Coaching vs. Managing
Coaching seems to be the trendy word of the day. But what is it? Too often, we say we're coaching people, and what we're really doing is managing them. By managing I mean we direct them, we advise them, we hold them accountable. Those are all important things, but that's not coaching.
Managing is about what you need. Coaching is about what the person you're coaching needs. Now, of course there's a real need for both, but not focusing enough on what our people need leads to lower productivity, a lack of excitement about the work, and sometimes, the loss of your most talented people who aren't getting what they need. Also focusing too much on what you need in your advice results in you limiting the effectiveness of your team. Your limitations become their limitations. They'll become clones of you at best.
So what is coaching? It's helping someone to decide on their right action based on their goals, their values, their natural talents. The way to do that is not by giving the right advice - it's about asking the right questions. By asking the right questions you not only help the person you're coaching come up with their right action, but you're modeling a way of thinking they could use to coach themselves the next time. By giving advice, you're training them to come to you when they have a problem - by coaching them through great questions, you're helping them maximize their potential. When you coach each member of your team, the team rises higher than a bunch of clones of you ever could.
So here are two specific actions for you:
Ask more questions. In each interaction with a team member, make a little tick mark every time you give advice. Make a seperate tick mark in another column for every good open-ended question you ask. If you focus on it, you'll get better at asking more questions and giving less advice.
Create a coaching rhythm. Rather than waiting for someone on your team to come to you with a problem, schedule time each week or every other week for a coaching session with each member of your team. Again, this is not a time to manage them or hold them accountable - a coaching session is their session, not yours. They should be prepared for the session by coming up with a challenge or opportunity they want to be coached on.
When will you start managing less, and coaching more?