Managers are increasingly expected to coach their teams, but should that really be their role? Danny Wilkinson argues that managers should have the freedom to do their core jobs effectively.Â
Team development has always been central to the role of a line manager. All the best managers will be good at developing their teams, helping them to learn and move forward in their careers.
But, in recent years, it seems that companies are increasingly looking to develop their workforce by asking their line managers to ‘coach’ their teams.
But this isn’t really coaching – a manager can’t effectively coach their team members because of their relationship with them. This puts an unfair amount of pressure on the manager and creates a false picture of the support the employee is getting.
What is coaching?
Although developing someone and coaching may sound like the same thing, they’re not.
Development is about helping people to advance and to learn to become better at their jobs. It’s gaining skills and knowledge about their role or what they do. It can be done in various ways like attending training courses, studying or taking up a work placement.
Line managers
Coaching, on the other hand, is much more focused on the individual; how they think, what they do, why they do it. Over the years, I think it’s become a word that’s sometimes been misconstrued and used to describe things erroneously.
Coaching isn’t simply the practice of asking questions rather than giving someone an answer, it’s about exploring how and why they think about an issue or a situation.
It sets them on a path of deeper understanding about themselves in a way that they can apply to future problems.
Why managers can’t coach
This is exactly why managers can’t effectively coach their team members. By its nature, the coaching process requires the ‘coachee’ to be vulnerable and to discuss emotions, worries or issues they may be feeling.
Many team members just don’t want to open up to their managers about concerns or anxieties for fear of it consciously or unconsciously denting their company career or promotion prospects.
Similarly, the coach needs to be non-judgmental and objective to be able to shine an independent, curious light to help the coachee explore their issue and see it in a new way.
I’m not saying that managers can’t be non-judgmental, but they are not in an objective position; they are the coachee’s manager. They have a vast amount of background information and context on the individual and the company.
Focus on the managing
Think of the jobs you liked, thrived and learned the most from. I’m willing to bet that you had a great manager. It’s not a coincidence. There is a huge amount of positive impact a line manager can have on their teams, just by doing their day job well; by managing.
By asking your managers to focus on these three management areas, you can help them level up their impact on the organisation’s employees’ development.
Give good feedback: Feedback is still one of the single best and most direct ways of helping someone develop and improve. And there will be opportunities to do it every week. Encourage them to regularly set aside time in their one-on-ones to focus on feedback.
When they give the feedback, make sure it’s precise and clear. It may sound obvious, but a common mistake is to be too general; ‘that work went well’ or ‘didn’t go as well as I’d hoped.’
They must zoom in on exactly what they mean, such as ‘I was impressed the way you gave a detailed brief to everyone before the events so everyone knew what you expected’ or ‘You didn’t update the marketing team often enough so they couldn’t make the changes needed in time.’
There is a huge amount of positive impact a line manager can have on their teams, just by doing their day job well.”
Create the right environment: We can think of the office environment as the building, the aesthetics, and the kinds of people we work with, but it’s also the way your managers manage.
They set the team’s working environment through the things they say, what they do and the behaviours they encourage. For example, the line manager can build the perfect environment for their team to develop by talking about their failures and things that didn’t go so well and encouraging them to do the same.
This sets a tone for trying new things. Whether asking the team for views on a decision or praising some work, they can be the catalyst for a lot of learning through their behaviour and the environment that it creates.
Get outside help: As an HR professional, let your managers know it’s okay to ask for outside help in areas they struggle with. When you can see that their efforts are not quite getting through, encourage them to get some support. Whether that’s a mentor from another department or a professional coach.
It’s exactly right that companies should be asking managers to develop their teams which should be front and centre on any manager’s job description. But the focus should be on letting them do it the most effective way they can, by managing.
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