Coach, Don’t Command

BursaSnipers

Publish date: Sun, 22 Sep 2019, 02:06 PM

3 Gallup estimates bad management in the U.S. saps productivity by between $960 billion and $1.2 trillion a year. Today’s workforce — millennials and Gen Z in particular — need organizations to build a culture that turns managers from bosses to coaches.

That’s all from Jim Harter who, with Jim Clifton, wrote “It’s The Manager.” Harter is the chief scientist, Workplace, for Gallup. Clifton is Gallup’s CEO and chairman. They say the quality of managers and team leaders is the single biggest factor in a company’s longterm success — and snuffing out bad management.

Set The Standard

An effective coach meets three requirements, Harter says. They:

› Establish expectations. Managers who involve employees in goal-setting develop people who are four times more likely to be engaged. Yet, 30% of employees are involved in goal setting.

› Continually coach. Employees who receive substantive daily feedback from their manager are three times more likely to be engaged than those who receive feedback only once a year or less, Harter and Clifton wrote. They also say a good rule is meaningful feedback at least once a week.

› Create accountability. Harter and Clifton say managers should have formal progress reviews at least twice a year. The focus in these reviews should include the employee’s purpose, goals, development, and team contribution.

Make Conversations Count

Just replacing annual reviews with more frequent conversations is not enough to end bad management, Harter and Clifton wrote. “Coaching discussions demand substance and purpose — without leaving employees feeling micromanaged,” they said.

That requires managers to know themselves, too. The internal “why” of your leadership style is far more important than the “how” of it, says Jerry Colonna, author of “Reboot: Leadership And The Art Of Growing Up.”

If you can understand “why” you lead as you do, “then you have the ability to adapt your leadership and grow,” he says. This aids in “figuring out (what is) the most appropriate ‘how’ to any leadership challenge.”

Colonna, the CEO and cofounder of Reboot.io, an executive coaching and leadership development firm, says to ask yourself questions such as:

› How do I define success in my endeavors?

› Where does that definition spring from?

› What do I believe about the world and how does that shape who I am, and what I strive for?

“A leader who is unwilling to look honestly and openly at their internal belief systems is a leader that is unwilling to be the best leader they can be,” he says.

Slow Down

One of the many obstacles to leading well is that leaders feel so busy all the time, Colonna says. Leaders often feel communicating how busy they are equates with selfworth. But that’s a self-perpetuating cycle that leaves no time to take the time to improve and coach.

Colonna says “every wisdom tradition I’ve encountered ultimately teaches the same thing: slow down and face the (challenges).”

Trust And Verify

Provide opportunities by giving people experience in leading teams, while also tracking who is best at working with and developing others.

“This ‘game film’ of people leading others on a project to a successful completion can become a useful criteria for anticipating who might be a managerial candidate,” Harter said.

Not everyone wants to become a manager, and that’s not the only way to recognize them.

Harter says outstanding individual contributors need to see a career path where they can gain high recognition that is consistent with their development and contribution.

“Becoming a manager shouldn’t be an assumed rite of passage to advance within an organization,” he said.

Change With The Times

Today’s employees, on average, value purpose over paycheck and personal development over satisfaction. These goals are in addition to looking for a coach over a boss, and having ongoing conversations over just reading annual reviews.

When you have great managers who, through proper coaching, can maximize the potential of every team member, you’ve delivered on the new global goal: A great life and a great job. “That is the future of work,” Harter and Clifton wrote.

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