ONE of the best definitions of leadership I have heard goes something like this: “Leadership is about making others better as a result of the leader’s presence and making sure that impact lasts in his absence.” Employee coaching challenges us to be a very unique kind of leader.
As managers of people, many of us have been in situations where senior management has asked us to step in and coach employees who have not responded well to the tasks required of them. Coaching is not the same as mentoring. By its nature, coaching is task-oriented, performance-driven and short-term, while mentoring is relationship-oriented, development-driven and long-term. From my perspective, coaching is more challenging, given the more limited amount of time to do it and its non-directive nature.
Challenge 1: The temptation to ‘spoon-feed’
It is easy for coaches to fall into the trap of giving instructions and closely directing the coachee through every step of a task or a change. It is essential to strike the right balance, allowing coachees themselves to arrive at the solutions to their problems while ma-king sure they stay on the right track and moving forward. This can be tricky. Asking leading questions may not be enough for coachees who lack the discernment skills to figure out what to do next.
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Although coaching uses a non-directive approach, I believe there is no harm in shifting to a more directive approach from time to time if the coachee is not responsive. It may be helpful to present several options for solutions, making known the advantages and disadvantages of each and letting the coachee decide which is optimal. Once he or she gains more confidence, the approach can be shifted back to non-directive.
Challenge 2: Dependence
