Regarding coaching, "But if I don't give my employees answers, Mary, they'll get mad."
I get lots of different responses like that when I train managers on coaching skills. But before we get into that, let's define coaching for our purposes today.
Coaching is...
-
Unlocking people's potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them. - Timothy Galway
- An informed dialogue whose purpose is the facilitation of new skills, possibilities, and insights in the the interest of individual learning and organizational advancement. - Terry R. Bacon, Karen I. Spear
- [Coaching differs from mentorship in that] coaching requires expertise in coaching but not in the subject at hand. That is one of its great strengths. - John Whitmore
Coaching is not...
Though tempting to think so, coaching is not:
- Mentoring
-
Advising
- Answer-giving
- Instructing
- Directing
- Problem-solving
Yes, problems get solved. With coaching you could say you
facilitate the coachee solving her or his own problems, but the monkey does not end up on your back.
Back to strategy.
Why am I connecting coaching to being strategic? Let's take a moment to define what I meaning by "strategic."
Strategic thinking in a manager's role goes beyond problem-solving and meeting objectives and instead means working effectively at a level that is beneficial to the overall organization.
Is your own supervisor telling you that you need to develop your strategic thinking skills in order to advance?
You can start developing yourself daily, by practicing coaching skills of all things.
I know it is easy to give answers instead of coaching. And let's admit it, sometimes we just want to move this or that person out of our office or off of the phone by giving them an answer or telling them what to do, but making a habit of that is not strategic.
Practicing coaching demonstrates that you know others need to learn to get things done without you. As you advance in your coaching skills you begin to ask your employees questions which expand their own thinking. They begin to carry out their work in a way that benefits the entire organization, rather than stay in silo mode.
This approach will begin to shift how you think about everything.
Going back to the quotation by David Goldsmith at the beginning of this post, strategic thinking involves expanding options, creating opportunities and generating solutions. You can do this better and differently by engaging your employees differently.
Develop their resourcefulness and initiative and your own strategic thinking skills. Try coaching.
