Good coaching is more than simply providing feedback

Try these 3 tips to become an effective coach for your people today

Most good business leaders know thoughtful, constructive feedback is crucial to cultivate top performers. It’s even tempting to pat yourself on the back the times you do it consistently. Yet the truth is you can provide feedback to your team all day long without ever approaching the magic of coaching.

This point may surprise you. Feedback, even when thoughtful and constructive, really is only as good as what it follows. If you give feedback to a conscientious staffer after they complete a task that they felt compelled to do your way, then it’s debatable what they really learn. Do they learn to perform the function independently and with excellence, even in the face of changing circumstances? Even without you around? Or do they simply learn how to satisfy your endearing quirks as a boss?

The point is you can be vigilant with constructive feedback and still manage to only teach your staff how to please you. That does little to help your people build capacity to perform the function, and future functions, better than perhaps you could have imagined. An August 2018 article in Harvard Business Review by Julia and Trenton Milner put it bluntly: “Manager tend to think that they’re coaching when…