5 April 2005
Successful Intentions Newsletter
Hi ,
Are you looking to make managers more "coach-like"?
The problem with implementing a "manager-as-coach" program is that managers don't have time to be coaches! So, leave the coaching to the experts (internal or external), and train your managers to MANAGE!
The 6 Most Important Characteristics of a Good Manager
- Listening to and respecting team members' input into decisions.
- Clearly communicating, "where we are going".
- Giving team members "space" to do their work, but also supporting them.
- Displaying trustworthiness and openness in approach.
- Being fair and even-handed.
- Giving honest feedback on how team members are going.
You can pretty much pick the good managers from the bad managers by the kind of conversations they have with their team members. And it turns out that teaching coaching skills to managers can help them to manage with greater effect and less effort, without training them to be coaches themselves.
Conversations can be mapped onto a continuum, from bounded to resourceful, and they are usually framed by questions, like: "what's happening?"; "do you know what to do?"; "where did you go on the weekend?".
Bounded Conversations
Bounded conversations sound limited, controlled, circumscribed, or minimal. Managers seem overly task-focused and they give scant attention to team members' needs.
This ends up feeling inadequate and unsatisfactory. And managers themselves feel like they have to do everything, leaving no time for proper delegation or team member development.
Typical bounded questions are:
- Yes or No. Questions that prompt a simple response: "Did you…?" "When…?" "Has…?" "Can…?" "Would…?"
- Up the Garden Path. Managers ask questions that are really a disguised way of giving advice, or leading the team member to a particular solution that the manager wants: "Have you thought of…" "Should you…?" "Have you done x or y?"
- Why Not?. The why question can easily sound like an interrogation or an accusation. "Why did you do that?" might come across to the team member as, "why are you so stupid?". Too many why questions just trigger blame, excuses, or denial.
- Just the Facts. Some managers try to extract too much detail through their questions and miss the point of what is really concerning the team member.
- Ballooned. Questions might be so long or convoluted that their real intention remains hidden. Team members either don't know how to answer or feel uncertain about the manager's real motive behind the question.
Resourceful Conversations
On the other hand, resourceful conversations are:
- Purposeful.
- They challenge the team member and provoke thinking.
- They sound like an exploration of the issue or problem, rather than an interrogation.
- Managers are highly present to the conversation. Their attention is wholly focused on the team member, while at the same time remaining detached from any emotional charge.
- Questions are clear and short. They demand truthful answers.
- Managers encourage team members to take personal responsibility for their decisions and actions.
- And resourceful conversations lead to learning for the team member.
Research shows that time spent in resourceful conversations raises team member's self-awareness, builds trust, facilitates skill development, and produces more successful delegation.
Good questions for resourceful conversations are:
- "What's the issue?"
- "What makes it an issue now?"
- "Who owns this issue?"
- "How important is it on a scale of 1-10?"
- "What have you tried already?"
- "What's your ideal outcome?"
- "What's standing in the way of that ideal outcome?"
- "What are the options for action here?"
- "What criteria will you use to judge the options?"
- "Which option seems the best one against those criteria?"
- "So what's the next step?"
- "When will you take it?"
It only takes a minute to ask a question and have a resourceful conversation. In effect this is a coaching minute. And managers can be become one minute coaches to get greater leverage out of their time!
, watch out for the next installment of Successful Intentions Newsletter with a new program to help you retain talent and crack the "glass ceiling"!
Keep your intentions clear,
Peter Webb
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