One of the most important responsibilities of a manager is to coach and develop his/her employees. As a coach, a manager plays a key role in developing the company’s future leaders and, equally important, helping those who don’t fit transition out of their roles into better-suited jobs within the company or perhaps elsewhere.

Why Provide Coaching?

There are many reasons for a manager to act as a people coach as well as a business or line manager. Some of them are:

• To develop individual potential
• To boost performance
• To deliver feedback, either positive or developmental
• To manage risks
• To manage employee expectations

What Does a Good Coach Look Like?

Becoming a good coach is certainly no small achievement. It often takes years of discipline, focused effort and commitment to people's development for a manager to reap the results of their coaching activities. In order to be a successful coach, a manager should possess the following attributes:

• Good understanding of how the performance management process works, its purpose and timeframe.
• Knowledge of the company’s values, goals, and priorities.
• Good relationship with his/her employees, including an understanding of their short-term and long-term career goals, personal and professional interests, strengths, and gaps.
• Knowledge of internal short-term or long-term opportunities that would benefit his/her employees and help them develop and acquire new skills.
• Ability to provide feedback - both positive and developmental - in a timely and professional manner.
• Ability to provide feed-forward – to let employees know what is expected of them going forward, rather than dwell too much on what happened in the past.

What are a Coach’s Responsibilities?

Since not all managers are equally proficient when it comes to developing and coaching others, it is particularly important to let them know from the beginning what will be expected from them as far as coaching and mentoring are concerned.

As a coach, the manager is responsible for guiding their employees through the performance management process, which includes:

• Helping them define their performance and development goals.
• Helping them understand what the job performance expectations are.
• Having a career discussion with his/her employees.
• Monitoring employees’ progress towards achieving goals and ensuring employees have the proper support to achieve their goals.
• Providing performance feedback as part of mid-year and year-end reviews and providing the right balance of positive and constructive feedback.
• Being available throughout the year as a coach.

The Dos and Don'ts of the Coaching Conversation

In order for a coaching conversation to be as productive and helpful to the mentee as possible, the coach needs to follow a number of guidelines:

• Offer constructive feedback, backed up by specific examples.
• Offer timely feedback, instead of waiting until the mid-year or year-end review.
• Be honest and upfront, but do it in a respectful and compassionate way.
• Stick to the topic and focus on what the employee should do going forward.
• Refrain from comparing the employee to others and making them feel inferior to them.
• Summarize the key points that were discussed and the agreed-upon action steps.
• Offer to support the employee and schedule follow-up meetings to discuss progress and challenges.

What to Do When Everything Else Fails?

The main purpose of coaching is to develop people and help them reach their potential. In some cases, unfortunately, managers may realize that their coaching actions are not helping. It is important then to contact the HR team and ask for their assistance, particularly if dealing with one of the following situations:

• An employee who is having personal or health issues, including dealing with stress or depression.
• A disciplinary case that may require more than just a coaching conversation.
• A difficult coaching conversation, due to more serious performance concerns.
• An employee who, despite having been coached for a while, shows no signs of improvement and whose performance is negatively affecting the rest of the team.

The role of the HR team in this case is to work with the respective manager and help them mitigate risks by choosing the most suitable course of action, both for the employee and the rest of the team or company.