Powerful Coaching Conversations for Managers
Has an employee ever popped into your office to complain about a co-worker?
As a leader, we are faced with a choice: Fix the problem for them (and indirectly communicate they should bring all future problems to us) or coach them to fix it themselves. If our most important job is to grow superstars and future leaders, the choice should be clear.
We must facilitate a conversation which coaches them to solve their own challenges, now and in the future, but how do we do that?
Before we jump into what a coaching conversation is and how to expertly facilitate it, let’s begin with what a coaching conversation is not. It is not a supervisory conversation, though it is often confused with one. Managers across the country spend 25-40% of their time addressing problems that employees should be able to solve themselves.
If you can relate, then making the shift from supervision to coaching may just save your career. There are important differences between the two.
Supervisory Conversations
Many of the leaders and managers we have coached over the years cut their teeth on a supervisory style of management. It’s how they were trained and often how they were once managed themselves. In the workforce today, you’ll find plenty from the Boomer generation who still respond well to this approach. (I’m a boomer, so I have permission to say that!) The problem is that supervision is a dying, industrial-age method that no longer works well with the current, larger generations of employees.
Supervision made total sense when a manager’s primary role was to spot errors or sloppiness on an assembly line before it was too late, resulting in costly mistakes downstream. Decades ago, managers scanned the work environment for what was not working and had conversations with those involved to correct the problem swiftly and permanently.
In this model, the manager restated the correct answers, gave precise instructions (if not outright orders), and often placed a demerit in the team member’s employment record. Clear and direct but not very inspiring, certainly not empowering.
Coaching Conversations
In contrast, if supervisory conversations were a reactionary response to mistakes and often perceived as negative slap-downs to employees, coaching conversations are proactive and positive. In this more modern model, managers now scan their work environment for untapped potential rather than for mistakes, and they create proactive, ongoing coaching sessions to grow, train, and empower their employees.
Who doesn’t want to work with a team made up of self-starters, problem solvers, critical thinkers, mature communicators and those who are innovative, positive, and highly skilled?
To get that team, we either hire them, inherit them, or grow them. If we’re lucky enough to hire them, they easily become amazing role models for others, but for many of those on our team, we need to assist them in improving their skills, whether attitudinal or technical. This is where coaching conversations work best.
In my work with new managers, I often find they were promoted into a managerial position because they were exceptionally good at their job. While this is a valid reason for offering them a management position, there is unnecessary turnover in these positions because the skills they needed before are not the same skills they will need now to grow and develop a team.
Even worse, many new managers believe they were promoted or hired to answer team members’ questions or manage disputes as they arise as well as coverage for daily workflow, task completion, and vacation schedules. With tasks fully handled, they leave their team members alone to do their jobs.
This reveals a deep misunderstanding, not only of their primary job as a manager, but also the underlying reason most teams never reach their potential, develop deep loyalty, or create high levels of innovation and teamwork. They are essentially functioning on their own and grossly underdeveloped. Great leaders make sure their managers fully and clearly understand their #1 job is to create, nurture, and grow superstars on their team who are ultimately future leaders.
Gen X, Millennials, Gen Y, and Gen Z employees (currently 75% of the workforce and growing) do not respond well to supervision tactics but rather deeply value real-time feedback and on-going coaching. To retain them, we must give immediate, helpful feedback that is delivered often and well, not just at onboarding or annual reviews. In our current labor market, coaching is a competitive advantage.
The Gallup organization started studying managers many years ago (including an analysis of nearly 50,000 business units with over one million employees from 22 organizations in seven different industries from 45 different countries) and here is what they found: Great leaders have frequent and meaningful conversations with their team members.
The difference is simple. Bosses and supervisors tell people what to do and only engage with them when they have done something wrong or at an annual review (at best). Leaders who see themselves as coaches focus on individual and team engagement and perceive their primary role as the conduit for what their employees need to succeed.
When managers and team leaders grow their people, there is higher employee retention (51% less turnover and 78% less absenteeism) and better outcomes (18% higher sales and 23% higher profitability). In short, coaching helps employees, and therefore companies, to thrive.
The bad news is that only 2 out of every 10 managers instinctively know how to coach. This means only 20% of managers understand how to engage employees, develop their strengths, set clear expectations, and foster growth and independence through coaching conversations. The good news is that anyone can learn.
Here are some simple strategies which will change the way we approach these conversations as leaders, create greater ease in having them, and improve the quality of outcomes:
1. Value their growth and future. As leaders, we must care about our team’s professional growth and career advancement, often before they do.
2. Be proactive. Adopt the philosophy that anyone who works for you is always in a coaching agreement, even when things are going well. There is always something to improve or master at a higher level. All employees should have a coaching conversation upcoming on the schedule with you, though the frequency of these sessions will vary based on the urgency of the improvement, the speed at which someone makes change, and the difficulty of the work.
3. Listen and lead with questions. Don’t do the work for them. You are robbing them of the growth that will ultimately skyrocket their career. Instead of making statements and demands, coaching is about leading others to solutions they own because they’ve had a hand in their creation. Questions also reveal to the employee their capacity to problem solve, critically think, and find creative solutions. This requires more listening than talking. Before offering advice or suggestions, always consider questions such as:
- Do they see the opportunity/problem?
- What do they ultimately want for their career?
- What is next for them?
- What have they already tried?
4. Connect the dots. Connect what you want from them as a way for them to get what they want for themselves.
5. Be clear. What is negotiable and non-negotiable? It might be non-negotiable that we expect all employees to learn the skills to solve minor conflicts with co-workers. However, it could be very negotiable how that employee gains that training—video trainings, books, dedicated coaching sessions, and shadowing are just a few of the options that an employee could explore.
6. Champion them. Make sure they know you are their biggest fan and advocate. Position yourself as their guide, coach, and support, not their savior or supervisor.
7. Remind them that everything is a test until we prove that it works or they have mastered the skill. Set a date quickly to check in on how the new effort or solution is working and offer support along the way.
8. Anticipate challenges. After creating a plan, help your employee to anticipate what might present a challenge to their success as well as how they might proactively respond to those obstacles.
9. Normalize the change process. Change is hard and messy for humans. Remind them we are not after perfection and that change takes time, effort, focus, and a willingness to make mistakes and do it badly at first.
10. Create a Success Agreement. Use a simple form to document decisions, next steps, commitments, and the next scheduled coaching check-in for both of you.
11. Be coachable, too! The more you coach, the more you learn about how to coach. Always end with an exploratory question focused on your own growth, such as, “What was most useful for you today in our discussion?” School is never out for the pro, and modeling what ongoing growth looks like is a win-win.
The world needs more effective leaders, so be courageous and become the leader, coach, and champion your people admire and respect, one they will never forget.
For complimentary Coaching Resources for your team, use this QR code, click this link, or email us at info@LionSpeak.net with Coaching Resources in the subject line.
About the Author
Katherine Eitel Belt, CSP, and LionSpeak Communications Coaching provide coaching services designed to help dental teams access their own instinctive greatness and full potential. If you’d like to dramatically improve your communication skills for leadership conversations, training sessions, and team culture, visit our website www.LionSpeak.net for a look at how we can help you master consistently-excellent, unscripted communication. You’ll find audio & video training programs, workshops, virtual and on-site team training, and team retreats. Call us at (800) 595-7060 and identify yourself as an AADOM member, and we’ll give you an extra 5% off!
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