Manager as Coach (part 1 of 5)

Bloggertone » Management » Manager as Coach (part 1 of 5)

Manager as Coach (part 1 of 5)

by Elaine Rogers on December 16th, 2009 | Comments

There are various ways to become a Manager. One can work themselves up from the “mail-room”, be hired for their skills and abilities as Manager or bluff their way in.

Whether which way, a Manager needs a certain set of skills to be an effective Manager, some of which will include:

Good listening skills – Part 1 (this post)
Good questioning skills – Part 2
Ability to provide effective feedback – Part 3
Ability to set goals – Part 4
Ability to put together action plans and see them through – Part 5

There is another aspect of effective management and that is the Manager as Coach. These individuals will know the importance of empowering and nurturing their staff. They will understand that in order to get the best from their team, a high level of intuition is required.

Lets simply expand on the skills above to include the coaching skills that will permeate through a coaching style Manager:

Part 1 – Listening skills:

Maintaining eye contact throughout the interaction
Keeping a friendly an open expression without interruption
Being aware of the other’s tone of voice and body language
Looking for the non-verbal signals to ascertain if they match the speech/words
Encouraging the other to vocalise their experiences
Demonstrating empathy and understanding
Not taking any verbal negatives personally, not jumping to conclusions
Always paraphrasing and asking for clarification
Keeping notes to refer back to
Not judging, categorising or stereo-typing

The coaching-style Manager Listens

These skills will be present in a coaching style Manager, with or without them realising it. This Manager will get knocks on their doorframe, because the door will actually be open. They will provide time for their staff and endeavour to understand what is ongoing. These developed or inherited listening skills will provide any Manager with the keys to unlock staff dissatisfaction or disharmony.

I will deal with the other skills each week.

Do you feel these are important listening skills for a Manager to hone? Do you think most Managers would posess these skills naturally?

Category: Leadership

Tags: Authentic leadership, coach, Leadership, management, manager, manager as coach, role models, self-awareness

The Author: Elaine Rogers

Elaine is a Business Coach and Trainer. She works closely with her clients to develop and enhance crucial aspects of their personal & business effectiveness. This ensures they achieve their maximum potential, through appropriate Training & Coaching. http://www.seefincoaching.com

Add Your Comment

elainerogers

Thanks Greg,"I am a great Listener" is an over used and well abused term. "Great Communicator" is another, and communication is often classed as a skill.Well if listening is part of communication, it is important to understand the different levels of listening. For a Manager to be an effective listener, they must listen as the highest level - active listening which involves feeling empathy and really understanding the other's point of view, and not just waiting for their turn to speak.I just had a thought - Social Media is a bit like the old CB radios, each person gets a chance to say their piece uninterrupted (and then say "over!") - I love it!

elainerogers

Thanks Greg,"I am a great Listener" is an over used and well abused term. "Great Communicator" is another, and communication is often classed as a skill.Well if listening is part of communication, it is important to understand the different levels of listening. For a Manager to be an effective listener, they must listen as the highest level - active listening which involves feeling empathy and really understanding the other's point of view, and not just waiting for their turn to speak.I just had a thought - Social Media is a bit like the old CB radios, each person gets a chance to say their piece uninterrupted (and then say "over!") - I love it!

elainerogers

Thanks Greg,"I am a great Listener" is an over used and well abused term. "Great Communicator" is another, and communication is often classed as a skill.Well if listening is part of communication, it is important to understand the different levels of listening. For a Manager to be an effective listener, they must listen as the highest level - active listening which involves feeling empathy and really understanding the other's point of view, and not just waiting for their turn to speak.I just had a thought - Social Media is a bit like the old CB radios, each person gets a chance to say their piece uninterrupted (and then say "over!") - I love it!

elainerogers

Thanks Greg,"I am a great Listener" is an over used and well abused term. "Great Communicator" is another, and communication is often classed as a skill.Well if listening is part of communication, it is important to understand the different levels of listening. For a Manager to be an effective listener, they must listen as the highest level - active listening which involves feeling empathy and really understanding the other's point of view, and not just waiting for their turn to speak.I just had a thought - Social Media is a bit like the old CB radios, each person gets a chance to say their piece uninterrupted (and then say "over!") - I love it!

gregfry

Just spotted your post now. Great stuff. Listening is something that many managers fail to grasp. It is amazing at the solutions that are in front of us if we truly listen.

gregfry

Just spotted your post now. Great stuff. Listening is something that many managers fail to grasp. It is amazing at the solutions that are in front of us if we truly listen.

elainerogers

Thanks Barney,As I referred to above, I think men will absolutely listen, when it interests them. There can be an element of falseness with women, maybe to appear to be doing the right thing?It's hard to screen good listening skills at interview stage, as people are generally coached in interview skills to listen carefully, and only spend two minutes answering a question. This may have no bearing on the actual personality of the future manager. If the manager is from within the company, they may deserve the position, but the position may not deserve them!I feel more vigilance and less of the "gentlemen's club" attitude would serve an organisation well :)

elainerogers

Thanks Barney,As I referred to above, I think men will absolutely listen, when it interests them. There can be an element of falseness with women, maybe to appear to be doing the right thing?It's hard to screen good listening skills at interview stage, as people are generally coached in interview skills to listen carefully, and only spend two minutes answering a question. This may have no bearing on the actual personality of the future manager. If the manager is from within the company, they may deserve the position, but the position may not deserve them!I feel more vigilance and less of the "gentlemen's club" attitude would serve an organisation well :)

elainerogers

Hi Niall,Thanks for the comment and insights - they may even begin a more interesting debate :)Listening is only one aspect of communication, but most people think communication is how well we articulate ourselves. The ability to really listen to someone comes simply from giving the other person 100% airspace, and not filling our own space with our own thoughts about what the speaker is saying. I take your point about women being supposedly better active listeners. However, I have dealt with many great male listeners in management, and it seems to me that men have far less clutter in their own minds and have that wonderful ability to concentrate on specifics (i.e. listening) and not attempting to multitask in their own heads.Meanwhile, women do have a great capacity for empathy, but I still believe it is pretty much an even playing field in terms of communication. I would go so far as to comment that men are much more focused in their thoughts, allowing them head-space to listen attentively (provided they are interested!)A very good point about twitter, it is just as important to "listen" as we tweet, or even better - before we tweet.Thanks for the feedback!

