Your people managers play an enormous role in improving and sustaining employee performance—and creating a culture of coaching can increase the impact of their efforts.
When you develop managers with the skills and behaviors to coach, you empower them to steer conversations, forge strong relationships, and unleash the full potential of your people.
Read on to explore how coaching skills can become a significant asset for your managers and your organization at large.
The Role of Managers as Employee Coaches
Ask your employees about the factors that have the biggest impact on their career development, performance, or overall job satisfaction. For many, their manager is likely to be one of the most significant.
The research bears this out too. A survey conducted by Gartner finds that 77% of employees are increasingly looking to managers as a source of support.
Empowering your managers as coaches with the necessary skills and behaviors helps them to provide this support and guidance. It’s also a powerful way for managers to promote purposeful training and development, correct behaviors, and work with employees to define their career goals and get them to where they want to be.
For teams, coaching communicates a shared vision and purpose, improving collaboration and trust.
Managers can weave coaching into a variety of existing scenarios, all of which assist in bolstering performance and development outcomes. These coaching conversations are likely to include some of the following elements:
- Sharing consistent, timely, and actionable feedback
- Setting achievable goals
- Improving role and goal clarity
- Helping identify and overcome roadblocks
- Preparing employees to advance within the organization
- Recognizing progress and achievements
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The Benefits of Empowering Managers to Be Coaches
There are several practical applications for employee coaching, each with the potential to add measurable value. Let’s explore four cases for coaching and the benefits each one brings:
1) Facilitating Employee Development
A survey of 6,000 employees conducted by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that managers greatly influence development outcomes. In fact, the quality of line managers and the support and training employees received were the most commonly cited factors in the report—they were mentioned by 40% of respondents who stated that their careers have met or exceeded their personal expectations.
Among employees dissatisfied with their development and progression, commonly cited factors included the poor quality of line managers and a lack of coaching and mentoring.
Coaching is valuable for both short-term behavior changes and long-term career development and growth. It prepares people for career advancement by uncovering their goals and equipping them with the skills and experience they need to progress within the organization.
A coach will typically work alongside recently promoted employees and those looking to move into management and leadership positions to identify strengths and challenges, then tailor guidance around developing skills and closing gaps.
2) Improving Employee Engagement
Employee experience matters, and Gallup estimates that low employee engagement levels cost the global economy $8.8 trillion annually. And the primary cause of disengagement? A lack of manager and leadership development.
While a lack of manager development leads to low levels of engagement, there's a direct benefit to developing coaching capabilities among your people managers. According to Bridge-sponsored research, organizations prioritizing manager-employee coaching are more likely to see higher levels of employee engagement.
When coaching is an ongoing commitment, you increase satisfaction and motivation in a growth-focused environment and develop your people to their full potential. By embedding coaching into check-ins and conversations, managers build trust with their people and provide a safe, judgment-free space to share timely feedback, recognition, and set clear expectations.
3) Prioritizing Performance Goals
Further Bridge-sponsored research reveals that high-performing organizations are nearly three times more likely to recognize the critical role that managers play in driving business results. They’re also more likely to hold managers accountable by tracking coaching conversations.
Whether addressing gaps in skills or behaviors, setting expectations for goals, or improving accountability for deadlines, performance coaching bridges gaps in a supportive environment.
With the proper guidance, employees learn to solve problems, find new ways to approach challenges, and improve accountability toward goals. Integrating coaching into employee-manager discussions can make these goal-centric discussions an integral part of your performance management processes.
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4) Managing and Sustaining Change
Change is unavoidable, but coaching gives organizations actionable ways to implement and sustain initiatives that lead to long-term success.
A study of one company’s transformation found that employee perceptions directly impact the outcome. Specifically, successful change resulted when employees felt that they'd been supported through the process with frequent communication and positive empowerment, and had received adequate training.
As those most closely connected to their teams, managers play a key role in championing change initiatives, sharing a long-term vision, and answering any questions. During transitions, coaches communicate the scope of this change and support people in embracing it positively and seeing things from a different perspective.
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Increase the Impact of Your Manager Development Programs
Bolster your talent development efforts with a framework that turns your managers into effective coaches. Download our ebook, ‘How to Empower Managers to Be Coaches’, to learn more.
