In the rush to improve our leadership skills, a vital area is being overlooked: coaching. In a world where we measure ourselves by solid metrics and perhaps place too much of an emphasis on hard skills over soft skills, the less tangible (yet equally important) results of coaching aren’t always appreciated.
But such benefits are real and significant. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that without coaching, it’s nearly impossible to become the leader that you were meant to be.
What makes for good coaching?
First, it’s helpful to define what constitutes effective coaching. For the most part, few companies have formal structures in place for mentoring and coaching. Instead, most seem to rely on impromptu arrangements: managers pick a rising subordinate and sit them down for occasional sessions, where they talk about necessary skills, professional development, or career goals. These informal sessions likely occur once a month (if the mentee is lucky) or more sporadically.
Needless to say, when I say that coaching yields benefits, I’m certainly not talking about this style of mentoring. It’s always better to have a coaching system that takes a systematic approach. A sample coaching system is composed of six steps, including showing confidence and sketching out the problem; describing behavior or problem that needs improvement; understanding what issues limit employee performance; brainstorming solutions; developing an action plan; and finally, setting a time for follow up and assessment, as well as ongoing feedback.
Though there are other coaching formats available, they generally follow similar themes: identify problems and opportunities, plan out a long-term solution, and critique efforts. Along the way, managers must be sure not to attack employees on a personal level (the problem is the enemy, not the person), while employees must also be careful to practice emotional detachment–and not take criticism personally.
Coaching as development
Clearly, the best coaches have some key skills. This includes the ability to pinpoint challenges (and find a way to resolve them); empathy for their subordinates; conflict resolution skills; and the ability to separate business issues from personal concerns.
Notice any similarities? These competencies are all soft skills, which concern interpersonal dealings, rather than hard skills, which are specific technical abilities. Though they’re the most overlooked–soft skills are, at times, more important. That’s not to say that a job candidate with strong soft skills (and no prior experience) can jump into an engineering job. Instead, between two candidates with a similar pedigree, the one with the stronger interpersonal abilities will win.
Soft skills may well be the most critical part of a manager’s job. The reason for this is simple: humans get more done when they collaborate efficiently; indeed, widespread cooperation is the engine of the modern economy (and society at large). On their own, individual humans have limited memories and abilities. Pooling talent and know-how, and directing it towards a greater goal has been the human way–whether it be an Iron Age civilization or a Fortune 500 company.
Hence the buzz about synergy, an oft-misused buzzword that simply means “greater than the sum of its parts.” For a team to achieve any meaningful form of synergy, they must have good leadership; and for an effective leader to skillfully navigate group dynamics, (s)he must have soft skills–which can be very effectively developed through coaching.
Yet there’s a real reluctance on the part of managers to engage in coaching, possibly stemming from the unease that comes with the positive confrontation and the level of vulnerability required of good mentors and mentees alike. Moreover, managers and employees alike see coaching as a second-tier duty at best: something that they are ordered to do, an ineffective and unpleasant checkbox on their career journey.
This is a mistake, for there’s also a financial dimension to this as well. Proper coaching pays for itself many times over: on average, this is about six times the initial cost. Among other things, individuals benefit from stronger working relationships and sharper critical thinking skills, while organizations can see higher productivity, increased engagement, and better retention.
Ultimately, we must rethink the way we approach coaching. Instead of stereotyping it as unnecessary, touchy-feely nonsense, we must understand coaching for what it is: an intensely personal, highly beneficial practice that can help individuals and corporations reach greater heights.