Why Coach?
At one time or another, all of us have been coached or coached someone. Some of these experiences may bring up negative memories of a coach who spent more time yelling than motivating, or of a manager who didn’t put much effort into the role. These negative examples often represent a poor coaching approach. Yet, despite these negative experiences in the past, it is crucial for leaders to understand and adopt a coaching style in order to get the best performance out of his/her team members. There are many reasons why coaching is important including increased employee engagement, problem mitigation, improved performance, and a better culture for the team and organization just to name a few.
Employee Engagement
One benefit of coaching is increased employee engagement. “Training and coaching your workers also keeps them more engaged and satisfied with their work, significantly reducing turnover rates. IBM found that when its employees lacked career support and advancement opportunities, they were 12 times more likely to find work elsewhere.” (Tal, 2017) Additional research has shown that employees who move from low to high levels of engagement can increase performance by 20% and reduce the probability of a team member leaving by 87%. Putting the time and effort into coaching your employees can pay these huge dividends at a relatively low cost.
Problem Mitigation
Another reason to adopt a coaching management style is that “Coaching helps to mitigate problems sooner rather than later.” (Leonard, 2018) If managers utilize coaching effectively, they help people learn by developing more self-confidence and problem-solving capability, as well as help them get the job done to a higher standard. This will effectively reduce the time and effort you as a manager, and your employees will spend struggling to drive a project to completion. The culture of coaching and training empowers the individual to make decisions with confidence thus limiting the need for direct intervention from the manager.
Improved Performance
Productivity is another benefit of coaching. “The Bureau of Justice Statistics in June 2001 reported that companies who combine coaching with training increase employee productivity over 80%. Additionally, a conservative estimate of the monetary payoff from coaching, according to Fortune magazine, is that managers describe an average return of more than six times the cost of coaching.” (Mowbray, 2011) A 6:1 or better return on investment in terms of productive employees is a nice return on investment. I know in my engagements that involve coaching and training, I have seen significant improvement in leadership and company performance.
Better Culture
An improved culture is another result of a coaching management style. Culture change is greatly impacted by the manager and employee relationship—and coaching is one of the most influential aspects of this relationship. Coaching is an effective way to improve engagement, enhance the work environment, build trust, and reduce turnover. Supervisors and managers can have a profound impact on the workplace by effectively coaching their direct reports. Nineteen of the top twenty-five (76%) engagement levers were attributed to the immediate supervisor or manager. “You build a better relationship with employees, and those employees are more likely to buy into the company vision and work harder to succeed. Mentoring builds loyalty and makes employees more willing to go the extra mile because they see promotions and bigger success in their future.” (Leonard, 2018) This buy in and loyalty from your employees are great attributes of a positive culture in your organization.
Developing a coaching management style is a necessary skill in today’s workforce and will continue to grow in importance. John Whitmore in his book, Coaching for Performance, says “successful leaders of the future will have to lead in a coaching style rather than command and control, allowing people to exercise more choice.” The future of leaders is truly in the form of a coaching management style and there are a lot of benefits to be had from adopting this style.
For the Faith-Based:
While in management, we all have the ability and the chance to influence others. As leaders in our companies, we hold a very important position because we can make or break a team. We can be the difference between success and failure. We can coach a team, both by our example and by our sharing our knowledge. “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17) In other words, those in leadership are called to coach others.
We see examples in the Old Testament that Moses coached Joshua. Eli coached Samuel. Samuel coached Saul and David. We can’t forget Paul who excelled at coaching his followers, as seen in his letters.
In the New Testament, we see the power of Jesus using coaching to motivate and develop His disciples. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus asks more than 60 questions, about 2/3rds of which are open-ended. One of my favorite examples is found in Matthew 16:13. Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” After they respond, Jesus then asks this powerful question, “But what about you? Who do you say I am (Mt 16:15)?” This was a “stake-in-the-ground” question that caused them to reflect on all that they had seen him do, all that he had shared with them, and their very relationship with him.
Peter responds, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Wow…Peter, you got it. We get this sense when Jesus replies, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in Heaven (Mt 16:17).” Jesus’ words are affirming and supportive of Peter’s response.
References:
Leonard, K. (2018, October 19). The Importance of Coaching and Mentoring. Retrieved September 29, 2019, from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-coaching-mentoring-23704.html.
Mowbray, L. (2011, December 2). The Creative, Conscious Leadership Consultancy. Retrieved September 29, 2019, from https://www.mowbraybydesign.com/coaching-roi/.
Tal, D. (2017, September 27). A ‘Culture of Coaching’ Is Your Company’s Most Important Ingredient for Success. Retrieved September 29, 2019, from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/300904.
John Whitmore, Coaching for Performance – 4th Ed., (Boston: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2009), 176.