On-the-job Coaching

Posted on April 30, 2024 by Martin Hahn, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.

As soon as the word ‘‘coach’’ is mentioned, thoughts turn to athletics. And different coaches come to mind. People begin to identify effective coaches and analyze why they were successful, and the arguments begin as to who was the best and what characteristics and approaches are most effective.

What Makes a Good Coach? What are the characteristics of an effective coach? Do these characteristics apply only to athletic coaches, or do they apply to managers a ‘‘coaches’’ in industry, business, and government?

The ideal coach has knowledge of the players, the game, and finance and budgets. He has skills and abilities in many areas, including these: Recruiting players and staff of assistants, establishing goals and objectives, planning and organization, communication, motivating each person as an individual, teaching, correcting and criticizing without causing resentment, making decisions, listening, discipline, measuring performance and progress toward goals, finding the best way, which is not necessarily the coach’s way, establishing and executing proper priorities, operating effectively under stress, relating to all types of people

The role of coaching for managers

The manager in industry, business, and government is a person who supervises a number of employees. His.her situation is almost identical to that of the athletic coach in many ways. First of all, the manager must get the best effort and performance from each employee and is constantly trying to help employees improve, both for their own benefit and for that of the organization. In many situations, the manager is concerned with a team of workers, as well as with the performance of each individual worker. This is similar to the situation of coaches of team sports like basketball, football, and hockey.

Other times, the manager is primarily concerned with individual workers because each person pretty much works alone, as in sports like swimming, track, tennis, and golf. If employees performing under a manager don’t like the situation, they have available options such as letting up on performance, complaining, causing dissension among the other workers, and quitting. Athletes can do all these things, too. Managers have some employees who are better than others and who therefore receive higher rewards than others. Sometimes the employees make more money than the manager does.

Managers are under constant pressure to produce with the people and resources available. Sometimes, accidents, sickness, and other problems reduce these resources. Like coaches, managers are concerned about competition. In order to stay in business, they must meet or beat the competition with whatever resources, they do have. Finally, managers have the same opportunities to give rewards that coaches have, and they face the same limitations. Most managers are limited in how much money they can give, but they have ample opportunities to give non-financial rewards such as praise, additional responsibility, additional freedom, and special job assignments and to solicit team members’ ideas.

The duties of managers as a coach

According to Florence M. Stone, the author of the book Coaching, Counseling, and Mentoring, the duties of a manager as coach are the following:

• To act as a role model for higher performance

• To hire the best

• To create a work environment in which employees have reason to be motivated

• To clarify expectations which are both micro expectations associated with particular jobs and macro objectives tied to the organization’s overall strategy and mission

• To provide feedback on your employees’ behavior that will put them on the right track and keep them there

• To apply the performance evaluation process not only as a measurement tool tied to raises but also as a developmental aid

• To provide the training and resources employees need to improve their performance

• To praise, praise, and praise some more to reinforce positive performance

Coaching Approaches and Techniques

The terms ‘‘coaching’’ and ‘‘counseling’’ are frequently used to describe the on-the-job conversations that take place between manager and employee. Some organizations use the words interchangeably to mean the same thing. The characteristics of each:

Counseling

1. The employee usually initiates discussion.

2. Counseling takes place when a problem arises or when the employee feels a problem needs solving. 3. The problem can be personal or job oriented.

4. Emphasis is on listening on the part of the manager.

5. The manager avoids giving specific advice and helps the employee solve his or her own problem.

6. The objectives are to solve a specific problem and/or to relieve tension on the part of the employee.

Coaching

1. The manager usually initiates discussion.

2. It is done on a regular basis.

3. It is job oriented.

4. It is positive or corrective, with emphasis on telling, training, and teaching by the manager.

5. The manager frequently gives specific advice on what to do and how to do it.

6. The objective is to improve the job performance of the employee as an individual and a team member.

What Coaching Is Not

Managerial coaching is not a specific set of instructions that a manager has developed about activities or behavior of the employee. It is not a set of tasks to be performed with demands for vaguely determined outcomes such as ‘‘hitting the ball.’’ And it is not some action or policy that inhibits movement, requires sitting overly long in one position, or extols the virtues of patience and humility.

What Coaching Is

The effective coaching function is more apt to take the form of working on forward-looking plans and objectives for employees in a way that keeps them moving constantly toward new areas of experience, new demands for personal skill development, and application of ingenuity and problem solving.

On-the-job coaching improves job performance in two ways, and the principles and approaches involved are the same for both. First, day-to-day coaching takes place whenever the need arises, and it bolsters the relationship between the manager and the employee. If an employee makes a mistake, the manager helps the employee correct it, and this coaching should prevent the same mistake from happening again. If, on the other hand, the employee does an especially good job, the manager compliments the employee. This is also part of the coaching process. The other reason for coaching is to help the employee implement the performance improvement plan that was developed as part of the performance review program. The manager should periodically see how the employee is progressing and provide help in implementing the plan.