Coaching Techniques for Managers

Introduction to Coaching in Management

Coaching is becoming increasingly popular as a development intervention in the context of management. Namely, because it provides a tailored solution which helps develop managerial capability and also because it is a development solution that works.

A key role of managers is to develop their teams and coaching is an ideal mechanism to facilitate this. Coaching provides an individualised experience which hones in on the key areas that each member of the team needs to develop. Coaching is a perfect solution to get results fast. 

 The Coaching Process in Businesses

The Five Stages of Coaching

There are 5 core stages of the coaching process that managers need to be aware of. These are as follows:

• Establishing goals and objectives:

Establishing a clear goal and set of objectives is the starting point for any coaching process. This provides clear direction and ensures that the coaching remains focused on the outcome. 

• Assessing employees’ skills and competencies:

Once goals have been established, the next step is to assess employees skills and competencies. This establishes the benchmark and helps to uncover strengths and gaps that will support or interfere with goal attainment. This will form part of any development plan.

• Creating Personalised Development Plans (PDPs):

The next step is to create a personalised development plan, which captures the goals and objectives and then breaks these down into manageable tasks, that set out how the goals will be achieved. These need to be measurable, relevant and realistic. PDP’s are a very useful way of capturing progress and creating a structured framework for development.

• Implementing coaching strategies:

Coaching strategies ideally are aligned with overall goals for the organisation. This creates a joined up approach, so that the skills and capabilities of the workforce are relevant and support higher level objectives.  Implementing the coaching strategy requires upskilling managers with the necessary skills to coach and dedicating time and resources to enable coaching to take place.  Support from senior management is crucial. 

• Evaluating and providing feedback:

Feedback is a core element of coaching, where the manager as coach, will provide their staff member with constructive feedback about things they do well and things they can improve on. Feedback provides essential insights that give a more balanced, rounded perspective enabling individuals to evaluate their performance and progress and make the necessary adjustments during development. 

Building Effective Coaching Relationships

Coaching relationships are essential for effective coaching. In the absence of a strong relationship, it will be more difficult to build trust and make progress. When trust is established within a strong relationship, the coachee is more likely to share relevant and important information about themselves. 

This type of disclosure that takes place in coaching is very important and helps fast track results. Building rapport and credibility within the coach, manager, coachee relationship is critical.  Line managers have an important and crucial role to play as coach managers in helping their employees develop. 

Essential Coaching Skills for Managers

Communication Techniques

Fundamentally, communication is one of the most important skills of a coach, or line manager. Effective communication will make the difference between getting poor results and having outstanding results. There are a number of characteristics of effective communication which involve the following:

• Open ended questions:

Open-ended questions are questions which cannot be answered with a yes, or no. These types of questions require people to actively think about their response more deeply. They force ownership and responsibility to the respondent. Examples of these types of questions would typically start with, how, why, what, when. 

• Reflective listening:

Reflective listening is a powerful technique often used in coaching which is essential for effective communication. This technique requires the coach or manager to reflect back what they have heard. There are two benefits to this, firstly this demonstrates listening and shows interest which builds trust, but also, it provides the opportunity to validate and check understanding of what has been said and heard for both participants.

• Giving effective feedback:

There is a difference between feedback and effective feedback. Effective feedback provides someone with useful and relevant insights that support them to improve. These insights will often provide a different perspective that challenges the person to see themselves or the situation differently. 

General feedback is less useful, and may avoid or skirt over an issue. Effective feedback however, makes an impact, it moves things forward and enables progress. 

Effective feedback can be more challenging for the respondent and for the coach as it might involve giving constructive messages that people don’t necessarily want to hear, but that will make a big difference to the outcome. 

Emotional Awareness

Another important skill for the coach manager is demonstrating emotional awareness. This involves showing empathy and recognising the role of emotions in how people respond to situations.

Emotions play a key role in shaping how people react in any given situation. Demonstrating emotional awareness involves an understanding of this and being able to share this with the coachee.

Showing empathy, helps to build trust, and sends a clear message that feelings and emotions have been acknowledged. 

Goal Setting and Action Planning

Another key part of effective coaching is using SMART goals. These are goals that follow the acronym, Specific Measurable Achievable Relevant Time bound. Research shows that goals that follow this structure lead to higher levels of goal attainment. 

SMART goals allow you to be more accountable for goals and to measure progress more effectively. They take a goal from being an ‘aspiration’ to a ‘reality’ by making the goal action-oriented. 

Coaching Approaches for Various Situations

During the course of work there are different situations that require slightly different approaches and this is where tailoring the coaching becomes relevant. Here are some examples to consider.

Performance Improvement Coaching

To improve performance the goal of coaching is more focused on setting clear goals and plans and being more structured in how performance is measured. The focus here is improving performance, so measurement is key. 

Career Development Coaching 

Career development coaching typically requires more focus on measuring skills and capability and understanding motivation. Focusing on these aspects brings better alignment and fit between person and role. Finding a good fit during career coaching is important. 

Conflict Resolution Coaching

The focus of coaching in conflict resolution typically will require a stronger focus on emotional awareness and understanding the role emotions play in response reactions. This requires higher levels of sensitivity and mediation to limit the impact of emotions in finding a successful outcome.  

