The Challenge of Change – Stop Managing, Start Coaching: 3 To-Do’s

At times, the velocity of change seems mind-boggling. From the global economy and technology, to corporate restructuring, it seems most of us are standing on shifting sand vs. foundational rock. What is the impact on your employees? What does this mean for managers and organizations?

Various North American surveys in recent months have indicated that roughly 50% of employees are unhappy in their jobs, and a third actively want to quit. In Ireland, a report showed that 66% of employees are looking to change jobs.

So it would appear that, amidst the global change and current economic challenges, many organizations have employees on the payroll who have mentally already quit or, to use a term of the day, remain ‘unengaged’. This should be a wake-up call for organizations who depend on human capital to remain not just competitive, but also innovative. Organizations need to stop managing and begin coaching. The difference? As my friend Brian Tracy likes to say: managing is transactional, coaching/leadership is transformational.

A study by Gallup, in which over a million employees and 80,000 managers were surveyed, makes a strong connection between engagement and retention.

“People leave managers, not companies. So much money has been thrown at the challenge of keeping good people – in the form of better pay, better perks and training – when, in the end, turnover is mostly a manager issue.” Wrote Marcus Buckingham in the book, First Break ALL the Rules.

In a world where, too often, a person is promoted to a supervisory or management position based on their technical skills, their people-leadership skills need to be enhanced. In fact, it could be argued that an organization should start developing people with these skills prior to promoting them to entry-level management positions.

If you look at a recent Forbes article, “Top Ten Reasons Why Large Companies Fail to Keep Their Best Talent,” one can see that the role of people-leaders as coaches would have a significant impact on virtually all ten areas.

In the long term, organizations who want to continue to thrive need to build in metrics and accountability for how managers lead and coach their human capital. An integrated and properly implemented 360 Development process examining a manager’s people-leadership behaviours would help maintain an awareness for continually enhancing their coaching skills.

3 Things You Can Do to Coach More and Manage Less

1)      Probe more and Tell less. Ask questions to drill down on issues. Ask how they perceive an issue, and for their suggestions for solutions.

2)      Adapt your Coaching. A cookie-cutter approach doesn’t work for everyone. Recognize that team members have different motivators and behavioural preferences. If you learn these, and adapt your coaching accordingly, you will more fully engage your team for performance before they start job hunting.

3)      Listen. We see this over and over again in 360 surveys. Take time to listen and encourage staff to share thoughts. Bottled up concerns contribute to disengagement prior to quitting. A manager can’t understand concerns fully until they listen sincerely. If a manager has a poor reputation for listening, regardless of lip-service or “open-door policy”, his/her team will not share concerns or ideas.

Remember, in this global economy, with increasing competition and change, tough times never last, but tough people do. With respect to Human Capital, coach more and manage less for everyone’s success.



PS. I saw the recent Mission Impossible movie this weekend - if managers want their staff fully engaged to achieve the organizational "Mission", they need to coach for Commitment vs. Manage for Compliance. People do like challenges, and to be equipped and encouraged to achieve them.
See some Behind the Scenes with Tom's Ethan Hunt Character: