A core position on any team, in business or sports, is the coach. In sports, a coach’s role is to develop their players to help them realize their full potential. The same goes for business. A manager needs to develop the team. To develop a coaching culture, you need to be with your people. You need to be in the trenches with your team, on the field, where it matters most. The easiest way to do this is to shadow and work with your team directly. Soon enough, they will see you as someone they can rely on instead of being the type of boss they are fearful of.
Prioritize Ruthlessly
As the coach, it’s your job to prioritize ruthlessly too. Assign routine tasks and other administrative work to someone else so that you can focus on developing your team as a leader. Distinguish between management, leadership, and coaching tasks. Your priority should be about building on the strengths of others first, always though.
Getting Results
Being a coach means that you see and approach a manager’s role as a leader who challenges and develops your employees. Improving their skills and abilities to achieve the best performance results is the goal. Managers work to achieve the best operational performance results by developing and maximizing employees’ talents and abilities to their fullest. How your employees conduct themselves on the job reflects how you, their manager, works and conducts yourself. Remember, you must demonstrate an ability to work smarter instead of harder too.
Building A Coaching Culture
Telling people what to do is not what leading is about. You must be able to coach and lead by example through your own actions. As a leader, you are watched by everyone for what you do and don’t do. Make sure you exhibit the right behaviors, especially leading by example. It will help create a culture of coaching. Here are some leadership by example behaviors that you need to master:
- Listens to understand and isn’t judgmental. You should listen more than you talk.
- Follows through in meeting commitments. Do what you say you will do consistently, or risk being seen as not walking the talk.
- Excellent managers show an interest in employees. Know what drives them, what they are about, and why they are here. Hint: it’s not all about money.
- Works productively and meet deadlines. You must deliver results on-time and consistently.
- Is flexible at open-minded. You need to surround yourself with other ideas and opinions.
- Treat others with respect. Everyone is human and deserves to be treated with dignity.
- Stay calm under pressure. Running around from crisis to crisis looks terrible. Don’t be the type of leader who pours gasoline on a fire.
- Addresses issues in a timely and constructive way. Poor performance must be addressed, or the culture becomes toxic.
- Shares information and stays in touch. Access to information, resources, and visibility is an incredibly powerful form of recognition.
- Collaborates with others. You can’t do it alone, and your team needs to see this through your actions.
- Recognizes performance. Celebrating accomplishments and successes are key to keeping up the momentum.
- Shows up on time for meetings. If you are late, it shows that you don’t value the time of others. Keep doing that if you want to have your team members do the same. Schedule yourself appropriately.
- Takes a positive approach in all interactions. Coming to work each day can be a grind sometimes. It’s especially worse if everyone is negative. As a leader, you have a responsibility to make sure it’s positive.
Final Thought
To build a coaching culture, you need to lead by example. Failure to do so will not only hurt the progress of your team but your own career. Suppose you want to evolve your management skills, creating a team culture capable of making the impossible possible. In that case, you need to remember it starts with you.
