5 Questions all Managers should be able to answer
Great managers don’t just manage people; they assist their staff develop their potential. Great managers support and challenge their team to utilise their talents, develop their skills and overcome challenges. Great managers teach employees how to achieve greater levels of satisfaction at work. Great managers show staff how to grow as employees and people. And most of all, great managers lead by example.
To achieve all this, as a manager you need to regularly answer the following five questions;
- Do you care enough about your staff to invest your time and energy in their development?
- Do you have the skills and attitude to develop your team?
- Are you aware of your own strengths and weaknesses as a manager, and are you honest enough with yourself to seek assistance and input when you require it?
- Do you have regular one-2-one meetings with your staff in addition to the required performance appraisal process or task specific meetings?
- What is the evidence to support your answers to the above four questions?
Great managers incorporate coaching into their style of management either consciously or unconsciously. The essence of being a coach is to help someone reach beyond his or her own perceived limitations to realise his or her potential. Unlike other aspects of managing, when you coach someone, you are focused on the individual person, not just on the tasks you want them to complete. Your approach is proactive and focused on long-term sustainable development, not short-term, reactive quick fixes.
Many managers fail to realise that just as customers voluntarily decide to do business with you, staff volunteer their dedication, motivation and enthusiasm. Employees are required to spend a specific number of hours a day at work, but they volunteer ‘who they are at work.’ With a short-term, egocentric focus, many managers concentrate on daily tasks, ignoring the importance of creating a environment in which staff will flourish.
As a manager using a coaching style you can encourage staff to find their own solutions to problems. For example, if someone hasn't performed a task well, he will learn where he went wrong, and how to work better next time, if you coach him through the problem rather than simply telling him where he went wrong. Instead of saying ‘you should have done this’ you might ask him a few ‘what’ and ‘how’ questions e.g. ‘what caused this’ or ‘how would you approach it next time?’ This approach will embed the employee’s learning. All feedback opportunities are coaching and learning opportunities.
Many mangers use aggressiveness, stubbornness and the excuse of being too busy, to take action that will ultimately help them become more effective in their role. Too often mangers spend time trying to disguise the rut they are in, rather than having the courage to break out of it.
Incorporate coaching into your role as a manager and you're almost certain to develop a closer relationship with your staff that leads to greater productivity, better results and higher morale.
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