Coaching millennials: a new generation of leaders on the rise

Introduction

What is coaching?

Coaching, as defined by the international coaching federation (ICF, 2021), is “partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.”?

Coaching: the emergence of a new management approach

According to Mike Morisson (Morrison, 2019), a senior consultant focused on developing organizational performance,” the contemporary branch of modern management had its roots put out in the 19th century. It was towards the middle of this era, that theories and structuring such as training, motivation, organizational structure, etc. were laid out and brought to notice during the industrial revolution.”?

The first industrial revolution (late 18th - early 19th century) (Britannica, 2021) initiated a string of significant changes (going from the invention of new machines, to the development of communication means, to substantial shifts on both the social and political levels etc...), all of which contributed to the emergence of a new management approach - later known as coaching - necessary to keep up with the rapid transformations occurring in all fields.?

This in turn made it hard for managers to keep relying on the conventional “carrot and stick” way of mentoring and leading. The need for coaching as a management tool was further reinforced after the second industrial revolution (late 19th - early 20th century). In a nutshell, it was the industrial revolutions that set the track for coaching in several industries.?

Furthermore, coaching as a mindset has now become a must in the corporate world, and is considered as one of the main tools that helps employees and stakeholders of a given company, improve and progress towards their goals.

The obsolete “carrot and stick” strategy

Management strategies have considerably evolved throughout time, due to factors that force transformations and change.?

However, one of the strategies that’s still widely adopted, is the directive managerial strategy, under which the “carrot and stick” approach fits. In their article “A review of carrot and stick approach to leadership”, Rita Leleh - student at LIGS University - and co-author Amr Sukkar Essam (Leleh, et al.), and according to Husseain et al. (Hussain, 2017), the benefits of this particular approach include the following:

• Fostering employees’ commitment to goals and objectives.?
• Communicating to employees, managers’ commitment to organizational programmes.?
• Fostering a close working relationship between employees and managers, who are obligated most of the time, to personally monitor, supervise and ensure the required work is done.?
• Enhancing efficient communication between managers and employees, since targets must be clearly explained and employees made to understand what is required of them.
• Sharing knowledge and behavior within organizations with the aim of bringing a deeper understanding of organizational creativity.?

Unfortunately, this strategy had limited success. It is, in reality, a goal-oriented strategy that only focuses on achieving goals at the expense of other aspects, such as improving and developing processes, strategies and employees. For those employers who still believe in such a strategic managerial approach, the main target is increasing gains: apart from making money, nothing else matters, not the flawed organizational structure, not the employees’ mental health and well-being, not the lack of exchange and trust between management and employees, nor the absence of creativity and core values. What really matters is getting there, even if this means a staggering turnover of employees at the end of each year!?

Coaching: a much-needed skill for modern management

Coaching promotes employees’ commitment and engagement

Coaching includes finding the right ways to help employees improve, whether on a professional level in terms of completing tasks and setting goals, or on a personal level in terms of developing social and communication skills, and most importantly, building their self-esteem, making responsible and accountable decisions, and improving their emotional intelligence.?

Based on a study done by Dale Carnegie Training? (Wire, 2013), an international leader in performance improvement and corporate training, on a target group of 1500 employees aged between 18 and 61, 80% of employees who are dissatisfied with their immediate supervisor, are disengaged in the workplace. Therefore, a coaching mindset that not only enthralls and captures employees, but also understands their needs, their behaviors, and their individualism, was obviously needed in order to reach corporate targets.?

This is directly related to the commitment and engagement of employees in a given company. In their article “Employee Recognition: Low Cost, High Impact” (Mann, et al., 2021), Annamarie Mann and Nate Dvorak, both leaders in the world of organizational performance development, state that “workplace recognition motivates, provides a sense of accomplishment and makes employees feel valued for their work. Recognition not only boosts individual employee engagement, but it also has been found to increase productivity and loyalty to the company, leading to higher retention.”

Coaching enables employees to reach their full potential?

A survey conducted by Achievers (Newswire, 2018) targeting a group of 1700 respondents, showed that 55% were ready to change jobs because of a lack of recognition and engagement by their current employer.

