Coaching your employees is good for….YOU!

Mary hired me as her coach because she was feeling stuck and overwhelmed in her role as the CFO of a midsized retail company. She was ready to find a new position, mainly because of what she perceived was the lack of talent on her team. She felt overworked and under supported, with no time to develop and manage her employees.

As we worked through strategies for motivating herself and her team, Mary became interested in the skills I used when I worked with her– asking questions that challenged her thinking, holding her accountable to the goals she set, observing her reactions to situations and problems. Before long, Mary decided to take coaching training herself, and began using those techniques with her team. I don’t know how much Mary’s team changed, but I do know she changed. She became more energized and joyful, and felt that her leadership really meant something to her team.

This was not the first time this happened. Often coaching clients come to be coached and then learn to coach their own employees to learn and grow. Coaching improves employee learning, participation, and effectiveness– whether a professional coach or a manager is doing it.

However, many people are surprised to learn that “managerial coaching” (the term for using coaching approaches in your role as a manager) is also good for the manager who is doing the coaching! Recent studies of managers who coach show that there is a strong correlation between coaching someone else and improving your own performance and development. 

Managers who coach their employees report that they grow personally by becoming more vulnerable, self-aware, and empathetic. They learn to trust their employees, solicit feedback to improve their management, and in doing so improve their own job satisfaction and joy in their work. 

But the caveat is that you must coach well, recognizing what coaching is and what it is not. Even though it is considered a core leadership competency, research shows that more than 23% of managers have less than a day of training in coaching skills, and even fewer have actually been assessed on the quality of their coaching. Reach out to your coach for more information on how to learn this powerful skill that supports your emotional health as well as your job performance!

References:

Adele, B., et al, (2023). Exploring learning outcomes for managers who coach. European Journal of Training and Development, vol. 47, no. 5, p. 635-652

Human Capital Institute & International Coach Federation. (2016). Building a Coaching Culture with managers and leaders. Human Capital Institute.