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.

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.

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.

You know that your employees are critical to your ability to produce results in the business. Yet, do you know what your employees can or want to do? Human capital is the knowledge, skills and abilities of each employee. It’s time to step back and learn what each employee can bring to the table.

Most managers find it easier to focus on managing the business and feel less confident around managing employees. Yet in order to handle your business you need to maximize the strengths that each employee can offer you in reaching your goals.

I know that people learn through different modalities.  I’ve been writing about coaching and counseling of employees and helping managers handle the day-to-day operations of working with team members.  I thought I would try a different venue to share information around managing employees.

I found this video on UTube that offers guidance on the basic issues that supervisors/managers face in managing employees.  Though the title focuses on the new supervisor, it covers a lot of material that is great for a more seasoned manager.

The video covers S.M.A.R.T goals, coaching and counseling employees, new managers, motivating employees and other thoughts on managing employees.