Can a Manager also be a Coach?
Managers traditionally think they are supposed to tell people what to do, and that coaching is at odds with this belief.
This story was originally posted on my site Coach Mon.
Managers need to get things done. For the most part, that is probably still true. As managers and team leaders, we are held accountable to achieving results and reaching targets.
“I just don’t have time for coaching. It’s simply more efficient to tell them what to do”, and you’re probably right. It would take us about 5 minutes to break down a problem and come up with a plan of action on our own and another 5 minutes to list all the things our team needs to do to see it through.
If we follow the saying “Time is Money”, 10 minutes is relatively cheap. On the other hand, it would take twenty times that amount of time if we were to coach someone through the same process — taking the time to ask questions and attempt to make the answers come from them, rather than from just you.
Our deep experience in our respective industry allows us to get away with it, especially if we manage a younger team. Many of our co-managers are praised for getting results this way.
Is it wrong? Well, it works. But is it sustainable? Probably not in the longer term. The next time the same problem happens, guess who’s on point to fix it again? No surprise: it’s you.
To borrow the thoughts of Jim Collins in his book Good to Great, good leaders are able to get things done, great leaders are able to get things done through the people they have been able to develop.
Among the many ways to develop people is by helping them think for themselves, self-generate their own approaches and solutions, and gain the confidence that they have it in them to do all of that without your hand-holding most of the time. That’s what coaching can do.
So what makes coaching different from mentoring?
Mentoring is more concerned about telling what the solution is. Mentoring sounds a lot like: “Here’s what I think we can do.” A mentor will likely try their best to guide you through the process by telling you what to do, based on their previous learned experiences in the same field. A mentor can help shorten the learning curve, but not all their advice will be best suited to how you work.
Coaching is more concerned about asking what the solution is. Coaching sounds a lot like: “What do you think should be done?” A coach will likely be there through your journey, as you figure out the path on your own, and help you see what else could still be done through questioning. You’ll get there eventually, probably not as efficiently, but the process of learning and experimenting with the approach to get to the final destination will be uniquely yours, which you can replicate when you encounter a different set of problems in the future.
Coaching is Action-focused. For coaching to be coaching, it needs to have an actionable plan with accountability. Coaching is also about Asking. For coaching to be coaching, you need to be asking What, When, Who, How questions. Use Why questions sparingly. It has the tendency to put people on the defensive and can work against you when you are trying to keep an open discussion.
As a manager of multiple functional departments and groups, I know from experience as well that there is a time and place for different kinds of conversations to maximize their impact. Coaching is not a 1-trick-wonder.
Here is where I think coaching can help:
1. It can help with developmental goals.
When the person to be coached (a coachee) has identified developmental goals (or if you, as their manager, see potential areas of development that they have yet to discover), coaching can help make the goals and their fulfillment more meaningful. This approach is more holistic and more long-term.
If you’re just starting out with coaching, you can start with the GROW model. Goal, Reality, Obstacles and Opportunities, (And the resulting Gap), and the Way Forward. Keep your conversation focused on what is within the coachee’s control and on their unique Strengths rather than their deficiencies. Make sure that your Way Forward addresses the Goal, and always end with action in mind. Keep it SMART and keep them accountable.
2. It can help with gaining problem-solving independence.
You can also coach them on short term problem-solving, to get them used to relying on themselves first before seeking you out as a safety net. This form of coaching can help them for problem-specific developmental areas.
Use coaching as a method of developing independence when it is important, not urgent, and when mistakes will cost only a little (common workplace battle scars like minor inconveniences, mild delays, and a couple more revisions than if you had done it yourself). It can take a some time for a coachee to ‘get it’ through coaching and there has to be some freedom to experiment. On one hand, growth to some degree is uncomfortable and happens outside of the comfort zone, but, on the other hand, try not to make it a traumatizing experience for them.
In between costing a lot and costing a little, or if a project requires more urgency, a healthy dose of mentoring can help balance out the outcomes. To shorten the learning curve, you can use the years of experience you have gained to help them out. As a manager you are accountable for their results and there is more than one kind of conversation to get you there as you work on developing your team. You have mentoring at your disposal as well.
If you are going to start your road to becoming a Manager-coach, there are some of the common pitfalls to watch out for that I have encountered trying to teach this skill to other managers at my office.
I often hear: “I just don’t have the time to do this coaching thing Millennials want.” Coaching does not have to happen as a special event. Start small, but make it frequent. Integrate the habit of asking questions, rather than dictating what to do, into the meetings that you already have with your people or your teams.
Stay curious and believe that they have the potential to figure things out. For those who are just starting, it will help if the goals that you are coaching them on are not critically urgent (but are still of great importance to them). Try to let them think of it by themselves, or if you really feel the need to help them out, tell them that you have a couple of ideas in mind, but that you want to know what you think first. Make them take the first steps.
Hopefully, with this primer, you will have enough to convince you to start coaching more often. I assure you, while it takes a while for you to see the benefits, the increase in your team’s confidence in themselves will be worth it.
