3 Tips on Coaching Managers to Be Better Coaches

Even as someone who spends a good deal of my working day studying the power of effective coaching on employee engagement, I was still surprised to read a recent Gallup Daily poll that showed only 32 percent of U.S. employees are engaged at work. Another Gallup study revealed that 51 percent of employees polled are looking for another job.

Needless to say, these numbers are discouraging, especially with all the resources and effort that have gone into trying to engage employees over the last decade. But there is good news. As a professional coach, simply coaching frontline managers to be better coaches themselves can help organizations reinvigorate employee engagement in a lasting and powerful way.

For one thing, most companies greatly underestimate just how much influence frontline managers have on employee engagement and performance. According to “The No-Managers Organization Approach Doesn’t Work,” a Gallup publication by Brandon Rigoni and Bailey Nelson, managers account for at least 70 percent of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units.

How does that stack up in numbers? The same study shows teams led by managers who focus on strengths report engagement levels of 61 percent, while teams led by managers who focus on weaknesses report engagement levels of just 45 percent. That makes sense, but here’s the kicker: When managers ignore their employees, engagement plummets to a mere two percent.

One of the most important, leadership skills to develop in managers is the ability to coach effectively—including how to connect with employees and get the best out of them on an ongoing basis. From my own experience, here are three employee performance management best practices I’ve found effective in turning frontline managers into first-rate coaches.

1. Teach them to be self-aware

The more managers understand their own emotions, fears, passions, strengths and weaknesses, the better they can empathize with these characteristics in others and offer coaching and solutions. The ability of a leader to identify, understand and manage their own emotions in a positive way can guide their thinking and behavior to have a profound impact on those they lead. Managers should be encouraged to take the time to understand and contextualize information and situations prior to reacting. Some managers find journaling is an excellent way to start getting in touch with their inner selves.

2. Help them get to know employees as individuals

Today’s workforce is increasingly diverse, with typical teams covering a range of backgrounds, cultures and ages. This underscores the fact that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to coaching, as each individual will have different needs and expectations about development, learning on the job, career progression and performance management—a manager, therefore, needs to get to know and understand what each individual on his or her team wants.

That means not just speaking with employees at performance reviews, but making performance management an ongoing habit, creating a manager-employee relationship based on open communication and meaningful feedback that occurs regularly. It also means asking them about their goals and their outside interests; the manager may even discover skills and talents they didn’t know the employee had.

In-depth knowledge of their employees also helps managers identify and develop their employees’ individual strengths and weaknesses, how those play out in specific tasks and responsibilities, and which tools and resources could be of benefit.

3. Help them see coaching as a two-way street

Once managers start developing their coaching skills, they’ll want to know what’s working and what’s not. Both new and seasoned leaders need to be evaluating and evaluated on their leadership skills on an ongoing basis. Encouraging leaders to conduct 360-degree feedback processes is a great way for them to identify strengths and areas for improvement. Every leader should have an evolving leadership plan, and 360-degree feedback can help build that plan.

Strong leadership is the key to success

Strong leadership at all levels of an organization is one of the key pillars of success. But few people are born with great leadership skills—more often, great leaders are made. At first, that might seem painfully obvious.

Of course, people are going to be more engaged if they work for managers who follow employee performance management best practice rather than for someone who bullies, blames and berates them. But as the numbers show, it turns out the issue is more complex than that.

Organizations can’t just sit back and hope people will become great leaders. It’s important for coaches to reinforce to managers that they should be given or at least find the tools, resources and development they need to succeed through internal or external resources.