New research from people development consultancy, Fairplace Cedar, reveals that many managers lack the basic coaching skills needed to get the best out of their staff and are adopting a just-get-the-job-done mentality where delegating and directing around tasks is their main team interaction.
The research, which questioned employees from UK organisations across the public, private and voluntary sectors, suggests a strong link between good coaching skills in managers and staff retention levels. Employees who plan on leaving their company within the next 12 months are more than twice as likely to rate their manager as a weak coach than employees who plan on staying at their organisation. Those planning on leaving their company are also twice as likely to say that their manager has failed to engage or motivate them over the past year.
Organisations that do not train managers to be good coaches are reducing their ability to drive business performance: 83% of employees who rate their manager as a good coach feel that they are continuously encouraged to develop and improve their performance, compared to just 18% of those who work under bad coaches.
Overall, only 55% of employees feel that their manager helps them to develop and improve continuously. Just over half of employees (52%) currently rate their manager as a good coach and only 34% of employees feel that their manager has contributed significantly to their engagement and motivation over the past year.
Worryingly, a third (33%) of respondents say their manager provides little or no constructive feedback to help them identify ways to improve performance. In contrast, task-orientated skills such as rationalising and analysing were most often rated as managers' strong areas of ability. With this skill set in mind, it is unsurprising that two fifths (43%) of respondents said their manager often relied on delegation whilst less than a quarter (24%) said their manager regularly adopted a coaching style.
Penny de Valk, chief executive of Fairplace Cedar, said: "In the current climate, where everyone is under pressure to do more with less, managers may feel that they don't have the time to adopt a coaching approach and are too often resorting to the extremes of either handing everything over, or micro-managing their team. In reality, offering constructive feedback, setting expectations, listening and thinking about individuals' development should be seen as vital to a modern manager’s core role if they are to get the best out of their team.
"We were concerned to see almost half of employees feel their managers don't exhibit good coaching skills. If businesses fail to turn their managers into better coaches, they miss an important opportunity to boost engagement, retention and results throughout their organisations. In this tough economic climate, it is critically important for businesses to get the most from their people and developing managers as coaches is one of the most cost-effective, powerful and sustainable ways for a business to drive increased performance and unlock the full potential of its people."
Other findings from the Fairplace Cedar survey showed:
- Over-reliance on delegation is compounded further up the corporate ladder, with senior managers and directors 56% more likely to say those above them delegate than coach
- Less than half (46%) of employees feel their manager has supported their career development and prepared them for transition to a new role
