Coaching Is Key to Unlocking Performance - So Why Do Some Managers Hold Back?
As businesses continue to evolve, it’s becoming increasingly clear that successful leadership goes well beyond traditional management approaches. In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing corporate landscape, coaching has emerged as a critical tool for engaging and motivating employees, promoting growth, and achieving organisational goals. Yet, despite the evidence pointing to the effectiveness of coaching, many managers remain reluctant to embrace it. So, what’s holding them back? In this article, I’d like to explore some of the reasons behind this reluctance and the impact it can have on their teams, and offer insights on how managers can overcome these barriers to become more effective leaders.
The Allure of Transactional Relationships
Transactional relationships are characterised by an emphasis on task completion, with little focus on building relationships or developing team members’ potential. These relationships are often characterised by a “telling” rather than a questioning approach, where managers dictate
what needs to be done rather than allowing team members to think for themselves.
Yet transactional relationships can be appealing to managers for several reasons. They are often simpler and more straightforward than coaching
relationships, which do require a significant investment of time and energy. In addition, transactional relationships can provide a sense of control and security (aka comfort) for managers who may feel that coaching
relationships are too risky or unpredictable.
What’s the Root of the Issue?
How are managers recruited? People are often recruited on the basis of their expertise and/or track record in doing the job. Therefore, in the absence of leadership development they fall back on what they know: “delivering” the job.
Many organisations still do not have a leadership development programme. According to a CMI report, only 23% of organisations rank as good or very good in terms of whether staff is trained in management and leadership before, or within three months of taking on a management role. The use of mentoring and coaching also appears very limited despite persuasive testimony about its effectiveness in helping managers improve their practical skills and make an impact at work. There were key links between the people scores and organisational growth. For example, a whopping 60% of organisations in decline do not train their staff or do so poorly, compared with around a quarter of growing organisations. Equally, a mere one manager in 10 in declining organisations say training of staff immediately after a promotion is either good or very good, vs. around 30% in growing organisations.
The business cost of bad management is abundantly clear... Yet, too many employers simply do not take this seriously and harm their collective performance and employee wellbeing as a result.
Straight From the Horse's Mouth
Our own experience working with first-line sales managers over many years has been revealing. Reasons cited for a resistance to coaching include the absence of leaders role modelling a coaching approach, a lack of experience in using coaching consistently, no time for coaching, insecurity around coaching skills and lack of buy-in to the value of coaching. There are also misconceptions about what coaching entails. Some managers, as evidenced by their behaviour, believe that coaching involves “fixing” problems rather than facilitating growth. Other managers take coaching to mean leaving their team members completely alone! However, the managerial archetype that empowers people to make performance-related decisions provides guardrails and ensures accountability while stepping back to enable the decision making and growth.
Globally, employee engagement and wellbeing remain very low, and it’s holding back enormous growth potential.
According to the Gallup State of the Global Workplace report 2022, Europe has the lowest regional percentage of engaged employees (14%). Globally, 21% are “engaged”.
Removing the Blindfold: The Hidden Costs of Transactional Management
Let’s consider the case of Nigel, a first-line sales manager in a medical equipment company. Nigel is in charge of a large sales team – a team of sub-par performers. The low morale and low energy in his team is palpable. Despite this, he continues to use a transactional approach with his representatives. They respond by giving him the very least of what they are capable.
Nigel makes little to no effort to invest in developing his team members’ potential, but as the archetypical
“always-on” manager, he won’t hesitate to douse them in generous doses of “hard truths” feedback when
required. In fact, the worse his team does, the more inclined he is to double down on his command-and-control approach.
Nigel’s team members not only feel undervalued but are demotivated, disengaged, disillusioned – leading to high turnover rates and missed sales targets. Nigel is put on short-term objectives and is under considerable pressure from his manager to turn things around.
Yet Nigel is a manager with immense potential who was fast tracked into his management role. He had been presented with multiple opportunities to enhance his coaching skills but regrettably declined each one. Had Nigel seized these opportunities and fully embraced coaching as a leadership tool, he would have unlocked a powerful ability to empower his team members and facilitate their success. His decision to forego coaching not only limits his own leadership potential but also negatively impacts his team’s ability to perform to their full potential.
