Effective Managers Need To Coach

Bearing in mind the fast pace of business today and the
need to stay competitive, it's essential that managers
should be effective. They need to be especially
effective with their people and this requires learning
to coach. For most managers, coaching has been added
to their role anyway, but the majority haven't received
any training in coaching skills. More than 80% of
organisations use coaching to develop their staff, but
only a fifth train their managers in coaching,
according to a survey by the Work Foundation.
This lack of training can be costly and damaging. It's
like putting a complete beginner in a car, telling them
to drive and just saying "Good luck". They may have
some idea of what to do, but they won't have sound
training in the skills required. Coaching is a
specific set of core competencies and skills, not just
a new label to add to what a manager has always done.
Managers need training so that they develop those
specific skills, know when and how to use them, and
have confidence in themselves to coach people. With
the right training, your company will benefit
dramatically from this coaching. Benefits such as:

· Improving employee performance to an optimum level
· Being a stronger, more productive company
· Handling change easily and encouraging growth
· Bringing out the very best in people and unlocking
potential.

You don't want your company to miss out on these benefits,
do you?

I invite you to start the process of ensuring that your
managers have been adequately trained in coaching
skills. And not only trained, but most important, they
need the opportunity to learn, experience and evaluate
coaching.

First, they need to understand what coaching is and
isn't, and how it's distinct from mentoring, training,
counselling or teaching. Without this understanding,
they'll be caught in the trap of not knowing whether
they're coaching or not. They'll need to know at least
one coaching model to give them a process and a
structure to work with. This gives the coaching focus
and clarity, and reaches a conclusion with agreed
actions. To start with, they'll need a thorough
grounding in basic coaching skills such as listening,
questioning, evoking, clarifying, requesting, trust and
rapport building, challenging, acknowledging,
collaborating and action planning. As these are
learned, practised and refined, they can be built on
more.

Being trained in coaching skills is the first step and
the real learning comes from experiencing coaching for
yourself personally and coaching others. Therefore,
it's important that you don't just get trained in the
basic coaching skills and leave it there. There needs
to be a supportive structure and environment for you to
continue with your coaching. How often have you
learned something new, only to find when you're back in
the workplace that you've only retained a little of it?
Or that you're facing obstacles you don't know how to
overcome? Managers need their own fully experienced
coach to continue working with them after their initial
training. This is where they'll dramatically improve
their ability to coach and have confidence in
themselves as coaches.

Training your managers in coaching skills doesn't have
to be done all at once and overnight. You can choose
to start in a small way perhaps with only a couple of
managers and as you experience the results, build on
this. As you start thinking about training for your
managers, I suggest you first find out what your
managers really need to be effective; what they already
know about coaching; what more they need to know and
which of them already has a keen interest in learning
to coach. Asking these questions of your managers will
give you a clearer picture of what's needed. This may
involve some time and commitment now, but it will
ensure they get the training they most need. Knowing
your company as you do, what's the most important
action you can take today that will move your managers
closer to being coaches?