Coaching/Measuring People Leaders

A rarely discussed topic is how to lead and grow your people leaders. How do you measure how a people leader is doing? How do you get honest feedback about their technique? How do you coach and monitor progress? Measure a non IC (individual contributor) is complicated. How well does your people leader conduct their 1 on 1's? These are all things that I was never really taught or even heard much discussion in leadership programs. As we climb higher in our people leader career paths, how do we measure how we are doing?

It has been my experience that people talk to their boss differently than their colleagues or team members. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean you may have a tough time knowing if your direct report is treating their team well. How well do they inspire? How well do they hold people accountable? Do they publicly correct their team members or privately coach them? I bet you are busy doing so many things that you can't drop in on meetings and check. So, what do you do? How do you know things are well?

I have a few metrics that I track. First, is their team(s) delivering on their commitments. I do believe largely in a value tracking system. The value your team member is delivering is what we are trying to track. If their team is running smooth that is one metric. But, you can't go on that alone. You need a couple of other metrics and this is where those 360 degree reviews come in. You need to know how their team is doing and what their team thinks of them. This is where you can start to put together a picture of what is going on. But, before swooping in with your coaching hat and whistle you should review any negative feedback and research. Go straight to the team members if there is negative feedback. Do your own interview. Get a 3rd party to do an interview (HR should be able to help). Gather up as accurate of a picture as you can.

How to deliver this feedback to the people leader? Start by asking how things are going with the team. Ask how each person on the team is doing. Ask if there are things that can be improved. If your people leader knows then that is a bonus. If they don't know, then tell them that you want to bring some feedback to them. Make sure they understand that it is only feedback and you want to get the full picture. Try to avoid names if possible (this helps to get honest feedback from the team members). You should try to approach delivering feedback as a discussion for possible improvements. We are not here to talk about blame. Leading people is about building and maintaining relationships. You should have a good honest relationship (hopefully) with the person you are coaching right now. If you don't, then you need to work on that before trying to do coaching. I have found most people only take feedback well from the people they trust.

Just like making the jump from an individual contributor to a leader, each step you move away from the IC's means you have to approach things a bit differently. You are looking to develop and coach different skills. The metrics you have available to measure your direct reports gets vague. The advice I give is to concentrate on output and people growth/retention. Your direct report needs to know how they are going to be measured. If they are a people leader, then they should be measured mostly on their team's performance, growth and retention. You may have to get a bit creative to pull this information back to you. Surveys can help but don't often tell the whole truth. In the end, do your best and give yourself some time to adjust and get better at this job.