How to be a Good Manager and Coach

If you want to know how to be a good manager then you need to learn how to be a great mentor, coach, leader and role model. But despite all their management training (or lack thereof) one of the biggest complaints I hear from clients is that their manager couldn't inspire a dog into action even if they had a steak around their neck!

Harsh words! But unfortunately there's not a lot of love in the office and a recent statistic indicates 60% of workers hate their manager.

Employees want to be lead by a manager who is clear, focused, results driven, inspirational and most of all team driven. A great leader sees the value of up-skilling their team and are advocates of on-going development.

Team members want to work for people they can learn from and coaching is a great way to support and inspire.

Here are 5 tips on being a great coach.

1. Ask your team members what skills they would like to develop. I once asked a man in my department, "If there was one skill you'd like to learn, what would it be?" I kid you not, his eyes welled up as he said, "Nobody has ever cared enough to ask that." Wow! Such a seemingly simple question had such a huge impact.

In reality, you shouldn't need to ask this question as skill development is usually part of your company's performance appraisal program. Nonetheless, I've discovered, even when it is, there is little activity or coaching to help employees improve their skills toolbox. So put the effort in and nurture your employees.

2. Work on developing 1-3 skills over a 3-6 month period. The bigger the goal, the fewer goals you can work on at any one time. If the goal is complex you don't want to overwhelm or lead them to fail because there's not enough time to invest in success. If the goals are simple, then you can work on a number of them concurrently.

3. Guide, don't give solutions. Coaching is about helping people, help themselves. You can use your expertise to ask people the right questions which in turn leads them to them to the answers they're after. Employees feel a great sense of accomplishment when they realize their success was a result of their own initiative.

4. Uphold accountability. Keep people on track and accountable. Establish tasks that are due every 1-2 weeks and let your team member know they are responsible for completing the tasks and reporting the progress at your next coaching session. If they start to slack off in delivering, it may be a sign of fear, so it's worth taking the time to investigate what's really going on for them.

5. Reward and recognize. It's my personal belief that we need to celebrate life more and a great way to do that is to acknowledge when milestones and goals are met. Sometimes it is as simple as kind words, because quite honestly, we hear so few in our day-to-day lives.

Repeat and replicate the above 5 steps as you work through your teams' goals and watch them flourish in their success.

Here's to you becoming a coaching sensation.