This is exactly where coaching as a management tool comes in handy. Managing employees is no longer about attaining goals only. It’s not related to what is done or will be done, but how it’s done; it is more about the process. That process aims mainly at?enabling employees to use their full potential, as well as to empower them and encourage them to think out of the box. It moves away from the long standing “carrot and stick” approach, to that of rewarding employees and recognizing their efforts, not only anticipating their achievements. Employees need to feel valued. They need to sense they belong to their work environment and are aligned with the company’s mission and vision. Most importantly, they need to feel recognized for what they do. This is what coaching is about.

Coaching enhances team development?

Moreover, coaching in the workplace enhances team development by improving the performance of each team member. Sir John Whitmore is one of the lead researchers who best depicted in his work how coaching contributes to team development.

According to Sir Whitmore (Withmore, 2017), coaching takes team development from the stage of inclusion, to the stage of co-operation, to that of co-creation, at which point teams are no longer cooperating to achieve goals only, but to realize their full potential and to think out of the box.?

To this end, Sir Whitmore strives to connect team development with Maslow’s chart of needs.?

To achieve self-actualization, based on Maslow’s chart of needs, one has to move from the mindset of being impulsive, to being interdependent. The energy meanwhile, shifts from inward and focused on oneself, to outwards and based on shared values. This means that employees are more attentive to the company’s shared values, to reaching their full potential, while they are supported, encouraged, recognized and understood, and while their work-life balance is maintained and their mental health preserved.

Coaching helps develop emotional intelligence and preserve employees’ mental health

Now why is coaching essential to developing emotional intelligence (EI)?

In order to explain the relationship that exists between coaching as a management tool and EI, it’s important to highlight the components of EI at work and its significance.?

In his New York Times bestseller book entitled “Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ” (Goleman, 1996), Daniel Goleman, Ph.D. and internationally renowned psychologist, develops the 5 main components of Emotional Intelligence: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.

According to Indeed.com (Indeed Editorial Team, 2021), a major job search company, EI in a workplace is crucial to:

• Understand communication and particularly nonverbal communication
• Be self-aware of personal emotions
• Improve employees’ performance?
• Further careers?
• Develop strong interpersonal skills?

The complementarity between the objectives of EI as stated above, and those of coaching is quite obvious: coaching as a management tool is closely linked to the EI level.?

In fact, coaching focuses on awareness (self-awareness and awareness of others), on motivating and believing in others, on listening and understanding others, on supporting and having empathy towards others, and on building connections.?

It’s also worth mentioning that developing EI should start with oneself before transmitting to others. This is one more reason for management to adopt coaching as a new strategy.?

In an article published by Tim Hagen (Hagen, 2019), a Forbes Council member, the author states the following:

"When it comes to coaching, emotional intelligence is essential. When both parties have a high degree of self-awareness and self-regulation, communication flows smoothly, allowing coaching to be facilitated successfully. On the other hand, low emotional intelligence can serve as an inhibitor to those receiving coaching if they lack self-awareness or are highly resistant and disruptive."

Improving performance

In a nutshell, like Goleman (Goleman, 1996) puts it, improving performance really starts with employees: employees have potential, they also have knowledge, and experience. They look for personal development, fulfillment and success. And in order to fulfill those needs and increase company performance, managers have the professional obligation and responsibility to develop their own coaching skills.

Simply put, under the old fashion managerial approach, managers had to be proficient and knowledgeable in all aspects of a company’s daily functioning (administration, setting goals, managing IT and communication tools, organizing and providing training etc.) in order to accomplish their job. While coaching as a management tool gives managers an alternative way to continue working with all employees without having to deal with the knowledge and field specialty part, that is continuously changing and evolving. This also gives managers more leeway to macro manage rather than micro manage their teams, and consequently time to focus on their managerial duties.

Moreover, coaching needs time and effort to be successfully implemented and used as a managerial tool. It is mostly effective in the long term rather than the short term as everyone needs to get acquainted with the how and why of the approach in order to implement it efficiently.?

