Turn Supervisors into Coaches

It has been demonstrated across a number of industries that team performance can be enhanced through the application of external coaching. The members of a team will collectively “lift their game” and productivity increases are the norm.

However, the degree of improvement will often fade over time and further coaching is required to bring performance standards up to their previous levels and keep the process of improvement on track.

Experience has shown that if coaching is performed as an ongoing process within the organization the course of improvement can become sustained and the productivity of the team will steadily continue to increase.

Providing effective ongoing coaching at team member level for an extended period can be beyond the financial resources of many businesses if it is externally sourced. The answer lies in giving supervisors within the organization the responsibility and skills, to coach their team members.

Supervisors will not necessarily have all the skills or training required to make them successful as coaches. Many will have been good performers at lower levels within the business and received a promotion to their present position. They are usually able to perform the work of the people they supervise but may not have the leadership abilities of outstanding coaches.

To enable a supervisor to become successful in a coaching role requires a major refocusing of their activities, but because of the supervisor’s experience in the business and knowledge of the tasks performed by those they supervise it can usually be done.

There are at least as many differences between the descriptions of “supervisor” and “coaches” as there are similarities. The supervisor’s main areas of responsibility are usually seen as control and guidance whereas a coach’s functions incorporate mentoring and motivation.

Those who have been successful in a supervisory role will be likely to possess the requisite people skills to achieve targeted outcomes through coaching. These abilities can be developed through training that is primarily conducted to develop existing abilities rather than create new skill sets:

– Supervisor/coaches need to be excellent communicators, able to deliver information in a way that transmits information and invites feedback;

– Their body language should be non-confrontational and receptive, open rather than closed;

– They have to be able to “read” the other person, gaining insights into their feelings through observing their behavior;

– Their attitude must be encouragingly positive – one of “working with” other people instead of “commanding” them to achieve objectives;

– They need to gain people’s commitment to the work they do and to completing their assignments;

Most importantly they need to learn a coaching process that can be applied to their particular situation — one that is appropriate to the organization itself as well as the people they supervise.

The best person to develop a coaching process that individual supervisors can successfully implement with their teams will of course be an experienced business coach with access to a broad range of coaching resources and tools.

An externally-sourced business coach can install a coaching function into the supervisory level of a business that will actually integrate coaching into the processes of the organization. Coaching will become as routine and accepted as all the other activities of the business.

There will be some other adjustments required. Turning a supervisor into a coach requires a restructuring of their administrative workload. They will need to spend an estimated two-thirds of their time providing coaching to their team and will have less time available for routine clerical work that can be delegated elsewhere.

Coaching becomes an ongoing process between the supervisor and their team members that leads to targeted and desirable outcomes for the enterprise. The supervisor’s responsibilities make a positive shift from control and guidance to mentoring and motivating individual employees.

Supervisors are ideally placed to handle this role, providing those they supervise with coaching that leads to these outcomes:

– The performance of individuals improves
– The team’s performance improves
– The organization’s culture is strengthened
– Internal communications improve
– Positive changes are implemented and accepted

Coaching produces a long-term positive change in people’s behavior and skills that will bring great benefits to an employer. Supervisors can provide regular coaching on a person-to-person basis that augments external enterprise-based coaching and becomes a valuable part of the culture of the firm.

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Copyright 2005, RAN ONE Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission from www.ranone.com.