Involved Managers Get Better Results

At some point during their careers, many managers ask: “At what point can I back off and stop managing my direct reports so closely?” The reality is that when managers pull back on coaching ongoing performance, that is when they begin losing their team’s best efforts.

Of course, some employees need more attention than others. But they all need the attention of a leader, manager, or supervisor. Superstars want to be recognized and rewarded. Average performers—the vast majority of people—stand the most to gain from consistent coaching, guidance, and support. Low performers are the only ones who don’t want their managers’ attention, but they need it more than anyone.

A manager’s primary job is to support employees on all sides of the performance spectrum to do more work, faster, and better. That’s good for business. But the added benefit is that continuous improvement is one key to keeping people focused and motivated.

The best employees today want managers who know who they are, know what they are doing, and are in a position to help. They want managers who spend enough time with them to teach them the tricks and the shortcuts, warn them of pitfalls, and help them solve problems. They want managers who are strong enough to support them through bad days and counsel them through difficult judgment calls. They want to know you are keeping track of their successes and helping them get better and better every day.

These are some of the basics of coaching-style management:

• Talk about what’s going right, wrong, and average every step of the way.
• Turn best practices into standard operating procedures and teach them.
• Focus on concrete actions within the control of the individual employee
• Monitor, measure, and document individual performance.
• Follow up and provide regular candid feedback.
• Listen carefully.
• Answer questions as much as you ask them.
• Get input and learn from what your team is learning on the front line.
• Think through potential obstacles and pitfalls, and integrate back-up planning into every work plan.
• Provide advice, support, and motivation.

Coaching-style management is also how leaders can help the most ambitious people eager to take on more challenges and responsibilities. While this desire is valuable, it also poses two significant challenges to their immediate managers:

1. Their job is to get the work done, whatever the work happens to be. Sometimes there are no new and interesting challenges. But that doesn’t need to be the end of the discussion. Help them make their current work new and interesting by teaching them to leverage knowledge, skill, and wisdom to do their work better, whatever that work happens to be. Have each new employee create an individualized learning plan in which they map out their responsibilities, and for each responsibility, make a list of learning resources. Encourage them to set learning goals and then keep a record of how they are using that knowledge on the job. Make these goals a tangible part of your ongoing management conversations.
2. If there are truly new and interesting challenges for employees, it is usually up to the manager to teach them how to do that new and interesting work. The secret to making this a sustainable, ongoing practice is to teach and transfer one small task at a time. Once someone has mastered a new responsibility, transfer to another. Every new task presents an opportunity for the employee to demonstrate proficiency, earn more responsibility, and be rewarded accordingly.

While coaching-style management requires dedicated time and effort from leaders, the long-term payoff is higher levels of employee engagement, increased performance, better delegation, and fewer recurring issues.