How Managers Can Become Effective Coaches

Irrespective of the industry or business domain, the working environment is rapidly evolving itself in every aspect. The footprints of conventional tactics are no more in trend now. The paradigm shift from “Profit-driven” and “Product-first” to the “Consumer-driven” business approaches are redesigning the firm culture. With bulldog determination, organizations are shifting the scope of creating culture at every firm level.

According to Deloitte, 94% of executives and 88% of employees 
consider a distinct workplace culture as an important factor for the business success.

In order to greet and meet the modern business environment and digital transformation, organizations observe cultural change that also improves its procedures of production, sales, technical infrastructure and employee management. This organization culture change starts with building a coaching culture which chiefly relies on leadership transformation from “commanding” to “coaching” mindset.

What words describe culture also generally refers to the skills for effective leadership. An efficient organizational culture is achieved through an overall successful coaching manner. This journey of being “effective manager” is adopted through a strategic and systemized mechanism.

Let’s look at what this journey of coaching takes, its benefits, and how managers can attain effective leadership skills.

Do You Really Know What Coach-Like Management Requires? Think Again!

Before counting the benefits of being an effective manager or “coach”, did you know that

 Most managers are not aware of the real meaning of coaching and consider themselves a “coach-like-manager”!

According to a Harvard Business Review study, most managers or so-called leaders believe themselves coaching while in actual, they’re just narrating their employees “what to do”. The same study also stated that managers often demonstrate a form of consulting that provide their employees with advice or a direct solution, and assume this micromanaging approach as a legitimate coaching practice.

Contrarily, coach-like-managers need to have qualities for effective leadership and core coaching skills which include being ethical, transparent and team-oriented. Similar traits are also requisite for being a Digital Leader. However, this doesn’t end with having the right skillset as there isn’t any one-size-fits-all solutions. Effective manager skills consider coaching mindset, where employees are trusted with their potential to find innovative solutions. Generally, effective listeners are effective managers but without the coaching mindset, being a good listener would end up giving instructions.

The days of command-and-control leadership are over.

Now it’s time for organizations and managers to understand what coaching is and why it is important.

Why Is It Essential to Have Coach-Like Managers?

Efficiency and productivity of a company swirls around its organizational culture which is fundamentally given by the coach-like managers. In other words, the foundation of a sustainable coaching culture is governed by effective leadership traits. Since it is unrealistic for today’s managers to have comprehensive knowledge of all technical and business skills of their employees. The only effective way to improve team performance is by supporting their team members’ already existing know-how into genuine contribution. This can be done through active listening, powerful questioning and action planning. Moreover, in an ever-changing world where all employees need to constantly upskill themselves, managers can support the individual development of their team members on a one-on-one basis.

When leaders who are equipped with coaching skills conduct periodic coaching sessions, they analyze the strengths and weaknesses of team members in a much deeper way and act on development-needed areas. This helps them to delegate tasks that align with their employees’ evolving skill sets, interests, and career goals.

An ecosystem of learning, sharing knowledge, constant feedback and personal/career development make employees feel valued, and resultantly, yield high performance and engagement.

Coach-like managers are not only the accelerators for career development, but also leverage the development of larger units within an organization. By empowering employees to take ownership and solve problems under guidance, coach-like leaders facilitate high-performing teams contributing to a shared vision and thereby, increased organizational productivity. As a matter of fact, a study by the Human Capital Institute and the International Coach Federation states that 

Organizations with strong “coaching-cultures” report revenue growth increased above their industry peer group (51% compared with 38%) and considerably higher employee engagement (62% compared with 50%)

Another report by Deloitte Bersin and Associates claims that organizations with senior leaders who coach effectively and frequently improve their business results by 21% as compared to those who never coach!

Transform Managers into Coaches and Effective Leaders

The common opinion about coaching and effective leadership development programs is that they are unproductive and unsustainable. This is mainly due to the traditional courses that only cover abstract and theoretical training in a limited amount of time, with little practice. These short programs create only short-term awareness. Therefore, they are not internalized by leaders and face resistance by the workforce due to lack of its customization and implementation within the organization.

So, What Is the Sustainable Solution?

Bear in mind that the transition from traditional manager to an “effective coach” would not happen in one-time; like turning on a switch. A sustainable coaching culture is built through consistent investment in learning and practicing the mechanism of coaching and effective leadership. Effective managers tend to use more valued characteristics for becoming coach. For instance, what makes effective leadership involves these steps:

1. Consider systematic transition

Initially, craft the strategies for coaching aligned with objectives, values, vision, and business strategy. Usually at this point, HR professionals come forward and collaborate with the other managers to support coaching and engage in culture change of the firm. Next, provide the managers with a framework that can formulate general direction to the roadmap of further coaching conversations. Finally, coaching can be moved from individual coaching sessions to the organizational learning level, i.e., cultural change occurs.

2. Give people “coaching literacy”

If employees do not have the basic notions about coaching, they also become suspicious about the process and resist giving genuine answers to the coaching questions of their managers. Therefore, it is not only crucial for managers to learn about coaching, but also for the employees being coached to gain a certain “coaching literacy” either through training or digital coaching applications.

3. Make coaching an ongoing process

Companies should know that coaching needs to be adopted as a daily-basis routine. Inject this culture by strengthening and supporting the managers.

It will require practice where managers are supported. Gradually make it a part of everyday relationships, where evaluation and feedback are embedded at each step of the coaching culture journey.

4. Switch roles and responsibilities

Although coaching or mentoring is considered as the manager’s role. But they should also receive coaching themselves as well as guidance through supervision. Learning the experience of being-coached is extremely beneficial for its successful accomplishment.

5. Perform coaching at scale

For an effective organizational culture change, strategically move from one-on-one coaching of top-level executives to the all levels.

Are you ready to Become the Next successful organization?

If you are still thinking about organization culture example or can leaders be managers. Stop wondering!

Join SparkUs and become a significant digital leader that can create learning environment with high engagement. Here is what you will learn with us.

• Creating supportive organizational culture through trust and awareness
• Providing ongoing support of senior executives and, in particular of HR professionals to build your organizational culture
• Training your managers to develop and utilize their coaching skills
• Offering professional tools and programs to your employees for this journey

Meet SparkUs “Coaching Culture Program”

Connect with our “Coaching Culture Program” which is uniquely designed to assist companies with effective practices for managers and supervisors. We train leaders for the fundamentals of coaching, and its practical experience on ‘when and how’ to coach. Our proficient team of coaches provide training and supervision via the SparkUs platform.

Our program will offer you:

Peer Coaching
An exceptional training that includes hands-on peer coaching and supervision. Our customized content helps managers to see the big picture and understand how they can practically implement this training at their workplace.

Sustainable Coaching
Provide support to the leaders with pre-generated, themed coaching content for their employees to serve as a basis for their coaching dialogue.

High Employee Engagement
To secure the agenda of “coaching literacy”, our platform will allow the employees to access their coaching sessions prior their training. It is always valued to step ahead the issue and get acquainted with its countering mode of action.
Employees that on-board our coaching program become well-prepared to address issues and take necessary action. Ultimately, our clients extract higher employee engagement and effective performance through our outstanding and regular coaching.

As your ultimate solution partner, we will help you to design customized “coaching strategy” aligned with your organizational goals.

You will always find our ongoing support and assistance for desired coaching culture ensuring the ROI in coaching as cherry on the top!

Transform Your Managers into Coaches with SparkUs

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