How a manager’s coaching skills can increase his/her effectiveness.

Based on all the above, coaching constitutes a much needed and very important part of a manager's daily duties. The concept of adding coaching to the list of skills a manager should have and having the manager learn coaching in order to implement it at the workplace with his/her team/s, is all too recent and innovative. However, in the long run, this approach is ideal for developing team performance, without having to use a directive way of controlling every aspect of the work process.?

So how exactly do coaching skills improve the effectiveness of a manager??

Based on the following two articles: “Must-Have Coaching Skills for Managers and Leaders” (Miller, 2021) and “Why Should A Manager Become a Coach” (Chakraborty, 2019), below are elements of a successful coaching approach, a skillful manager should adopt:??

• A coaching manager replaces motivational speeches by individual rewarding.?This not only empowers employees, shows them gratitude and recognition, it also gives them a sense of belonging to the company and inspires them.
• A coaching manager does not give orders (as in a directive management style). He works with his employees to set goals and strategies, in order to implement them collaboratively. This gives employees the chance to make responsible decisions and to be accountable for their actions. In return, this approach improves their motivation, and shifts it from an extrinsic to an intrinsic motivation.?
• A coaching manager does not punish failures. He works instead with his team members to find solutions. Doing this will not only build trust between the two parties, manager and employee, it will also reduce the employee’s fear of failure, if not terminate it. In fact, fear might prompt employees to accomplish their goals and commit to deadlines in the short run. However, in the long run, fear will negatively affect their performance.?
• A coaching manager believes in his employees. In the coaching realm, a coach starts a session with a positive attitude towards his client: the initial belief is that the client is resourceful, skilled and knowledgeable. This attitude not only creates an open and peaceful atmosphere between the two parties, it also empowers the client and increases his/her self-confidence. Therefore, employees who are dealt with at a strength-based approach, will develop their strengths in a way that aligns with the company’s mission and vision.?
• A coaching manager deals efficiently with emotional intelligence. As elaborated before, having a good emotional quotient is necessary in all aspects of life and particularly in the workplace. In their “Primitive Emotional Contagion” article (Hatfield, et al., 1992), Elaine Hatfield and John T. Cacioppo, both professors of psychology, and Richard L. Rapson, professor of History, describe the process of emotional contagion, as a process where emotions could be transferred from one person to another. A good coach will make sure this does not happen, especially in the occurrence of “bad days” at work! Transferring bad vibes to a colleague, or to an employee would definitely have a negative impact on their attitude, self-esteem, and performance.?
• A coaching manager shows genuine interest in his/her employees' well-being.?
• A coaching manager shows empathy towards his/her employees. To have someone to lean on in times of need is definitely appreciated.?
• A coaching manager employs many of the same communication and active listening skills used by professional coaches. He makes sure that employees are not just listened to, but really listened to at levels 2 and 3, as described in the “Co-Active Coaching –Changing Business, Transforming Lives, Third Edition” book (Kimsey-House, et al., 2011) – Listening at levels 2 and 3, is when the manager gives his employee his full attention and is ready to lend a hand if needed.?

On one hand, all the above enhances the attitude, the self-esteem, the ownership, and most importantly the performance of employees. On the other hand, managers with all the above coaching skills, would definitely increase their skills in terms of communication, management efficiency, time management, emotional intelligence and overall relationship with the employees.

Conclusion

In conclusion, coaching is a successful management tool (although not the only one).?

Therefore, managers should strive to implement coaching in their workplace, through providing training to higher management in a first stage - who in turn would be coaching other junior managers - and, in a second stage, through implementing this most vital tool on all working levels.?

Also, it’s crucial to remember that the timing and the way (the when and the how) of implementing this tool, is of the essence. It is in reality, as important as implementing it.?

In a nutshell, and in the long run, now is the best time for managers to start training their staff, and their to-be internal coaches.?

Another alternative is for organizations to provide workshops to their staff - it could be?a one- or two-days training - that would give them an overview of coaching and how helpful it could be in accomplishing their everyday work routine.

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