10 steps to becoming a manager/coach even when you have no clue what you’re doing
Week Three…
Time flies when you’re having fun, and although it’s not everyone’s idea of fun it’s been good to get my thoughts in writing! We’ve now reached 1200 subscribers on our newsletter (subscribe here), and we’re looking forward to diving into a big topic — coaching.
But first — back to our Maven course. I’m running behind schedule on putting this together, need to get a shift on, so it’s going to be week 4 before you can sign up (although I’ll post the sign up on linkedin before then), but our one pager on manager development should give you an idea of what to expect from the content. Practical, useful, fun is the name of the game.
Before that, I want to use this week to dive into coaching as a new manager.
Again with our 10 practical tips approach, we’ve tried to set out the easy way to hold coaching conversations with your team members. Even if you have no clue what you’re doing… You’ve got to start somewhere right??
Why is coaching important?
Sports people have known the importance of having coaches for a while now. Even Lionel Messi will have nutrition coaches, fitness coaches, psychology coaches etc. A plethora of them. All to help someone at the pinnacle of their profession improve.
Think about that for a second. If Messi can still be improving, there is NO REASON you can’t as well.
CEO’s also have coaches, but why let them have all the fun?
We’re not saying you’re going to be able to pull out deep rooted changes like Wendy Rhodes in Billions, but instead it’s about the incremental 1% improvements in every coachable team member. Their development will lead to better outcomes for the team, they’ll be more engaged, and the company will be more successful.
Wins all round 🎉
1. Use coaching to get your time back
Coaching is a high-leverage activity because it helps employees become empowered and capable of finding their own solutions to problems, allowing them to focus on areas where they are weakest and be held accountable for any tasks they are recommended.
Practical tip — when you’re new to management, your diary can be chaotic. Carve out specific time with folks who show coachable traits and want to be coached in order to build your confidence. It has compounding benefits as the time committed leads to time saved in the future.
2. Remember coaching and management aren’t the same thing
The second step is to mentally separate coaching from management. A coaching session shouldn’t be about discussing a team goal, it should be about curiosity and listening.
Coaching — Helping someone improve through guided discovery
Managing — Helping someone learn by directing, delegating, showing etc.
Practical tip — You have two ears and one mouth. In a coaching session, remember this ratio and use it for everyone’s advantage.
3. Mind the gaps
When you have someone coachable, it’s likely they will be fairly self aware. So get them to think about their role and break the work they do into these areas. This will help them focus on areas they want to improve and why.
Practical tip — get them to give you their responses in advance so you can mentally prep for questions to ask them.
4. The power of yet…
Growth mindset is a phrase so overused that its lost all meaning. So let’s reclaim it. Let’s define it as someone who wants to learn, develop and grow, and always sees this as an opportunity. Your role is to harness this.
Practical tip — don’t focus on weaknesses as a negative. Reframe them as something the team member simply hasn’t had a chance to develop, yet. Get them to explain why they have found this challenging, and why this is an area they want to explore. Then ask them to tie it back to why it’s useful for the company.
5. Tame your advice monster
Everyone likes to give advice, and it’s so easy to dive in and just tell people “what you think they should do” but coaching is about the questions you ask people, not what you tell them would be the best approach. Shoutout Kelsey Atkins for this phrase 🙌
Practical tip — If you find yourself wanting to give advice about an approach, reframe the advice as a question. Ask them “How would you approach this?” or “What steps have you taken so far to try and improve?”
6. Be Curious
Curiosity never killed any cats… Let’s get that out of the way, it’s been given a bad name, but it’s a critical tool for any coach. As per the advice monster, the questions you ask are vital to the outcome of a good coaching relationship. Fostering your curiosity is an important thing to do.
Practical tip — You have to build your capability through practise here. So find someone you trust and try to hold a couple of simple conversations where you apply the model below. It might seem cringey at first, but it will help you gain confidence.
7. Introducing the GROW model
The simplest model is usually the best. The same applies here. A complex model would be forgotten when holding the conversation. It helps you structure the conversation into 4 buckets:
Practical tip — sounds simple, but write these at the top of your notebook when you start having these conversations — it will help you keep on track.
8. Using the GROW model
As we mentioned on curiosity, it’s all about peeling back the onion, and this model is an easy way to start. You’re not trying to get through it as quickly as possible, instead, you’re looking to pull back layers of information from your team member.
Practical tip — Use our starters for ten here. Then think about some deeper questions for each bucket that you could use to pull out more information, without it becoming an interrogation. Write these down prior to the conversation and note your answers.
9. Focus on what happens next
It’s hard enough when you’re starting out to focus on the first 3 buckets and forget the final one. But it’s the going forward thats the hardest part. Most folks fail here, and it’s due to committing to those milestones.
Practical tip — You and your coachee need to commit to timelines. The easiest way is to write down those commitments, and book in a next conversation immediately after the last, with the details in the cal invite. That way it’s a definitive time in the diary and you can hold yourselves accountable.
10. Practise makes perfect
I am still not a great coach, and I spend time trying to get better regularly. Fundamentally, it takes practise, and you’ll forget things, or dive in with answers at first, but every conversation will become better than the last.
If you don’t look back on coaching conversations you held a year ago and think “I was rubbish” then you’re not growing 😅
Practical tip — even when you’re in the trough of despair, keep on pushing through. Ask your team for feedback on how you have been doing when coaching them, and take the time to develop.
Thats all for this week — see you next time and if you’ve found it interesting, please share. Also — please comment if anything you think we missed!
