Why Most Managers think they are coaching when they are Not...

Many Management teams believe they are coaching their teams when they are simply not. Most managers in a recent Harvard Business Review article showed that many managers are very good at guiding teams and giving instructions but mistakenly confuse this with coaching. Many managers are told about coaching but rarely given the opportunity to learn in a safe learning environment where its okay to male mistakes outside of their usual place of work. If done in the right way managers could increase employee engagement and improve overall performance in the business.

The Harvard review also revealed that the skills the participants struggled with the most before the training were “recognizing and pointing out strengths” and “letting the coachee arrive at their own solution.” So what is the solution how can this be done in the right way with the best outcome for the employee being coached and the manager coaching.

Here is some ways that you can implement coaching with your management team.

1. Have a safe learning environment by not training the managers in their place of work with their staff as this doesn't allow them the space needed to make mistakes, receive feedback or have peer to peer learning.
2. When training in your managers have them coach one another taking turns giving feedback to one another and also having a qualified coach in the training to also give valid feedback to each manager on their approach and delivery of coaching.
3. Take this a step further by asking the managers to video them coaching one another then ask them to watch themselves back and give reflective feedback written down from what they observed.
4. Once these exercises have been done and discussions had around the learnings and objectives set, ask the managers to do it again and see where they have put these learnings into practice.

Coaching is a learned skill it needs to be practiced and cannot be learned in one day it is a continuous learning cycle always evolving over time give your management team support by getting them to practice coaching and having a qualified coach to support on their journey. How are you developing the managers in your business to coach?