Written by Simon Leckie, Development Consultant, LSN

The views on the role of a manager as a coach or mentor are as wide-ranging as the views of coaching and mentoring.

Many point out that managers are ideally placed to coach and mentor, and will have many of the skills required as part of their existing management skills set. Developing managers as coaches will equally improve their overall performance as a manager too.

Conversely, others argue that the nature of the management relationship can actually prove to be a significant barrier, and will stifle the development of the open and honest relationship needed for effective coaching and mentoring.

What both viewpoints do agree on though is that there is a need for a high level in the skills required to coach, and that a willingness to adopt a different style – adopting a partnership approach rather than formalised line management – is vital.

Whitmore (2002) says that empathy, integrity and detachment are critical and it would be hard to argue that these characteristics were not equally important to effective management. Zeus and Skiffington (2000) discuss the need for excellent interpersonal skills and a supportive and collaborative style (again, who would say that these weren’t desirable traits for a manager?) whilst maintaining that a manager may still need to take a more directive approach to coaching because of the nature of the relationship with the coachee.

Below are outlined some benefits and risks of managers acting as coaches:

Benefits

• Managers well placed to provide coaching as and when required
• Managers will understand organisational culture, strategic goals and priorities
• Coaching skills part of managers’ skill set
• Managers will have understanding of team members skills and expertise

Risks/issues

• Power relationship between manager and coachee may inhibit development of trust and openness
• Manager may not understand organisational culture, strategic goals and priorities any better than coachee
• Manager may  have poor coaching skills
• Previous experiences may affect manager’s and coachees’ perception of capability and could hinder impartiality

CIPD research shows that coaching is increasingly being seen as the responsibility of line management. The 2009 survey Taking the temperature of coaching  showed that line managers supported by internal coaches were responsible for 63% of coaching delivery, whereas coaching by external practitioners was reported by only 15% of the sample.

The 2010 Learning and Talent Development survey carried out by CIPD showed that 56% of respondents identified coaching by line managers as an increasing trend.

Despite the conflicting views, there is a clear trend towards the use of line management as the means through which organisational coaching takes place. Regardless of the potential risks it is clear that managers are seen to have a clear role in coaching, and the benefits are felt to outweigh the risks. To mitigate the risks inherent in using managers as coaches, the supervision of coaching practice becomes extremely important to ensure that the very things that make coaching so effective are not lost due to the nature of the line management relationship

The Coaching at the Sharp End research report published by CIPD in 2009 examined the role of line managers in coaching at work. The report found that the manager as coach can be described as a management style characterised by:

• Regular coaching conversations
• Effective feedback processes
• The encouragement of superior performance
• The development of productive and trusting relationships in the workplace

The research found clear indications of the contribution that a coaching style of management can make to developing and retaining high-performers and ensuring a robust and proactive approach to managing poor performance. Developing line managers as coaches was also found to deliver the following benefits:

• Better team relationships
• Enhanced levels of self-confidence
• Improvements to engagement, flexibility and commitment

In the current economic climate organisations simply do not have the money to invest in external coaches and this, combined with the need to maximise the value of existing resources, means that performance management is becoming increasingly important. Given that managers are a key component in the performance management process, and that coaching provides a highly effective approach for improving an individual‘s performance, it is hard to see how the case for not using managers could be argued.

I am seeing firsthand the benefits that developing managers as coaches delivers. I’m involved in a programme where we are training over a hundred senior managers across an organisation in Dubai.

So far, we’ve trained nearly half and the feedback we have been getting from those that have taken part has been nothing short of amazing! The impact that the use of coaching has had is incredible, leading to managers being asked by their Directors how they managed to achieve such dramatic improvements in performance of their teams.

The answer is that coaching is engaging employees in the organisation’s priorities, and getting everyone to provide their solutions and take ownership of putting improvements in place.

A quote from one of the managers says it better than I can:

“Everyday I am experiencing the coaching in my daily work. It really inspires me to continue on leading my team in professional manner”

If that doesn’t convince you that developing managers as coaches so that a coaching style of management can be applied across all day-to-day activities, then nothing will! 

Simon Leckie, Development Consultant, LSN