and although concerns over shortage of labour are on the wane it’s clear that roles in leadership and management will need to evolve in line with the changing landscape.

‘It’s very easy to tell people what to do because that’s what we’ve always known,’ Jude says, ‘but now it has to be more than this’.

Four essential upskilling areas to meet the challenge

Enrich your leadership and management teams by embedding a culture of coaching.

• When your team member comes to you with a problem, stop what you’re doing and give them your best quality attention, only speaking when they have finished. ‘This alone will transform the relationship with your team’, Jude says.
• Instead of telling your team what to do, Jude says ‘stay curious and ask them questions so they work it out for themselves.’ This will build commitment and responsibility in your team because people are more likely to action ideas they come up with themselves.
• It’s easier to give negative feedback and hold your team to account if you invite it yourself. Jude suggests asking questions such as, ‘Where do you want me more/less involved’ and ‘If you were the manager of this team what would your priorities be?’
• Create psychologically safe teams by sharing the times you messed up to let your team know that mistakes are ok and that you’ll have their back.

We know that every manager can benefit from having a coaching mindset and the effects will ripple through the entire organisation, all the way down to the bottom line.

There’s more to come

Set your managers up for success as along with Jude, we take a deeper dive over the next few months into how to empower teams through coaching. Facilitating professional and personal development at all levels unlocks time, resources, energy, and a greater sense of fun and fulfilment at work.

Stay tuned.