Coaching is part of your job
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The consulting firm BlessingWhite just released a study called "The Coaching Conundrum." It's based on input from more than 2,000 managers and employees with companies in 17 countries.
There's a quote in the news release that every manager should take to heart. BlessingWhite's coaching practice leader Cathy Earley says:
"The role of coach isn't something managers should turn on or off. Instead, managers need to adopt coaching as a daily leadership practice and focus on creating a supportive environment for their teams."
Bingo. Coaching is part of your job. It's not something bolted on. It's not something you do when the "real work" is done. It's part of your job.
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Wally Bock has helped people learn to be great bosses for more than a quarter century. His latest book, Performance Talk: The One-on-One Part of Leadership, makes learning key leadership principles almost effortless by teaching through a story and providing lists of resources for further growth.
Click here to find out more about Wally's coaching services.
For weekly tips and resources pointers, check our Wally Bock's Three Star Leadership Letter.
Click here to find out more about having Wally speak to your company or convention.
In picking up your latest two articles I see that coaching subordinates all the time is advised but 360 degree feedback is not; some managers don't act on it and some act negatively. Does that imply that subordinates should accept criticism when superiors don't? Does it imply that manager coaching is diplomatic and encouraging while subordinate feedback tends to be negative venting? That managers should be more concerned with feedback from their superiors than from peers and subordinates? I would have thought that feedback would be advantageous all around.
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Hi Kathy. Thanks for visiting. I'm glad you got a look at two of the posts on this site. I don't think that either of them, nor the other posts on the site warrant your conclusion.
This week one of the five most interesting business blog posts was a review by Dr. Ken Nowack of studies about 360 feedback programs.
The other post you viewed was my positive reaction to a quote that coaching should be part of the every day work of managers.
I don't think either of those posts imply what you suggest.
In my posts here and in my books, I encourage supervisors to have frequent "supervisory conversations" with the people on their team. Conversations are two way events by definition.
I hope you'll stop back and explore some more.
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Wally
I am again in 100% agreement with you on this point. The difficulty I believe, is that many managers simply don't know how to coach effectively and of course, there are different stages and styles of coaching depending on the ability level of the staff member being coached.
As I have said before, it starts with having regular, intelligent conversations with your staff.
Best wishes
Simon
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I would add one thing to that Simon. I think it starts with touching base a lot. That way team leaders and team members get comfortable with each other and get to know each other. The simple act of showing up isn't an "event." And the kind of conversations that mark the best supervision.
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For me, coaching is indeed part of a supervisor's job. I think to coach effectively however - the supervisor must have the expertise of the issue at hand, and he/she must also be one who walks the talk...
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Excellent points. One thing I see more and more is generalist team leaders who have teams with specialists in different functional areas. There the team leader needs to be able to articulate what results are wanted, but may need to bring in an "expert" on the how-to part.
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Wally,
Just found your great blog--thanks for your insight.
As a life coach, I see that corporations often use the term coaching to mean, "teach me how to get employees to do what I want them to do."
Thanks for the depth and helping clear up such a misconception.
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Thanks for sharing that insight, Janet, and for those kind words about the blog. Many times, managers take just the pieces they want from a practice or body of thought. In the early Twentieth Century, many adopted Frederick Taylor's work design, without adopting the recommendation for breaks and a shorter work day. Later, they adopted Deming's quality control techniques, but ignored the idea that line workers knew what they were doing.
I hope you keep coming back.
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