Training Managers to Coach When They Have No Time

First of all there are two oxymoron's in the title of this article. First, they do have time! Second, getting buy in that they do have time as well as need training is an exercise in patience. The key is to coach them when it comes to time as well as applying coaching.

Let's look at it this way managers do have time because the fundamental question is who's doing the end of the year review? Who's rehiring and interviewing candidates when people leave? What's the number one reason people leave organizations today? Yes, it's the manager or boss! In addition, training managers to coach especially when they don't have time seems impossible or is it? Let's take a fundamental example of a manager who needs to coach somebody who is lacking attitude and time management. Hypothetically, only for humor sake, we will assume the manager truly does not have time and here are some suggestions that we call supplemental coaching strategies that could still facilitate change and dare I say even get management buy-in to becoming partners when it comes to coaching:

1. Have the employee read the book 7 Highly Effective Habits by Stephen Covey, an outstanding book, and journal after every chapter that is due every two weeks two things they successfully applied as a result of reading each chapter. This is a form of self-directed coaching and journal-based coaching.
2. Have the employee interview another employee who is extremely time sensitive and effective in their work. Have the employee who is doing the interviewing document 1 to 2 best practices as well as actions that will be implemented as a result of the interview. This is a form of peer to peer coaching.
3. After doing the first two activities have the employee send a weekly update of where he or she is progressing and continuing to save time as well as apply strategies successfully (self-actualized activity) as a result of reading the book and conducting the interview. This is called the standing learning project and builds ownership and accountability.

Note: On May 16th at 11 AM central time we will be conducting a full webcast workshop with training magazine teaching specific strategies of how to design training when managers don't have time to coach: register-click here