Managing & Coaching: It's About Support

If you are a manager, a coach, or a manager who (hopefully) coaches, the biggest help you can provide is offering support without undermining your employee or client's sense of self -responsibility. 

It's easy to see "support" as jumping in and bailing out someone who is struggling with a situation. Instead, create an up-front agreement telling when you'll be available as a sounding board to sort out ideas or explore solutions to problems. That way, you serve as an energizer: enabling learning versus directing it.

There will be times when your seniority or position power will be needed to influence others in the organization. When that happens, provide your support. In organizational life, managers can often be most helpful by removing barriers for their people.

Successful On-The-Job Coaching: 3 Things To Do

1. Ask your employee to pinpoint issues and tasks where support is needed.

2. Let her know when when you're available to provide the needed support.

I just came across the next one as a result of a team diagnostic. The team leader thought there was some conflict within the team. He was right.

3. Make sure others on the team are working toward the same goal. Really. 

My leader client had, unwittingly and without malice, laid out a plan of action that forced a few team members to focus on cost-cutting while others were focused on growth (it was a sales team). He resolved it quickly by pulling everyone together and re-visiting the larger goal (profitability) while facilitating a discussion with the account reps to identify how they could best support each other while hitting the individual and group targets. He offered about 30% of the solutions based on deep experience; the team members worked out the other 70% themselves.

What to take away: The combination of support and self-responsibility is the key to growing people. Make sure both are abundant.

Comments

[Laymonhicks]

This is a great post, Steve! I think it's also important to remember that providing support to your employees or the team you managed should not be a one time thing. This should be continuous so it does not seem that you are truly undermining the employees. Although it is much easier to want to jump in when things are going wrong or are not taking the expected path, it is just as important, in my opinion, to want to jump in and lend a hand when things are right and on track. I think this establishes you as a leader who is not only concerned with bottom line figures, but one who is also concerned with helping your employees or team members reach their highest potential. We, as leaders, have the power to bring out the best in others and one of the best ways to accomplish this is by lending your support.

Laymon A. Hicks
www.LaymonHicks.com

[Steve Roesler]

Laymon

Thanks for weighing in.

I'm in. Bringing out the best means making what's good even better. Think about baseball: If a .200 hitter improves 10%, the average goes to .220. If a .300 hitter improves 10%: .330. Stay there and you're in the Hall of Fame.

Steve

[Josh F]

It really is important to go about coaching/supporting the right way. If you seem too eager to "take on" somebody's problem, often you will get just that--their problem, all of it, because it is not their responsibility anymore. Certain people will look for an opportunity to pass along their responsibility to you. However, if you are able to be supportive and welcoming without giving an opening for somebody to fully give you their problem, real results can be achieved. It is important for managers to resist their desire to be the fixers of everything.

[toyin sawyerr]

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