Managing Employees

There are hosts of reasons why managers are reluctant to use a coaching style of management.    When you are deep in your daily workload, it seems like a gigantic leap to include coaching in your management toolbox.  I’ve created a list of potential reasons why managers feel coaching won’t work for them…see if any of these reasons resonate with you.

What Is Coaching
Are you clear around what coaching provides for you and your employees?  Coaching is a management buzzword though many people haven’t fully comprehended what it is and how it can benefit them.  There are all types of coaching:  executive, personal, career, spiritual, relationship and not last, manager’s ability to coach their team members.  What if you just don’t understand what coaching is and the value it offers.

Managers are always seeking different ways to interact with their employees, help them perform at higher levels and still have enough time to meet the business requirements of their department.    Managing employees can take a lot of time, yet if you think in terms of the basics, you may be pleasantly surprised to find yourself with more time to meet your business objectives.  

Keep it Simple

If you focus on 4 areas, you will find that your employees will perform better and be happier with their contributions in the company:

1.  Clear Around Expectations

Managing employees takes the skill of balancing both work performance and connecting with the employees.   Most managers focus on maximizing performance, but fail to recognize that empathy and respect are necessary ingredients for effective results.

So how do you balance empathy and performance?

People are not movable parts of an organization.  They come with their own warranties and guarantees or in many cases, no guarantees.    The fluidity of the manager’s ability to manage all the various parts of his team rests on his or her ability to connect with each person they manage.

Companies invest lots of money to find ways to motivate their employees for higher productivity.   They gravitate towards creating rich reward programs to stimulate their employee’s motivation and guide them towards stronger performance.

I believe that it’s difficult to motivate an employee –
rather, motivation is something that comes from the individual.

It’s easy to de-motivate an employee.

Look at the new employee, most of them are highly motivated when they first step through the door, so what happens to them after 6 months on the job.   If an employee loses a percentage of their motivation after 6 months, image the loss to the company as the employee increases their longevity.

When an employee comes into your office with an issue, how do you respond? Do you see your messengers as guides or just complainers?

In the workplace, “Shooting the Messenger” is an expression to describe a manager who reacts harshly to an employee that bears bad news. This person is brave enough to step into the manager’s office to share their concerns. Yet, the manager doesn’t want to deal with the problem so they lash out instead.