Coaching Matters

Managing people is never an easy task, and coaching them can prove to be even more difficult. Julia Milner and Trenton Milner, authors of the article “Most Managers Don’t Know How to Coach People. But They Can Learn” discuss that when it comes to most managers, they are not teaching their employees. Instead, they are just simply telling them what to do.

Managers come in all different forms. From managers who are there to help you step by step to those who sit in their offices all day without interaction. They all have their own sense of “what helps”. I wish to discuss why coaching up employees and followers is the more efficient managerial technique.

As used in the Milners’ article, Sir John Whitmore, an expert executive coaching figure, says that the definition of coaching is “unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them”. To me, this definition of coaching is perfect. There is a huge difference between learning and teaching and I do not think enough leaders understand this difference.

Personally, I think that the nine leadership coaching skills that the Milner’s researched are perfect in order to determine what managers should work on to increase their coaching. In my own experience with past leaders and managers, I have found that the ones who possess the most of these skills tend to be the best. Unfortunately, I do not think I fully possess all of these skills as I have not had enough experience in leading yet.

The reason that these nine techniques are so important and why coaching employees is so pivotal to being a manager is due to the interaction they provide with your employees. People enjoy the reassurance that their leader or boss is there to help them, listen to them, and care about them. Sometimes it may not be the easiest for someone to be an interactive manager, but that is okay.

With enough practice and hard work anyone can become a great coach, manager, and leader. Maybe you just need to work on listening to others a little better, or showing people a little more empathy. Either way, everyone has the ability to lead. It is up to us to access and master that ability.