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It’s the little things
Jane Sparrow on the important role ‘everyday coaching’ plays in keeping performance levels high
opportunity for organisations to reap significant value from their employees. When coaching becomes part of the culture, with leaders and managers fully committed to undertaking it as their ‘everyday’ role, the performance gains are considerable. So, are you coaching others? Do you give feedback on a regular basis? Are you enabling managers to do the same with their people?
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Building a culture of coaching Coaching cultures don’t just happen. Whilst it is true that many companies do invest in formal coaching programmes for their senior leadership, it is much less common to find companies that support, develop and encourage their line managers to be effective coaches in their day-to-day roles. Instead, managers are typically tasked with financial objectives first and the development of their teams comes second, if at all. This means that many companies are missing out on a vital lever – the middle manager – to drive performance through a strong, engaged workforce. When I originally researched the key elements of high- performance organisations, middle managers played the leading role in unlocking deeper levels of employees’ emotional commitment
learningmagazine.co.uk
oaching is a well- documented process when it comes to personal development and fulfilment, but it also offers an amazing
and personal alignment to the organisation. The middle manager as coach I describe the coach as someone who works closely with their people to unlock what it is that excites and motivates them to do the best work they can and build a deeper, emotional connection to the organisation and what it stands for. Securing this level of engagement is imperative if organisations are able to evolve and adapt with every wave of change and uncertainty that is thrown at them. This deeper level of engagement helps ensure that when change hits, employees don’t retreat to their comfort zones to ride out the storm but keep performing. The problem with coaching, however, is that it immediately conjures images of formal processes and qualifications. Many managers I work with on our development programmes often admit that although they do believe in the value coaching offers, they don’t feel they are qualified or experienced enough to coach. It’s important, therefore, to make the distinction between formal coaching (that does, of course, have its place) and the more informal, in-the-moment coaching that influences people on a daily basis. It’s this type of daily coaching, such as sparing a few minutes critiquing a colleague’s presentation after a client meeting or having a coffee with a new team member, that can really ignite performance. It shows a level of genuine interest and involvement that goes beyond transactional, target-driven discussions.
Another reason why coaching falls from the priority list is that when it comes to engagement, my research, culminating in an ‘Engagement Intelligence Profiling Tool’, showed that the least active role for middle managers is the role of strategist. This is a role grounded in action: taking an intent to engage people and actually making it happen. It takes planning, detail and organisation to make engagement happen: strong strategists will, for example, diary in reminders to catch up with key people or ensure every single team meeting happens at 9am on a Tuesday without fail. Working together, the roles of coach and strategist ensure that people are given the objective insight they need in order to take ownership of their engagement levels. Remember, these roles are not about complex, one-off, big actions but rather the small, consistently applied behaviours that keep people performing at their best. The importance of investing in these roles is something every organisation that wants to drive and sustain performance can’t afford to ignore. n
Jane Sparrow is managing director of The Culture Builders.
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