How to be Even More Effective and Helpful as You Coach Your Team
If you're a manager, you likely hear a lot about not only leading and organizing your team but also being a coach for your team. What does this even mean?!? What's the goal and the purpose of being a coach and how is this different from managing?
Today on Asking for a Friend I talk with Sara Canaday about tips from her new book "Coaching Essentials for Managers." She shares her expertise around how to coach your team to do their best work and help them achieve their highest potential. Sara reminds us that employees "want to learn, want to grow and want to progress." Employees want to make sure they are getting the skills and knowledge they need to get to where they want to be professionally.
We talk about the crucial difference between being a developmental coach and being a manager. As a manager, you supervise and organize the workload for those you are managing. You set the expectations.
As a coach, the goal becomes empowering your employee to be the best they can be by helping them identify and achieve their own professional goals. Just like with any human-centered leadership development, learning how to be a good coach takes effort and being willing to be coachable ourselves.
Developmental coaching is a modern approach to develop potential in your employees.
Sometimes coaching means we point out where someone have room for improvement. With developmental coaching, you can help employees identify their professional goals and empower them to engage in the process of learning and growing. Instead of judging their performance, you become a partner for their success as you coach your team.
You're the person who's going to ask the right questions to help them discover their potential.
Here's a practical list of Sara's Dos and Don'ts from Coaching Essentials (pages 206-207):
Do:
Build trust and nurture strong relationships with your coachees
Position yourself as a partner in their success
Be fully present
Set the intention up front
Confirm confidentiality- and keep that promise
Maintain clarity about your role and your purpose as a coach
Use a framework as your guide
Ask open-ended questions
Suspend judgment
Finish with an action plan
Hold them accountable for their commitments
Don't:
Confuse the role of coaching with training, counseling, or discipline related to poor performance
Rely only on your coachees to identify their needs
Fail to set ambitious goals that align with your coachees' strengths motivations and interests
Talk in code (e.g. "you need to be more strategic) rather than translating your recommendations into actionable steps with examples
Neglect to enhance your own self-awareness and emotional intelligence
Assume you wouldn't benefit from insights and feedback provided by your own coach or mentor
Underestimate the potential of your direct reports
Underestimate your own potential as a successful coach.
