Leadership

The manager as coach

From Sabine Walter, Head of netzwerk managementberatung | coaching

In the course of the change in the understanding of leadership and leadership styles, managers in many companies are also expected to fulfil the role of coach. This leads me to take a more differentiated view of this development and to ask the following questions on the subject:

What framework conditions enable goal-oriented and effective coaching?
Where are the limits for the manager? Which coaching tools can be integrated into leadership work? What opportunities does this open up?

I answer all questions in this article.

Basics

The coach: clarification of terms and framework

The term coach comes from the English language. The original meaning in German is coach. A coach is therefore an aid that takes others from A to B. In terms of the context outlined, this means that a coach helps other people to develop themselves further.

In order for further development to be possible, various framework conditions. These include, among others:

an approachable, benevolent and neutral attitude posture of the coach,
empathy,
the ability to focus - on the coachee and his/her objectives
very good perception,
pronounced communication skills and
a stable basis of trust between coach and coachee
absolute confidentiality with the issues entrusted and discussed

If the coachee has no trust in the coach, he will not leave his comfort zone. This makes further development impossible. If the coach has no trust in the coachee, he will never be able to act from a neutral and approachable position. The coachee is no longer part of the solution but the problem. This attitude has a negative effect on the quality of the coaching and the results.

What do these framework conditions mean for the topic of "the manager as coach"?

The manager as coach

Coaching by superiors: limits

The above-mentioned framework conditions make it clear, that effective coaching does not depend exclusively on professional coaching expertise, but that the personality of the coach and the relationship level between coach and coachee play a central role in the success of the coaching, i.e. for the further development of the coachee. This brings us to the limits that this dual role of the leader implies for all participants, the process and the outcome:

Limits

Neutrality: Due to the expectations attached to the role of the manager, managers will find it difficult to coach with a neutral attitude. This means that coaching topics usually have a strong connection to the company, the current and possibly future task as well as team-related issues. Private topics or questions of professional change, even outside the current company, usually have no room.
Trust and confidentiality: In my more than 25 years of professional experience, I have experienced very few employee-supervisor relationships that are based on stable trust and ensure 100% confidentiality.

As a result, the scope of coaching and the quality of the results are severely limited.

Nevertheless, there are coaching tools that managers should integrate into their daily routine in order to promote the development of employees and teams.

The manager as coach

Coaching tools for everyday leadership

Even if many managers are not trained coaches and the framework conditions show clear limits to this role, supervisors can still use selected coaching tools in their everyday management. A key tool is targeted questioning. Below I have compiled selected coaching questions for you.

EFFECTIVE COACHING QUESTIONS FOR LEADERS

TARGET STATEMENT

What exactly do you want to have achieved at the end of this year?
Let's assume that you as a team are completely free to determine the goal you want to achieve through project XY. What would that be?
How would those around you know that you have achieved what you set out to do? (...) What else?

REQUEST MOTIVATION

Why is it important to you to achieve exactly this goal?
What would you need to be fully behind this goal?
What would be needed to fill this new role with head and heart?

AROUSE MOTIVATION

Let's say you achieved this goal as a team, what would be the benefit for you?
Let's say you had the unique opportunity to actively shape this topic. What could be a possible benefit for you and your team?
Hypothetically speaking..., what could be a benefit for someone who takes on this task, which at first glance seems quite thankless, for four weeks? (...) What else?

MAKING RESOURCES AWARE

What of what makes you work together as a team should definitely be reflected in the upcoming project?
What exactly enabled you to achieve what you set out to do? (...) What else?
Which strengths, which result from the cooperation of your different personalities, have we not yet considered?

DETERMINE STATUS QUO

On a scale of 0-10, if 0 means "not yet started" and 10 means "completed", where are you currently in relation to this task?
On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your ability to make decisions? 1 means: "I am very insecure when I have to make decisions alone". 10 stands for: "I decide on my own, even if I am not 100% sure."
If I were to ask your team colleagues: "How appreciative is colleague Joe Bloggs of you? On a scale of 1-10, what value would they give me? 1 means "hardly appreciative". 10 means "very appreciative". (...) What do you think is the basis for this assessment?

