Can a manager be an effective coach?
Outside of my coaching practice, I also work for an educational research organization where I have the opportunity to manage 6 very different, wonderful direct reports. As a manager, I try to support my direct reports with their day to day tasks and ensure that we protect time to talk about their learning and development. Every manager reading this is probably thinking, yeah me too, and there is never enough time for that kind of one on one.
Before I started my coaching program, these learning and development conversations happened mostly as they related to monthly check ins on annual goals that were set in the organizational framework. This fall, I started embedding coaching into my management practice. In addition to a monthly goal check in, we added a monthly coaching conversation as well.
At first, all 6 of my direct reports were skeptical. Two of the six have worked with a coach before, and a lot of what they found valuable was the external perspective and space the coach provided. The other four had never worked with a coach before, and when I described what coaching was, they were really unsure of what we would spend our time talking about. Their concerns are valid, the role of a coach and the role of a manager are wildly different. As a manager, I am responsible for ensuring they are successful in their roles. Sometimes, this looks like being directive about things that need to get done and how. As a coach, my role is to hold space for growth, learning and discovery that is client led. Those can be at odds!
In order to create space for coaching as part of our management relationship, I scheduled the monthly coaching session for the whole year ahead of time. In those one on ones, we start with coaching. We don’t pull up any documents or project management systems and we come straight in as manager/coach and client. In the first session, I make it clear how I will show up differently as a coach than as a manager. As a coach, I tell them that I won’t be directive, they can expect a lot of questions and that they will do almost all of the talking and thinking. After the first sessions, which were all a little bumpy and awkward, they all understood better the difference between manager and manager-as-coach.
There are obvious limitations to the capability of a manager as coach. Although I am uniquely positioned to support challenges they are running into by being able to ask generative questions that are grounded in understanding, I also have to be much more careful not to be directive, add my input or be positioned as expert. Even as I do that to the best of my ability, the role that I occupy most of the time is manager. However, the space to explore growth and development with someone who is able to influence opportunities you have access to is super valuable!
All in all, a manager-as-coach cannot replace the value of a coach because of the inherent tensions between the manager and coach role. At the same time, adding coaching into a management relationship can increase the value that managers can provide to their direct reports by creating more space for learning, growth and development.