elainerogers

Hi Niall,Thanks for the comment and insights - they may even begin a more interesting debate :)Listening is only one aspect of communication, but most people think communication is how well we articulate ourselves. The ability to really listen to someone comes simply from giving the other person 100% airspace, and not filling our own space with our own thoughts about what the speaker is saying. I take your point about women being supposedly better active listeners. However, I have dealt with many great male listeners in management, and it seems to me that men have far less clutter in their own minds and have that wonderful ability to concentrate on specifics (i.e. listening) and not attempting to multitask in their own heads.Meanwhile, women do have a great capacity for empathy, but I still believe it is pretty much an even playing field in terms of communication. I would go so far as to comment that men are much more focused in their thoughts, allowing them head-space to listen attentively (provided they are interested!)A very good point about twitter, it is just as important to "listen" as we tweet, or even better - before we tweet.Thanks for the feedback!

elainerogers

Yes Fred, I agree with you that listening, as a skill, is vital, and can be improved on. Ultimately, to really listen, we simply have to stop listening to our own voices in our head. Unfortunately, a lot of managers have large egos , and the ego must protect the person, therefore not truely truely listening.

elainerogers

Yes Fred, I agree with you that listening, as a skill, is vital, and can be improved on. Ultimately, to really listen, we simply have to stop listening to our own voices in our head. Unfortunately, a lot of managers have large egos , and the ego must protect the person, therefore not truely truely listening.

Barney Austen

Nice start to the series Elaine. In answer to your questions - absolutely to the first, in relation to the second, almost certainly not. There are those who naturally can listen and empathise and those who this does not come naturally too. While I do agree with Niall that men appear not to listen as well, I would have to say that I think that it is more the ability to empathise that resides more with women than men - or at least the appearance of empathy :).Can listening be "learnt" as a skill? I certainly believe that managers can be trained in techniques with regards to listening as you have succinctly summarised above. But whether this means they will "hear" and "understand what they are hearing", I would suggest, is still subject to the managers personality type. Frankly, interpersonal skills are the forefront of effective team management and listening is key to that. The managers ability to listen should be assessed prior to placement in that role otherwise they are likely to fail in the longer term which is bad for the organisation and not just the manager and his/her team. Is this done? Not often enough! Will now jump off one of my hobby horses.

Barney Austen

Nice start to the series Elaine. In answer to your questions - absolutely to the first, in relation to the second, almost certainly not. There are those who naturally can listen and empathise and those who this does not come naturally too. While I do agree with Niall that men appear not to listen as well, I would have to say that I think that it is more the ability to empathise that resides more with women than men - or at least the appearance of empathy :).Can listening be "learnt" as a skill? I certainly believe that managers can be trained in techniques with regards to listening as you have succinctly summarised above. But whether this means they will "hear" and "understand what they are hearing", I would suggest, is still subject to the managers personality type. Frankly, interpersonal skills are the forefront of effective team management and listening is key to that. The managers ability to listen should be assessed prior to placement in that role otherwise they are likely to fail in the longer term which is bad for the organisation and not just the manager and his/her team. Is this done? Not often enough! Will now jump off one of my hobby horses.

Niall Devitt

Hi Elaine, great post! looking forward to reading all 5. To answer your questions: Yes I believe these are very important skills for all people managers. No, I don't think that most managers have them naturally. I am now going to say something slightly controversial. For me what you talking about here is the ability to be an active listener (how you communicate your listening) The following is a generalisation I know, but In my opinion - women are better active listeners than men. The majority of managers are men, hence most managers are not strong listeners. Extending this point, I would say that there is an overall problem within society and by default business with regards to listening. This point can even be extended to something like Twitter where most users broadcast rather than listen. People are quick to criticise Twitter but really aren't we just talking about an visual demonstration of an overall listening problem??

Niall Devitt

Hi Elaine, great post! looking forward to reading all 5. To answer your questions: Yes I believe these are very important skills for all people managers. No, I don't think that most managers have them naturally. I am now going to say something slightly controversial. For me what you talking about here is the ability to be an active listener (how you communicate your listening) The following is a generalisation I know, but In my opinion - women are better active listeners than men. The majority of managers are men, hence most managers are not strong listeners. Extending this point, I would say that there is an overall problem within society and by default business with regards to listening. This point can even be extended to something like Twitter where most users broadcast rather than listen. People are quick to criticise Twitter but really aren't we just talking about an visual demonstration of an overall listening problem??

fred

Nice post Elaine. I'd say "listening" is the most important skill a manager or any person can have. You can work on it and improve it throughout the years but the people I met that have this type of skill really developed is because they're naturally like that, and that obviously helps.I wish in my corporate days, at least half the manager would have known how to listen.BestFred

fred

Nice post Elaine. I'd say "listening" is the most important skill a manager or any person can have. You can work on it and improve it throughout the years but the people I met that have this type of skill really developed is because they're naturally like that, and that obviously helps.I wish in my corporate days, at least half the manager would have known how to listen.BestFred

Bloggertone

Bloggertone » Management » Manager as Coach (part 1 of 5)