TRIGGER DEVELOPMENT

Where on the scale would you like to be in our next conversation in terms of your decision-making competence? (...) Why there? (...) What made it possible for you to reach this value?
Which of the identified fields of development should we pay attention to first? (...) Why this one in particular? (...) With what goal?
In which area would you like to develop further as a team? (...) Why there in particular? (...) What do you want to achieve through this?

ANTICIPATE OBSTACLES AND DEVELOP PLAN B

Let's consider the unlikely event that something comes up. What could that be? (...) What else? (...) How could we make sure that exactly this case does not happen?
What risks could arise in the course of the project?
Let's assume that our goal is that absolutely nothing goes wrong. What precautions would we already have to take to achieve this goal?

MAKING PROGRESS CONSCIOUS

Let's say you would look back very favourably on the last four weeks. What would you be absolutely proud of?
In our last interview, you rated your professional competence with a 4. How would you rate it today? (...) Why so? (...) What has enabled you to make this (small) progress? (...) What else?
What positive changes have your colleagues noticed in the last three months? (...) What else?

When reading the questions, you will have noticed that besides the unanswered questions also hypothetical questions play a role in coaching. This type of question helps to reduce mental hurdles and resulting resistance. A subtype of the open question is the scaling question. It aims to make things that seem less tangible equally concrete for all interlocutors. It also makes it possible to visualise and thus recognise even small progress.

The thing that all these questions have in common is their solution focus. This keeps the thinking and the atmosphere of discussion constructive and looking towards the future or the solution.

Coaching tools for everyday leadership

Active listening

Another tool that supervisors should use (not only in coaching conversations) is the rhetorical tool of paraphrase. To signal to the employee or coachee that he or she has been understood, it helps to repeat what has been said in your own words. You can use these phrases to introduce the paraphrase:

You say...
You care about...
If I have understood you correctly, you are concerned with ...
The central aspect for you is ...
Your main idea is ...
You mention the aspect .....

Summarise and create commitment

At this point I would like to mention a third tool of conversation that also plays an important role in coaching conversations, the summary tool. The summary at the end of the conversation not only focuses on the essentials but also creates commitment. Below are useful phrases for it:

How would you summarise our agreement?
What is the essence of our conversation?
What exactly do we agree now?
What concrete steps do we keep until our next conversation?

The manager as coach

Coaching by superiors: opportunities

If these coaching tools are used together with a sympathetic attitude in dialogue with staff and teams, various opportunities arise.

Opportunities at the substantive level:

Solution-finding competence is promoted by asking instead of telling
Leading the conversation through the questions helps to ensure that the main speaking part lies with the coachee; this creates the chance that the coachee takes more responsibility for the goal and agreement
The employee's personal responsibility is strengthened
Self-confidence of employees can increase
Self-efficacy of the employee can develop
Mental hurdles and resistance among employees can be reduced
Tasks fit better with the strengths of the employees
Development follows the process of "first the attitude, then the knowledge" and thus has a greater chance of success

Opportunities at the relationship level:

Relationship of trust between employee and manager can grow
The employee's sense of belonging to the team and the company can be strengthened
The fact that the manager regularly takes time for this type of appraisal interview is an expression of appreciation.

The manager as coach

Conclusion

Coaching is a tool to support people in their individual development. The boundaries outlined in the article make it clear that it is not primarily about filling the role of coach as a manager. That is not possible. Rather, it is about integrating coaching tools into one's own work as a leader in such a way that leadership effectiveness increases.

The extent to which these tools contribute to improved leadership effectiveness also depends very much on the neutral and approachable attitude of the supervisors and the level of trust that exists between them and the respective employee. In coaching, the coachee is always part of the solution and never the problem. This attitude must be perceptible in order to enable development. This becomes visible, among other things, through solution-oriented questions.

Companies that want to use coaching as a management tool should consciously select the appropriate managers. The criteria for suitability are attitude and personality. Leadership can be trained.