Coaching vs. Management: 5 Important Methods for Managers

Managers play many important roles in an organization's ecosystem. Besides transferring information between leadership and individual teams, managers act as the most important driver of employee engagement and motivation, where employees depend on their manager for day-to-day mentoring, professional development, and team moraleز As for company leaders, they rely on managers to communicate critical information to their teams and keep them motivated. 

Therefore, coaching is one of the most important administrative functions. In this article we will discover how coaching differs from management and from sharing strategies to help the manager become an effective coach.

What is  Management Coaching?

1. Coaching and Management:

There are a variety of different management styles, but it's easy to fall into the trap of delegating tasks instead of coaching, where management is usually defined as a directive and authoritative role to supervise and direct employees to achieve specific results. Coaching differs from management, but it can be used as an effective approach to the management process.

Although the goals of coaching are similar to those of management, the coaching approach focuses a lot on helping employees develop their critical thinking skills through learning. In other words, coaching is about mentoring employees, not telling them what to do.

2. The Importance of Coaching for Employees:

The adoption of a coaching approach has many benefits. It helps employees come up with solutions to the challenges they face, and it develops their problem-solving skills so that they can better cope with them in the future, which provides them with the tools to deal with increasingly large projects, rather than staying as they are, and  moving forward within the company. While this helps individuals grow and participate, it also benefits the company by creating more specific expertise and better employee retention.

3. Coaching Frameworks:

There are a variety of frameworks to help managers learn the basics of coaching. Although this article is not designed to go into any of these methods, we offer you some of them to start with an extensive training program:

• The GROW model, which is an acronym for the following key components: Goal, current Reality, Obstacles and Way forward.
• The OSKAR Coaching Framework: It is a popular training model that allows you to focus on problem solving rather than on problems themselves. It represents Outcome, Scale, Know-how, Affirm + Action, and Review.
• Micro-learning: It represents short daily activities, spaced repetition, and experiential learning.

4. Coaching Skills for Managers:

Whether you're ready or not to implement a formal management coaching training program, core skills remain consistent across all approaches and are available to you as resources. In this article, we've outlined five key techniques to help you use the key coaching principles in your organization.

1. Asking Questions:

Asking questions ensures that contributors feel that you understand them, helps clarify their ideas, and helps them take responsibility for their problems. As managers move from finding solutions to coaching, employees are able to identify possible solutions themselves rather than just doing what they are told. Ask open-ended questions that make your team feel more involved in the decision-making process.

2. Active Listening:

Managers cannot listen if they are always talking, so staff must be given space to lead the conversation. Listen to what your employees are saying, avoid distractions, watch  for their cues, and listen effectively by focusing on what is being said rather than on your inner thoughts. This will help build deep relationships between managers and employees which leads to greater influence in all parts of the organization.

3. Fostering a Growth Mindset:

Foster a growth mindset within your team by asking questions that focus on the process rather than the bottom line, be curious, and stick with your opinion to create an environment that helps everyone learn and explore comfortably. This allows contributors to hone their critical thinking skills and prepare them to make better decisions when they need a little mentoring in the future.

4. Professional Development:

Understand the career goals of your employees, identify opportunities to give them projects that can help them achieve those goals, look for opportunities to advance employees in the company, and use regular in-person meetings as an opportunity to track employees' progress and learn about their accomplishments.

5. Self-improvement:

The best way for a manager to become a good coach is to keep learning and developing themselves. No matter your level of experience, there are always opportunities to develop your skills. In the ever-evolving world of work, it is important for managers to stay on top of these opportunities for self-improvement, whether you start with simple daily learning opportunities or a larger training program. Good managers should always learn.

Coaching is the Key to Innovation:

With a coaching mindset, your organization will experience more growth and innovation. People who are encouraged to provide solutions rather than follow orders will feel more proud of their work, and they will move your organization forward in new and unexpected ways. The key to supporting successful coaches is to provide easy-to-understand training with some practical application to have a successful team capable of providing solutions to their problems.