Coaching Made Easier

Recently I was re-reading a chapter of Ram Charan’s “Leadership Pipeline,” and I found this description of coaching:

In a very real sense, coaching is the hands-on art of caring

Around the same time, I came across a study on coaching done a few years back by a well-respected consulting firm.  They reported these statistics:

91% of managers either like or love to coach BUT only 43% of employees say they receive an adequate amount of coaching

One implication of this is that more managers say they enjoy coaching than actually do it.  I’m sure there are many reasons for this, but one jumps out at me.  Maybe managers really do like coaching, but think that “doing it right” takes more time than they have to spend so they don’t do it often enough.

But what if we did just think about coaching as caring? No more.  No less.  Would this change that 43%?

Take a moment and think about how you express caring to the people in your life.  When you care you:
– Listen attentively
– Ask questions with genuine curiosity about what they like and dislike and what’s working and what’s not working in their life.
– Focus totally on them when they need you
– Look out for things they might enjoy and share them
– Watch them in action and tell them what you appreciate
– Seek to understand why something has gone wrong and what would make it better.

I’m sure each of you can add your own ideas to this list.  I encourage you to do this and then put these ideas into action.  In doing so, you’ll help increase that percentage of employees who feel they get enough coaching.  And more importantly, you’ll build a stronger bond between you, your employees, and the organization.