By embracing coaching, Nigel could elevate his leadership skills to new heights, transforming his team’s
performance and achieving better results across the board.
Our research shows that employees who report to managers who coach effectively are 40% more engaged, exhibit 38% more discretionary effort and are 20% more likely to stay at their organisations than those who report to ineffective coaches.
The Transactional Approach Often Falls Short
The transactional approach can be costly for businesses in the long run, amounting to “leaving money on the table”.
Per a Bersin & Associate study, managers equipped with coaching skills can boost business performance by a staggering 130%.
The Association for Talent Development’s findings reveal that employees operating in a coaching culture are significantly more productive, report higher performance levels, and experience improved communication and overall well-being.
Google has a well-established coaching program that has helped the company to create a more engaged and productive workforce. Its People Innovation Lab identified coaching as #1 on its list of ten habits of highly effective managers.
A report by the Human Capital Institute found that more than half of companies with a strong coaching culture report higher revenue than their industry peer group.
According to the Institute of Coaching, more than 70% of individuals who received coaching experienced benefits such as improved work performance, relationships, and communication skills.
The ROI of Adopting a Coaching Approach
What about the return on investment for coaching? Impressive results abound, and here are just a few:
- A study by the International Coach Federation found that 86% of companies that invested in coaching for their employees saw a return on investment, and nearly 96% of them would repeat the process again.
- Manchester, Inc. conducted a survey of 100 executives, the majority of whom were from Fortune 1000 companies. The results were eye-opening, showing that the ROI of a company’s investment in coaching was nearly six times the cost of the coaching. (Maximizing the Impact of Executive Coaching, The Manchester Review, 2001, Volume 6, Number 1, Joy McGovern, et.al.)
- A Fortune 500 company aimed to determine the ROI of Executive Coaching. The results were very impressive, with 77% of respondents reporting significant impact on at least one of nine business measures. The most positively impacted areas were found to be productivity and employee satisfaction, which had ripple effects on customer satisfaction, employee engagement, quality, and annualized financial results. The study concluded that Executive Coaching delivered an exceptional ROI of 788%. Even when excluding the benefits from employee retention, the ROI was still an impressive 529%. This underscores the importance and value of investing in Executive Coaching for any forward-thinking organization seeking to boost its bottom line. (Executive Briefing: Case Study on the ROI of Executive Coaching, Merrill C. Anderson, Ph.D., MetrixGlobal, LLC).
- Companies that offer training alone experience 22.4% increase in productivity, but when combined with coaching that figure rises to 88%. (Gerald Olivero, Denise Bane & Richard Kopelman, Public Personnel Management.)
These findings are hard to ignore and demonstrate the significant value that coaching can bring to both individual leaders and organisations as a whole.
Why Is Coaching So Successful?
Coaching is distinguished by its pragmatism and its focus on opportunities, personal accountability and goal achievement. In addition:
- Coaching encourages a growth mindset, which helps team members develop their skills and abilities over time. This leads to higher levels of employee engagement, which in turn translates into increased productivity and job satisfaction.
- Coaching provides a platform for ongoing feedback and communication, which helps team members stay on track and aligned with the organization’s goals. This, in turn, leads to a more effective use of resources and a better allocation of time and effort.
- Coaching helps to build trust and relationships between managers and their team members. This, in turn, leads to better collaboration, higher levels of accountability, and improved decision-making.
Overall, the combination of a growth mindset, ongoing feedback, and strong relationships helps to create a culture of continuous improvement and high performance, which ultimately leads to superior business results.
By contrast, as we have found, the transactional approach leads to a lack of investment in team members’ growth and development, resulting in low engagement, demotivation, and high turnover rates
What Is a Coaching Approach to Leadership?
A coaching approach to leadership involves adopting a mindset that prioritises the growth and development of your team members. Instead of simply telling your team members what to do, a coaching approach involves actively engaging with them to help them identify their strengths, areas for improvement, and goals.
