6 ways a manager can coach their team to success

CAREER

Managers, want to improve your team's engagement and motivation? Time to switch to coaching mode. It’s a different skill set to managing, but these tips will guide you.

​Published in In The Black 

It is hard to find a manager who is not busy juggling projects, meetings and a stream of pressing problems. This leaves them with little time to develop the skills of their team.

Yet according to workplace experts, it is the managers who coach their teams, rather than simply manage them, whose lives are made much easier.

“Being a good coach and a manager can remove a lot of the stress,” says Guy Hargreaves, principal at HR and coaching consultancy The Workplace Coach.

“That’s because your team will be more engaged. They’ll be happier in their roles, morale will be higher, absenteeism will be lower, and you’ll have fewer conduct issues. It can be a big timesaver.”

The terms managing and coaching are often used interchangeably, but the approaches are distinct. Managing is about organising people and processes to deliver work on time and on budget, while coaching focuses on getting the best out of people by helping them improve their own effectiveness.

“When we’re using coaching skills, we’re asking questions and guiding rather than telling,” explains Professor Grace McCarthy, dean of business at the University of Wollongong.

“We’re listening to people, helping them to solve their own problems, to set their own goals, and giving them feedback in a respectful way. That leads to positive action in the future.”

Hargreaves believes that, while some situations may require a more direct management approach, managers should never take off their coaching hats.

“Every interaction you have with someone in your team is an opportunity to either build that relationship or damage it,” he says.

“Going into those conversations, you should always be asking, ‘What am I trying to achieve? How can I make sure it’s a positive experience and that the person will be more engaged, not less’?”

Coaching is not a skill set that comes naturally to all managers, but the experts agree that following a few simple rules can help managers put coaching into action.

To read the tips, view the story in CPA Australia's magazine, IN THE BLACK