One area that I continue to develop as a manager is the role of being a good coach to my employees. It’s funny – when you first become a manager, one of the natural instincts is to jump in and take control of your team. Your inclination is to get things under control, fix any outstanding issues, and put processes in place so that business as usual can run as smoothly possible. However, once you settle in and get your bearings, you’ll quickly realize that your employees are your greatest allies and that you’ll need to build solid relationships with them as soon as possible. These relationships are built upon trust, credibility, and caring – all are essential. Only at this point are you able to build a coaching relationship.
Why does coaching matter so much?
Coaching, when done correctly, is the continual process of observing employees and then providing them with thoughtful, constructive feedback on how they can improve. This is important because it can reinforce good habits, contribute to skill-building, and help employees (and the team) succeed in the long run. All common sense, right? So why do so many managers seem to do it so poorly, or not do it at all? I have 3 guesses: 1) Managers don’t have the experience and/or education they need to be effective coaches. 2) Coaching becomes a lower priority compared to high-pressure projects. 3) Sadly, in many cases, managers are just "too busy."
You won’t last long as a manager if you fall into one of those areas. But don’t worry – most any manager has the ability to learn, adapt, and break-out of any of those situations with a little bit of effort. After all, as Harvard Business Review puts it, "If you’re not helping people develop, you’re not management material."
Fighting the Forgetting Curve
As a great manager and great coach, you can help employees retain new knowledge and skills using easy but powerful ways. According to an article in Wired magazine, the simple act of continual reminders can help anyone retain information much longer and much more accurately. The article calls this the spacing effect, which is the constant reminding of information in order to prevent it from being lost forever. The spacing effect, as illustrated below, counteracts the projected forgetting curve. It is considered "one of the most remarkable phenomena to emerge from laboratory research on learning," according to psychologist Frank Dempster.
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This is where you come in as a coach. Staying in touch with your employees on a regular basis to assess their skills, their strengths, and their weaknesses is a must. Observing them on-the-job and providing them with constant feedback on their performance can strengthen your ties as manager and employee while reinforcing new and existing teachings.
What’s your coaching style?
I was watching football earlier today when I saw a coach have a major temper tantrum on the sidelines. I get it – you need to have passion and stick up for your team to be successful….but there’s a pretty big downside to behaving that way.
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Stop for a moment and think about your interactions with your team. How do you communicate, motivate, and direct the team? How do they respond? If you’re having issues with any of your interactions, you may want to assess your style first. My personality tends to lean toward the calm, cool, and collected side. When working with my team, I try to see things from their perspective and treat them how I would want to be treated. (Not rocket science, right?) I won’t say that it’s a perfect combination, but it seems to work pretty well for me – and I would think (hope?) my employees would agree!
One more reason to provide constant feedback
Another reason for providing constant feedback is because it gives employees validation for the work that they do; it lets them know that you’re observing and looking out for them. Your feedback helps them course-correct on a daily basis, as opposed to letting them get completely off course. I’ve been a huge fan of constant feedback for a while, and that was the basis for me creating HelpMeShine – a system for helping employees gather feedback about their performance from their manager, co-workers, and business partners. Whether you use a system or old-fashioned conversations, constant feedback will be appreciated by your employees and help them improve on a daily basis.
Note: I’m in the process of redesigning and upgrading many features of HelpMeShine. It will be re-launching in October. Keep an eye out for information by following @HelpMeShine on Twitter!
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