Feature


tasks as once they were? Sharing your knowledge is a great idea so long as oure confi dent that our knowledge is up to date. Giving feedback on other’s performance relies on having a deep understanding of what good looks like. There’s also a fear about coaching


itself. According to an online retailer, which I refuse to advertise, there are over 50,000 books about coaching. Many of these seem to portray coaching as a branch of the therapeutic industry. Managers without a consulting room and box of Kleenex on hand, may feel understandably out of their depth. Bardwick (1991) and White (2008)


both talk about the ‘fear zone’ – when unconfi dent indiiduals tring something new, experience anxiety, self-doubt and a massive urge to avoid the scary stuff. If their organisation tolerates those who ignore the demands for coaching, this seems like a reasonable course of (in)action.


3. Expectations. Team leaders may be given responsibility but not all of them have an associated level of authority. If a team leader thinks that a coaching conversation may open them up to demands for promotion or additional training or – Heaven forbid! – more pay, then this may be a massive disincentive to engage at all.


Because countless leaders have been


told to coach without support in the way of models, tools or guidelines, they don’t necessarily have a clear idea of what they should be doing. The expectations they feel unable to meet for those that they coach are compounded by a lack of clarity around the expectations the organisation may have. Team leaders are caught in the middle, and coaching brings this into a sharp, and pretty disobliging, focus.


4. An absence of role models. Many line managers – especially the newly romoted  hae little fi rsthand experience of being coached. Whether elevated from within or brought in from outside, the new team leader’s experience of coaching ma hae een defi ned  its absence rather than its effectiveness. Worse, perhaps, is prior experience of having been ‘coached’. When I speak to leaders about their coaching experience, I would estimate that around half of them have felt undermined, unsupported or pressurised. Many will want to transform their negative experience into something useful – some will not. The ‘never did me any harm’ school of management is alive and kicking where it hurts.


If we want managers to coach their team members, then they need support.


They need guidance and tools to assist them; clarity on what is expected and where it sits on their list of priorities. They need the confi dence to sa no to reuests that deprive them of the space and time to support their team as they adapt to change and adopt new behaviours. They need to have access to a wide behavioural repertoire to allow them to meet the needs of their team and drive performance. They need role models – from above and amongst their peers. Coaching – however it is interpreted in their world – needs to be normal rather than exceptional. They also need informed autonomy


to support new skills and new activities in the way that works for them and their team. As with other management actions one sie does not fi t all. Leading a team in a period of change


is tricky. It takes energy, enthusiasm and expertise. Experience tells us that if we don’t create the conditions for leaders to coach, they won’t. n


Robin Hoyle is the Head of Learning Innovation for Huthwaite International and has spent more than three decades in Learning & Development. In 2022 Robin was named one of  ot in ential eole


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