Coaching is a manager’s job
A manager is responsible for maximising their team’s performance. Generally, this isn’t disputed.
And yet, most managers feel that coaching is going above and beyond; that’s it’s not their responsibility. In fact 92% of managers report that coaching is not part of their role expectations.
But as the benefits of coaching become more and more evident, the demand for managers to coach their employees is increasing.
Why managers should coach
Lousy managers create unhappy employees who deliver poor business results. Successful businesses demand that their managers be more than technical experts — the need to be coaches for the people they manage.
In 2008, Google launched Project Oxygen to determine precisely what makes a great manager. The common traits amongst best managers were used to create The 10 Oxygen Behaviours. Number 1 is being a good coach.
It makes sense… managers are best placed to develop the skills of their direct reports. It should be their job to have ongoing coaching conversations with their employees — to use coaching practices within the team’s normal operating rhythm.
But most managers don’t coach their employees.
Why managers don’t coach
47% of managers admit the reason they don’t coach is they don’t know how, with a significant proportion not understanding what coaching really is.
That’s not particularly surprising when only around 30% of managers receive any coaching training.
Knowing how to coach a team is a skill — which takes time and requires practice. As is often the case, those in management positions progressed into these roles because they were good at their job — not because they were good at managing people. Without adequate preparation or the appropriate knowledge on how to manage others it’s not surprising most managers don’t coach.
Coach your managers to coach
The good news is that you don’t need to invest in months of management training to see a shift in behaviours if you leverage coaching technology as part of the solution.
- The Why. Coach managers face-to-face on why they need to coach their teams in the first place. Technology can’t compete with a human’s ability to win hearts and minds. Unless you get this initial buy-in, nothing is going to change.
- The How. Use technology like CoachBot to provide managers with coaching frameworks and conversations that they can easily embed into their everyday.
When your biggest cost is your people, as it is for most companies, you need to ensure the best possible return on this organisational investment. And you simply can’t get the best out of a workforce unless managers are coaching their employees towards higher performance.
Saberr’s blended approach uses unique technology and human coaching to change behaviours across entire organisations, with real business impact.
