A Research Paper By Brian Mason, Management Development Coach, UNITED STATES
The Role Of Manager as Coach
In this paper, the role of the manager as a coach is explored and the case for implementing a high-development, coaching culture, which includes redefining the role of the manager, selecting for aptitude, and development, and implementing effective success measures is presented.
More and more frequently, managers are being expected to demonstrate the ability to coach. Yet, these same managers receive little to no training or skill development. In this paper, the role of the manager as a coach is explored and the case for implementing a high-development, coaching culture, which includes redefining the role of the manager, selecting for aptitude, and development, and implementing effective success measures is presented.
Manager as Coach Typical Experience
Gallup Research has researched and evaluated workplace productivity and team engagement for years. Their research substantiates the desire people have for a good job, not just in the United States, but across the globe. Gallup defines a good job as 30+ hours per week for an employer who provides a regular paycheck. Good jobs are essential to a thriving economy, a growing middle class, a booming entrepreneurial sector, and, most importantly, human development (Gallup, Inc.)
Additionally, Gallup found that 70% of the variance in team engagement is determined solely by the manager. People not only want a good job, but they also want a good manager. When companies improve their ratio of great to lousy managers, dramatic improvements can be expected across the board.
A culture of high employee development is the most productive environment for both your business and your employees. A great manager is a lynchpin that supports such an environment. Employees no longer want a “boss”, someone who exercises control, authority, or gives orders in a domineering way. People are seeking a “manager-coach”. One who asserts leadership, support, and development opportunities for the growth of the employee and the organization.
Need for Manager as Coach
To set a business culture up for success, leadership must transform managers into coaches. This is done with a focus on introducing three core manager-coach activities: establishing expectations, continuous coaching, and accountability. Implementation of these three activities helps align the employee to the culture and organizational strategy and establishes a dialogue focused on development needs that support the attainment of the strategy.
Any organization has the capability of creating a culture of high development if they so choose. When assessing the culture, leadership must start with an intentional, well-planned strategy. Effective organizations have critically evaluated how engagement elements align with performance management and human capital strategies. They do not rely solely on leaders and managers to organically “figure it out.” Establishing a high development culture consists of four intentional practices. First, high-development culture is CEO and Board initiated. Next, these cultures educate managers on new ways of managing coaching. They practice consistent and transparent companywide communication. And they hold managers accountable for positively engaging their teams.
Becoming a Manager
Not everyone is naturally cut out to step into the manager role. Gallup has identified five key traits of great managers. Being aware of and monitoring these traits day-to-day is one way to spot future management potential. It does not stop there, however. Management training and development are crucial to effectively equipping managers to address the changing dynamics of any business. The five traits of a great manager are:
- Motivation – ability to inspire teams to get exceptional work done.
- Workstyle – ability to set goals and arrange resources for the team to excel.
- Initiation – the ability to influence others to act, pushing through adversity and resistance.
- Collaboration – ability to build committed teams with deep bonds.
- Thought process – ability to take an analytical approach to strategy and decision-making.
Like many employees, managers also seek career pathing and personal development opportunities. Effective organizations give talented individual contributors opportunities to lead projects and teams. They observe these traits and provide feedback to help the person. High-development cultures do not base their hiring decisions solely on tenure or success in a nonmanagerial role. Becoming a manager should not be an automatic rite of passage.
Developing managers begin withholding effective development conversations to assess and identify the five traits. A strengths-focused approach ensures potential managers understand their own strengths and skills before trying to help someone else. Formal training, feedback, and on-the-job assignments should be evaluated based on the three key managerial activities, one’s ability to establish expectations, continuously coach, and manage progress and accountability. Individuals seeking to manage others would benefit greatly by developing effective communication and coaching skills.
Manager Challenges
Stepping into the role of manager, one realizes the challenges inherent in being a manager. First, managers have unclear expectations as to their role. Some organizations may bring some structure to defining the role and the outcomes with little focus on measuring the effectiveness of a manager. Second, a manager has a heavy workload and continuous distractions before them. Third, many managers find less focus on their own strengths and development opportunities as they are focused on others. Lastly, managers face frustrating and antiquated performance review practices that border on bureaucracy instead of development.
While a manager faces significant challenges, they also experience the benefits of their management roles. Managers cite having a voice and involvement in decision-making as the number one incentive and benefit of holding a manager role. Next, managers value autonomy and control over their work and the experience of working in a collaborative work environment. Next, managers value the opportunity for development and potential career advancement that comes with the role. Rounding out the benefits of a management role include pay incentives for taking on additional duties and responsibilities (Miller).
Manager Expectations: Objectives, Measures, and Accountability
Most managers are usually tasked with three primary objectives or expectations. They include leading the work, leading the people, and leading the way. How success is measured for a manager is regularly left ambiguous and vague and can leave a manager wondering if they are effective. Leading the work gets much of the attention as a manager is expected to guide employees to perform tasks and deliver results. Here process improvements, workflow, and agile response to outcomes are expected and measured. Leading the people involves developing effective teams, recognizing, and rewarding talent, and performing annual reviews. These key results may not be clearly defined. While leading the way involves strategic initiatives such as building inclusive cultures, leading through change, and other related business impacts, these key results also may not always be clearly defined.
A coaching culture helps create an environment where management can focus on identifying, defining, and measuring the results around three primary objectives: Organizational Priorities, Employee Expectations, Goal Setting, and Building Key Relationships (Miller). John Doerr introduced the concept of OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) which Google adopted to gain strategic alignment within the organization. The OKRs framework was paired with CFRs (Conversations, Feedback, and Recognition) to obtain exponential results and is the basis of any effective coaching paradigm. Organizations that train managers to coach can expect to see dramatic shifts among their people and bottom-line results. Executing a high performance on each of these objectives requires unique skill sets and strengths and can easily overwhelm a manager if outcomes are not clearly defined.
Manager Development: Continuous Coaching
Great managers and leaders help employees leverage their strengths and manage their weaknesses. Those in a management role also need this focus on strengths. Training for managers should focus on being continuous, multi-modal, and experiential. Managers who demonstrate a growth mindset, who learn and do, find the increase in self-awareness aids in their ability to address key challenges like job stress, workloads, distractions, and uncommunicated expectations. Coaching is key to effectively responding to and supporting managers through management overwhelm. Managers trained in solid coaching skills and who receive solid coaching can effectively set OKRs, hold regular, continuous conversations to provide feedback, and recognition, and help people get results. With OKRs, CFRs, and coaching as the foundation for employee development, an organization can begin the process of moving away from traditional performance reviews to performance development. This shift alone can increase employee engagement significantly for any organization.
As was previously mentioned, 70% of the variance in team engagement is determined solely by the manager. That is a lot of pressure on a manager. Organizations that redefine the role of manager to coach, select managers based on aptitude for management and coaching, design manager skill development programs that are continual, multimode, and experiential, and implement effective people management objectives to measure the effectiveness of managers can expect to remain competitive and attract quality talent for years to come. It first starts with the manager.
References
Clifton, Jim, and James K. Harter. It's the Manager: Gallup Finds the Quality of Managers and Team Leaders Is the Single Biggest Factor in Your Organization's Long-Term Success. Gallup Press, 2019.
Doerr, John. Measure What Matters: OKRs - the Simple Idea That Drives 10x Growth. Penguin Business, 2018.
Gallup, Inc. “Gallup Daily: Gallup Good Jobs.” Gallup.com, Gallup, 2 Nov. 2017
Miller, Scott Jeffrey, et al. Everyone Deserves a Great Manager: The 6 Critical Practices for Leading a Team. Simon & Schuster, 2019.