Coaching vs. Managing Employees
What’s the difference between managing and coaching?
It seems like a simple question, and yet a lot of managers struggle to answer it. And if they’re struggling to answer that question, they probably also are struggling to coach—if they’re coaching at all.
And why does that matter? Because decades of research have shown that coaching can help your direct reports improve their performance and achieve their business goals, which in turn helps your company achieve its business goals.
So what are some of the differences?
Managing basically means telling people what to do. It’s not so much a process as a series of discrete events. Coaching, on the other hand, is an ongoing process running through all your interactions with your direct reports.
Managing seeks to bring about an immediate result concerning a specific issue. Coaching seeks to help direct reports learn how to bring about both immediate and long-term results by engendering reflective thinking and empowering employees to find the best way to solve the problems they face.
Managing is basically a one-way process. Coaching is a two-way process, an ongoing and wide-ranging discussion that not only addresses a current issue or problem but also helps the direct report reflect on what they’re doing and how they’re doing it, so that they select the best solution to the issue or problem – and respond future problems reflectively as well.
Through coaching conversation with direct reports, managers can:
Let direct reports know what managers expect of them and clarify their priorities so that they align their efforts with unit goals and company key business goals.
Train them, help them to learn, develop their capabilities.
Catch them doing something right! – give appreciative feedback so that they will continue to do the right thing.
Redirect them when they get off-track so that they don’t make mistakes that could cost money or expose the company to risk.
Find out about any obstacles to their doing a great job and help them overcome the obstacles so that they can succeed and the business unit and company can achieve key goals.
Energize them when they are flagging.
Create a sense of urgency about high-priority issues so that they focus their efforts where those efforts are most needed..
Help make their learning explicit so that they will better remember and retain it.
Sharpen their critical thinking so that they can better own their job and solve problems independently.
Remember that in all coaching conversations with direct reports, managers should be trying to:
Facilitate learning by developing skills, competence, and confidence
Create an aha! moment for their direct reports – a moment in which the direct reports see a process, problem, or issue in a new way and thus are spurred to formulate different approaches for addressing it.
Bring about a change in the direct report’s awareness, understanding, commitment, behavior, and performance.
All that sounds good, right? So what’s stopping managers from doing more of it?
For one thing, a lot of managers think they’re already doing a good job of coaching, but their direct reports often tell another story. For example, in one recent study, 82% of managers said they give their direct reports feedback on how to maximize their strengths—but only 49% of those direct reports agreed. In that same study, 89% of managers said they give their direct reports sufficient feedback on areas where they need improvement—but only 57% of their employees agreed.
Why does this matter? In the first case, managers are missing an opportunity to help employees elevate their performance from good to excellent. In the second case, managers are missing an opportunity to turn mistakes, or missing the mark, into learning opportunities by encouraging and helping direct reports to think reflectively.
In both cases, the benefits of coaching include stronger future performance. Organization-wide, and sometimes within a single business unit, stronger performance can directly benefit the bottom line by enhancing revenue, decreasing costs, or both.
Another reason is that even for well-intentioned managers, a lot of obstacles can lie in the way of effective coaching. Most of them have to do with communication and the ways in which it can break down. For example, in preparing to have a coaching conversation, these obstacles may arise:
Unclear subject: What is it that the manager wants to talk about with a direct report? Your managers should have a specific goal in mind when they have a coaching conversation, and that goal should be an action that brings about a specific business result. They also should tell their direct reports up front about the purpose of the conversation. For a lot of workers, hearing the vague question “You got a minute?” from their supervisor causes dread, which can hamper the worker’s ability to learn. This can be especially true in an organizational culture in which coaching conversations are not common.
The setting: Some settings are more conducive to coaching conversations than others. Your managers should think about where and when they want to have the coaching conversation. Quiet and lack of distractions will enhance the quality of the conversation, as will the presence of anything they might need to foster the conversation – a flipchart or whiteboard, say.
Unclear goal: The goal of every coaching conversation should be to help the direct report succeed—and managers should be transparent about that goal, starting at the beginning of the conversation. Making sure that they have no hidden agenda – and that the direct report does not think they do – is critical.
The approach: Managers don’t have to write out a script, but they should think carefully about what they want to say, the tone with which they convey it, and even their body language during the conversation. Why? Because, in face-to-face (or Zoom) conversations, their direct report’s understanding of their meaning will depend on all three of these factors. (In written communication, body language is irrelevant, of course, so tone takes on even more importance.)
So how do managers have these conversations? We offer a three-part framework for holding coaching conversations and other strategic conversations. Give it a look and see how it can work for you and your managers.
