Building a team - Coach, don't manage - 8 essential skills

The word “manager” comes from the Latin word “manu agere,” which means “to lead by the hand.” This phrase was used in the 1600s to refer to someone in charge of a household or a business. Frederick Winslow Taylor plays a pivotal part in shaping what ‘manager’ means in the industrial setting.?

The core responsibilities of a manager in an industrial setting were mainly focused on production and efficiency. However, today’s manager’s role is more complex, dynamic and strategic. And hence a manager’s approach should be different as well. Daniel J. Stewart explores how a manager should be a coach and has co-authored an excellent book titled LEAD NOW! A Personal Leadership Coaching Guide for Results-Driven Leaders.

Below is a summary of an insightful article titled The 8 Skills Of Great Coaching Managers he wrote on HR.com —> click here for the article.

Stewart asks managers to be a coach who enables their team to achieve greater performance and have a higher level of engagement. He lists eight skills that a coach should have?

1. Build rapport — Develop a trusting and open working relationship. As a coaching manager, you must demonstrate character, competence and consistency.
2. Ask questions — Ask questions to create awareness. The right question can reframe, reveal and inform challenges, opportunities and new solutions.
3. Active listening — The ability to truly understand the context is the key to active listening. Reserve judgement. Just be present during the conversation.
4. Provide feedback — Share comments and insights that are helpful to the other person. Focus on the observed behaviour and the result. Do not attach labels.
5. Explore — discovering and discussing alternative perspectives that lead to new and better solutions. As a team leader, ask yourself, “how do I help to explore different perspectives without critiquing?”
6. Goal setting — partnering with the team member to turn insight into action. Create SMART goals.
7. Encourage — Be the source of support and reinforcement to ensure the individual is focused on the goals. Prioritise.?
8. Recognise — acknowledge the progress being made. It helps to support the execution of goals.

#coach #team