Leadership and Executive Coaching

During leadership and executive coaching there is a stronger emphasis on developing self-awareness. At these more senior levels the leader is required to have much greater insight into the impact they have on people, results and outcomes. If a leader lacks self-awareness, they will often repeat mistakes and will struggle to inspire others.  

Team Coaching for Enhanced Collaboration

With regards team coaching, the focus is on understanding team dynamics and the relationship  between personalities and behaviour. Effective teams are dependent on good collaboration which should be a central focus for this type of coaching. 

Creating a Coaching Friendly Environment

Organisations can create a coaching friendly environment by following some general guidelines, as follows:

• Foster a culture of continuous learning and growth:

Making sure that there is a culture which promotes ongoing and continuous learning and growth. These are central to coaching and to any forward looking business. 

• Provide resources and support for coaching initiatives:

Making sure that coaching initiatives are supported with the right resources and ideally have a key sponsor within the organisation at a senior level.  

• Recognise and reward coaching efforts within a business:

Making sure that coaching is seen as valuable and is recognised and rewarded accordingly. This is a visible demonstration that coaching is seen as worthwhile. 

Overcoming Challenges in Coaching

As with most development interventions, there will always be challenges to overcome in coaching relationships. Some of the common ones that are experienced more frequently, are as follows:

Dealing with Resistance and Negative Attitudes

Coaches may face resistance and negative attitudes which can be challenging. This is often driven by fear and uncertainty. People can feel a degree of discomfort during coaching, as it requires you to change. People can also present a negative attitude, where they are cynical or disbelieving, or they may be influenced by other people’s opinions, or had a poor experience themselves. 

Anticipating these types of challenges is helpful and enables the coach to prepare. Dealing with resistance and negative attitudes requires transparency and reassurance. It is important to create opportunities where resistance and feelings of negativity can surface,  be discussed openly and dealt with appropriately.  

Handling Difficult Conversations

Difficult conversations are common in any effective coaching process. Coaching often requires a degree of honesty in order to address things that people find difficult to deal with. A difficult conversation might involve ‘bringing the elephant into the room’, or giving sensitive feedback, where people may be faced with an inevitable truth that they have been ignoring. 

Being able to deal with difficult conversations requires tact, diplomacy and sensitivity. It is critical that the core message is delivered in a clear and straightforward manner, but that the emotion is removed. Staying objective, factual and depersonalising the message are key and there should be no judgement. Following some of these basic guidelines, enables the coach to have a difficult conversation that otherwise would be ignored or deferred. 

Measuring the Effectiveness of Coaching

Measuring the effectiveness of coaching is important as this provides the evidence and data to inform future investment decisions and plays an important role in shaping the design of future programmes. Measuring effectiveness requires the following:

Identifying Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Establishing key performance indicators is an important part of measuring coaching effectiveness. KPI’s are metrics which highlight how performance is measured and the standards that are required.

Collecting Feedback from Employees and Coachees

Another important set of data that enables the measurement of coaching is gathering feedback from the employees and coachees. Capturing this experience about what was good, not so good and ideas for improvement is invaluable in securing insights on how programmes can be improved. 

Evaluating the Impact on Overall Business Outcomes

It is also important to evaluate the impact of coaching against higher level business objectives. This ensures alignment between coaching goals and an organisation’s strategic goals, one should support the other. 

Ethical Considerations in Coaching

Lastly, it is also important to consider the role of ethics in coaching. This involves making sure that standards and core principles are adhered to, including confidentiality. It is imperative that coaching is conducted without bias and judgement, that there is clear contracting, as this builds trust and respects individual differences. 

Following a code of ethics creates clear boundaries between the role of the coach and coachee, protecting both in the relationship. This ensures expectations are managed. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is clear that coaching in management can be highly effective for the development of employees. This requires following certain steps and processes and learning some essential skills, including effective communication and developing emotional awareness. It is also important to create a coach friendly environment to provide the necessary support to ensure coaching is implemented successfully.

At the heart of any coaching intervention, there needs to be trust. Trust can be established by building rapport within the coaching relationship and by following ethical guidelines. Without trust, the coaching process will take longer and outcomes will be limited.

If you’re a manager looking to improve your coaching skills, or a business leader looking to instil coaching skills into your managers, then be sure to check out our coaching training for managers, a course created for managers to get the most out of both themselves and their employees.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the primary purpose of coaching in a managerial role?

The primary purpose is to provide development opportunities for employees and teams.

How can managers enhance their coaching skills?

Managers can enhance their coaching skills by following some key principles, including communication skills and developing emotional awareness. 

What are some effective communication techniques in coaching?

Effective communication techniques include using open-ended questions, reflective listening and providing effective feedback.

How can coaching improve employee performance and productivity?

Coaching provides a structured framework that supports goal attainment and creates tailored personal development plans.

What are the common challenges faced by managers when coaching their teams?

Some common challenges include resistance and negative attitudes and dealing with difficult conversations. 

How can coaching contribute to employee retention and career development?

Coaching done well has the power to unlock potential and drive motivation.  In combination, these will empower staff within their careers and lead to more job fulfilment. 

What are the signs that indicate a successful coaching process?

Successful coaching leads to increased self-awareness and goal attainment, increased levels of confidence, increased openness and more motivation and commitment. 

How can coaching benefit the overall organisational culture?

Coaching benefits the overall organisational culture by empowering staff to take more personal ownership for their development. In turn, this leads to increased levels of engagement and commitment.

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