Effective coaching involves active listening, asking the right, open-ended questions and providing feedback in a way that is constructive and supportive. It also involves empowering team members to take ownership of their own development, while providing the resources and support they need to succeed.
A coaching approach to leadership is not about relentlessly micromanaging or hovering over your team members. Instead, it involves creating a safe and supportive environment where your team members feel comfortable taking risks, making mistakes, and learning from them.
Ultimately, a coaching approach to leadership helps to create a culture of continuous improvement and learning, where team members are engaged, motivated, and empowered to reach their full potential.
A coaching culture is the practice that’s most highly correlated with business performance, employee engagement, and overall retention. When new managers are promoted to supervisory positions, they often think their job is to direct or evaluate people. While directed management is important, it plays a smaller role than one might think. It is the coaching and development role of management that is the most valuable.
Laying the Foundations for Coaching
In our experience, there are three foundational actions that are necessary to empower employees and improve delegated decision-making:
1. Clarify the organisation’s strategy and the key role team members play in delivering it. Coaching is effective when the strategic intent of the organization is crystal clear and everyone is on board with it. A well-articulated endpoint with milestones along the way provides the necessary guardrails for employee empowerment. Measurement is vital, and, as such, is a key element of our IMPACTTM system that transforms managers into effective coaches..
2. Define roles and responsibilities clearly. When roles and responsibilities are opaque, decisions end
up being delayed or back on the manager’s desk – then confusion ensues.
3. Invest in capability building and coaching upfront. Managers should allocate significant time to coach and enhance the skills of their employees while offering them opportunities to grow. Organisations must invest in building the leadership and coaching abilities of their managers.
Final Thoughts
Only about two in 10 managers instinctively know how to coach. But the others can learn.
Ultimately, high-quality coaching requires managers to be fully committed to not only the success of their organisations but also to the success of their individual team members. To be very effective in their
coaching role, managers will need to continuously refine their coaching skills.
From our own work, it’s as clear as day that organisations that invest in coaching are those with empowered employees – employees who are demonstrably more engaged, work harder, and are more loyal to their company, delivering faster, better, and more efficient outcomes.
If you are a manager yet to embrace coaching, we invite you to experience our powerful, one-to-one coaching for yourself to appreciate the difference it can make as a leadership tool. Alternatively, you can jump in here to sample our manager coaching tool.
We’re here to support you. Our outstanding ICF-certified mindset coaches use a combination of our
IMPACT™ system and a number of scientifically validated diagnostic tools to support leaders across the globe. With their expert guidance, you will discover and understand what is holding you and your teams back so that you can be more effective in your role as a leader and as a coach.
How's Your Organisation Faring?
Performing in a volatile, unstable, complex and ambiguous world warrants support from a trusted partner. Purposefully Blended continues to support global Learning and Development Managers with the capabilities or additional expert resource they need to identify, build and implement effective blended learning solutions consistently and at scale. We continue to equip First-Line Managers with coaching capabilities that embed, apply and sustain the learning. When these two roles work in harmony, they have a dramatic, transformative impact on outcomes.
Interested in getting our help to drive performance in your organisation?
About the Author
Lucy Philip, Purposefully Blended, Founder
Purposefully Blended founder Lucy Philip founded the company in 2015, out of a profound sense of mission and possibility. A highly experienced leader, ICF-certified coach and mentor to Global Training Managers, Lucy has witnessed firsthand the unique challenges and pressures faced by those in Learning and Development (L&D) and First-Line Manager roles.
Lucy's signature IMPACT™ framework, which comprises six core dimensions of leadership, has been proven to target capability development for these uniquely placed roles and develop them to serve the organisation more effectively.
Purposefully Blended
Purposefully Blended is a boutique consultancy specialising in providing support to Global Training Managers and field-based First-Line Managers.
We are experts in learning design, strategy, implementation and measurement; team development; leadership and transforming culture through the power of coaching.
We work with organisations across industries, as leaders and as consultants, to help them unlock their internal capabilities to achieve performance breakthroughs.
