Tips for Coaching Managers

I wrote the short article below for a client’s in-house publication.

I resurrect it here after being part of a discussion during an AHRI workshop on the differences between coaches and mentors.

My contribution was to the effect that managers shouldn’t try to be a coach (noun) but they certain need to coach (verb).

I like the ambiguity in the title; are the tips for managers who coach or for coaching managers?

Both; but I think I meant the former when I wrote it.

Seven Tips for Coaching Managers

We are often asked “what do coaches do differently to managers?”
The answer we give is that there shouldn’t be very much difference at all.  But in practice there often is a wide gap. Of course the full range of responsibilities for a manager is much broader than just coaching their staff. However, taking a coaching approach will help you as a manager to do a better job across all your responsibilities, not just with developing your people.
Looking at the following seven tips for coaching managers, how might you be a more effective manager if this was what you did?

1. Ask questions. One trap many managers make is to think that they have to be the expert and know everything.  The best performing teams are the ones that make full use of all the expertise and talent in the team. One of the key responsibilities of the manager is to identify and utilise the strengths of their team. The best and simplest way to do this is to ask questions rather than give answers.
2. Listen to the answers. If you are going to ask questions, you might as well listen to the answers.  And then, do something with the answers. Enter into a discussion about the topic, ask your staff to follow up your discussion, do something yourself with the information. Whatever you do, don’t ignore their response.
3. Collaborate. Another trap managers can fall into is to keep working as an individual when the whole idea is to get things done through and with others. The strength of a team comes from making use of the skills and expertise of the team members. The performance of a team comes from its members applying their strengths towards a common goal. Both a good coach and a good manager aim to make this happen.
4. Stop and think. There is always too much to be done. This puts pressure on managers and their staff to leap straight to action without enough (if any) thinking, planning, investigation or questioning. A good coaching manager will both model a “think then do” approach as well as encouraging their staff to stop and think before they act.
5. Focus on relationships. Research suggests that the quality of the relationship between a coach and coachee is about three times more important to the outcome than which technique is used. What might happen if you put more effort into nurturing relationships with your team rather than managing process issues? We think you’ll find that you’ll get a lot more engagement, initiative and less resistance to change.
6. Let go. A pattern we see all the time, especially with managers from a technical or professional background, is letting go of doing the work they love doing. They fail to delegate this hands on work to their team members. This has two consequences; they don’t have enough time to manage and their staff don’t gain experience and develop their professional skills. The best thing you can do as a manager and coach is to assign your staff lots of challenging and stimulating work. You’ll have more time to do what you should be doing and they’ll get better at what they do.
7. It’s not about you. A theme running through all the previous six tips and our whole approach to developing leadership, management and coaching, is that the focus should be on the followers, team members and coachees, not on the leaders, managers or coaches. It’s not what you do but what the other person does that matters. This is why we say you as a manager and coach need to ask questions, listen, understand your people, get them involved, give them work. True success as a leader, manager or coach is about getting others to do more than would have been possible without you and for them to think they did it themselves.

“No coach has ever won a game by what he knows; it’s what his players know that counts”
Paul Byrant 
American College Football Coach

I particulary like the final quote. I have no idea who Paul Byrant is or how successful he is/was as a coach but its always nice to hear someone else expressing what you think.

Cheers

David