More managers are seeing themselves as a coach than ever before. But it’s no secret that it’s easier to give direct feedback than it is to coach someone. Providing direct and candid feedback to a team member is quick and demonstrates competence, but it only does a little for development or taking ownership in the future for the other person. Said differently;

Coaching employees in the short term beats continually having to tell them what to do in the long term.

Most managers default to typical management activities instead of coaching. Ray Smith said, “To create a high-performance team, we must replace typical management activities like supervising, checking, monitoring, and controlling with new behaviors like coaching and communication.” Not only is Ray Smith correct, but he also exposes a drastic shift that managers must make in today’s workplace to solve one of their more significant problems: employee development.

While I wish there were a magic wand to help someone develop faster and perform at higher levels quicker, there isn’t one. The best recipe centers around managers being great coaches to their team members because the results of effective coaching speak for themselves:

• 70% of employees report that coaching had a positive impact on their performance and job satisfaction.
• 77% of organizations report that they are better able to attract and retain employees after implementing a coaching culture.

Coaching vs. Feedback

To be an effective coach to others requires you to understand the difference between coaching and feedback. While there are some similarities, there are also some glaring differences.

Coaching is technique used to promote development and performance. The first use of the term “coach” in connection with an instructor or trainer arose around 1830 in Oxford University slang for a tutor who “carried” a student through an exam. The word “coaching” thus identified a process used to transport people from where they are to where they want to be. In the Accelerate Leadership Program, I define it as “Improving the current and future performance of others to achieve higher levels of excellence.”

Coaching is improving the current and future performance of others to achieve higher levels of excellence.

Whether the coaching is coming from an external coach or a manager acting as a coach, it’s essential to remember that coaching is a results-driven pursuit. Great coaches help others achieve higher levels of excellence.

Feedback, on the other hand, is the information sent to an individual or a group about its prior behavior so that the entity may adjust its current and future behavior to achieve the desired result. Good constructive feedback is specific, timely, and actionable. However, most managers don’t give constructive feedback they give destructive feedback. Which is often untimely, charged with emotions, and judgemental in nature.

Here are some general differences between coaching and feedback.

Coaching:

• Focused on behavior for the future
• Developmental in nature
• Tends to be question oriented to promote self-discovery
• Best used to develop skill deficiencies

Feedback:

• Focused on previous behavior either good or bad
• Evaluative in nature
• Direct often in person
• Best used to improve will issues

As you can tell, the two are very different things, but they are trying to achieve a similar result.

How to Be a Better Coach to Your Employees

Contrary to popular belief, being an effective coach isn’t something you are born with. Coaching is a skill that leaders work to develop and master. It’s an essential leadership skill. There are all kinds of techniques, tools, and strategies to help you better coach your employees. (Get the Coaching for Excellence Toolkit for Free Here)For the sake of clarity and brevity, I am going to focus on three.

1. Think of Yourself as a Coach

If you want to coach your employees better, it begins with your mindset before it’s an act.

Effective coaching is a mindset before it’s an action.

You must believe you are the kind of professional who can help someone get where they are today to where they want or need to be. While this might seem trivial or a given, it is not. There are too many professionals in leadership positions with imposter syndrome. You cannot coach your best if you don’t believe in yourself.

2. Clarify the Goals and Dreams

Most managers who coach their people don’t spend time, energy, and effort understanding their team members’ goals or dreams. A goal is any desired outcome that wouldn’t others happen without you doing something. Without clarity around the goals or a vision of where the person wants to go, you are on the road to nowhere. It’s often as simple as asking a few great coaching questions:

• “When you think about your life and career in 5 years, what does it look like?”
• What role or job title do you aspire to?
• What skills do you need to improve to help get there?

3. Personalize the Coaching

Great leaders identify where team members are currently in their development and align their coaching appropriately. They do this because they know they must help people reach a stage of development that exceeds where they are today. However, it’s impossible to make that a reality if you first don’t personalize the coaching to the individual team member. One of my favorite coaching principles is:

Someone’s best performance tomorrow requires personalized coaching today.

The secret to personalizing the coaching is understanding the boundaries of where they are comfortable. The reason is simple, growth starts at the end of your comfort zone.

Growth starts at the end of your comfort zone.

While there are different tactics, tools, and strategies you should use to stretch people outside of their comfort zone, one coaching tactic is effective at all levels. It’s centered around asking insightful questions. This allows you to pull the information out of your people instead of the other way around.

By taking this approach, you force team members out of their comfort zone and encourage them to be more self-reflective. Use open-ended questions, free of judgment. Here are some of my favorite examples to add to your arsenal:

• What result are you trying to achieve?
• Can you walk me through your thought process and what you have tried until now?
• What should we do to create the best result for everyone?

Closing

The best leaders care more about the long-term development of team members versus the achievement of short-term results. Be the kind of leader who acts as a coach to your people, even when it’s more convenient to provide feedback.

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About the Author John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft, a leadership development company helping executives and managers to lead their best. He was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Management & Workplace. John is also the author of Building the Best: 8 Proven Leadership Principles to Elevate Others to Success. You can follow him on Instagram @johngeades.