Why Managers are Learning Leadership and Coaching Skills
More and more managers are learning to use coaching as a leadership style to develop their team members and I think there are several common stages that managers go through:
1. ‘I have not got time to delegate it is quicker to do things myself. Anyway, I can’t trust that they will do it right.’
2. ‘My manager can see me getting stressed and has told me to delegate to my team. She said it will develop them.’
3. ‘Here goes: “Right, James, I want you to take over doing the month end board reports. I’ll show you what to do then it’s all yours.”‘, the manager says, beaming.
4. ‘Well that didn’t work and what a muck up! I was lucky not to get fired. The board report contained major financial errors! James completely blew it.’
5. ‘My manager said, “It is ok, people make mistakes when they do things for the first time. Did you support him through it?” To which I replied, “How do you mean support him?” “Well,” she replied, “did you coach him around the areas he was not sure about? Did you meet regularly with him to make sure he was ok? Did he feel confident that he could come to you with any questions?”‘
Sometimes it is difficult to give up old habits that are unconsciously ingrained but with some practice it pays off with a more engaged team and better results. Of course, we have not even started on when a manager should mentor and when they should coach. More on that next time.