Don't Overcomplicate the Best Management Practice: Coaching

Coaching starts with asking more and telling less -- becoming more inquisitive about employees as human beings. What do employees need? What are their strengths? What are their goals?

Then, the best coaches listen to understand. They listen to truly comprehend employees' circumstances, goals, challenges and needs.

Coaches are curious for a reason: They use discoveries about employees' motivations, concerns and aspirations to demonstrate care and dismantle barriers to performance and engagement.

The point is to have an authentic, ongoing dialogue with the individual to identify their top concerns and show support accordingly.

• Coaches set clear expectations and performance goals, and they hold employees accountable for those targets.
• Coaches are future-focused when it comes to performance -- whereas bosses typically look for errors and punish performance mistakes.
• Great coaches also focus on each worker's one-of-a-kind strengths, which helps them individualize their leadership style.
• By emphasizing employees' strengths, coaches cultivate employees' natural abilities and position teams for excellence.

Like all employees, managers take their cues from leaders -- so leaders must create buy-in by providing the resources, development and accountability managers need.

For leaders, preparing managers to coach requires more than asking them to start coaching.

To abandon traditional bossing and start coaching, managers need coaching themselves from leaders who genuinely care. When leaders support managers, they can make coaching systemic in their organization -- part of "how we do things around here" (the culture) -- and equip managers to succeed.

Excessive complicated administrative tasks make it difficult for managers to prioritize conversations with employees. And burned out, overworked managers will find it difficult to muster enthusiasm for coaching. In fact, reducing administrative tasks could better engage your best managers. This is why leaders must redefine and clarify managers' role expectations and performance metrics. Leaders don't have to design a whole new management structure; they can just modify expectations and resources to align with coaching goals.

People join companies, but they leave managers. Because today's employees demand something different from their job, coaching is a must for managers. Plus, coaching creates an environment of high development, which is the most productive type of culture for your business and your employees. Coaching accelerates everything from collaboration and agility to performance and productivity.

Coaching becomes approachable when managers have access to proven development.

Best of all, coaches have a ripple effect that extends beyond bottom-line measures like turnover. When managers serve as coaches, they can improve employees' lives and wellbeing.