Google asks: "Do managers matter?"
Dear Leader,
I have an important question for you:
Of all the managers, supervisors, team leaders, and executives your company employs, what percentage of them do you actively train to be good coaches for their teams?
If your answer is anything less than 100%, it’s time to re-think your current leadership development priorities and integrate coaching skills training into your current programs.
Here’s why: in early 2009, Google asked itself a question: Do managers matter?
To answer that question, its People Analytics Team launched Project Oxygen, a multi-year research initiative. By late 2012, they had their answer: managers do indeed matter -- as long as they exhibit eight specific behaviors identified by their research team as being essential in building positive and productive relationships with their teams.
What do you think was the number one behavior at the top of that list?
1. A good manager is a good coach
It’s also interesting that most of the rest of their list of eight things that makes a good manager includes the qualities that describe good coaching:
2. Empowers the team and does not micromanage
3. Expresses interest in and concern for team members’ success and personal well-being
4. Exemplifies being productive and results-oriented
5. Communicates clearly, listens, and shares information
6. Provides guidance with career development*
7. Presents a clear vision and strategy for the team
8. Possesses technical skills that assist in advising the team*
This list highlights a perspective I’ve come to believe is true: regardless of what your company does or sells, as a leader, YOU are in the business of relationships.
This is why a good manager must first be a good coach. Workplace Coaching is a unique set of communication skills that has a dual intent:
FIRST: Build positive, respectful relationships
It’s been said that people don’t quit companies; they quit managers. I think it can also be said that people quit cultures. When organizational culture lacks basic respect, support, recognition, and a collaborative mindset, it’s hard for people to justify sticking around.
And those who do stay in a toxic work environment engage in what’s recently been coined as ‘quiet quitting’: showing up to do the minimum required to get paid and putting in no more time, effort, or enthusiasm than is absolutely necessary. I wouldn’t want to work alongside ‘quiet quitters,’ would you?
SECOND: Identify tangible results, measurable outcomes, and specific accountability
Work is all about getting stuff done: getting products to consumers and providing services that people need and want. When your employees at least respect each other and are able to work productively together, it’s far easier to make those products and facilitate those services. Without respect and collaboration, it’s an exhausting uphill battle.
But when you successfully integrate powerful coaching skills into your everyday work conversations you will empower your team to work well together. You will create an environment that builds trust & respect, and empowers your team members to be resilient & collaborative.
A team that gets along gets things done -- right and on time.
By investing in coaching skills training for all your leaders, your company will see (among many other benefits):
An increase in positive, respectful communication between your leaders and their teams
An increase in productivity because your employees will be both more engaged at work and more willing to collaborate with each other
An increase in employee retention because when your employees respect their managers and each other, they are more committed to your company’s vision, mission, goals, and clients – and they more willing to stick around!
Isn’t that what you all came together to do?
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Here's your WAKE UP CALL question to reflect on:
I’m going to ask the question at the top again and I invite you to really think about it and give it an actual number:
Of all the managers, supervisors, team leaders, and executives your company employs, what percentage of them do you actively train to be good coaches for their teams?
If your answer above was less than 100%, it’s time to give all your people managers the cutting-edge skills they need to build powerful and productive relationships with their team members so you all get more done in less time, and with less drama and more cooperation.
If you’re ready to help all of your leaders & managers to be good coaches for their teams, I invite you to check out my Coaching Culture Jumpstart™ signature program to find out how this can be a simple and budget-friendly process.
*NOTE: Coaching is not really about guiding or advising, as in numbers 6 and 8, but the intention of supporting your employees’ career development and helping them with technical skills still falls within the coaching mind-set and heart-set.