Three ways to turn your managers into coaches

Once upon a time a manager’s life was easy. They’d come into work, tell people what to do and check if it got done at the end of the day. Now faced with constant change, managers don't have all the answers or expertise to always make the right decisions.

The?best managers are coaches for their team. Rather than tell people exactly what to do, the manager coach?provides their teams with support and guidance. By emphasizing learning and development?over command and control, they?elevate?the talents of others.

Here are three ways you can become a coach to your team:

Get the right mindset???

For coaching to be effective, the manager has to demonstrate a belief that their job is to make their team members successful.?If staff feel that their boss is truly interested in them thriving, the base conditions are set.

Ask don't tell???

Most managers get frustrated that staff don’t “get it” and think it's much easier to tell someone how to do something rather than suffer all their errors?and confusion. Managers need to remember that the balance of asking questions to providing answers should be about 3 to 1.??

Ask GROW questions???

Scaffold development by structuring coaching conversations around the GROW model:?

• Goal: What do we want or need to accomplish?
• Reality: What’s the current situation and what’s in our way?
• Options: What resources are needed? What do you need to do differently?
• Way forward: What’s the next steps and what’s your accountability?

Remember, at the heart of good coaching is feedback. You can't expect your team to improve if they do not understand what the challenges are and what talents or resources are at their disposal. Good feedback is precise, actionable, and shared in good faith.?

Until next time,

Reece

P.S. Last month we announced a new tool —?DynaMo. Unlike traditional assessment reports, DynaMo provides ongoing talent feedback to support personalize employee development. Check out a live demo to see?how it works.