Stop Managing, Start Coaching | Weekbook #14

Many of us have experienced having good and bad managers. Historically, having a good manager was always a “nice to have” in a job, but having a bad one was passable. However, in a time when job-hopping is becoming the norm, can managers continue to afford to be sub-standard? After all, employees don’t leave bad jobs, they leave bad managers.

So what makes a bad manager? One thing they all have in common is exclusively focusing on work and task management. 1:1s become status update meetings, leaving employees feeling micro-managed. The employee’s professional development is a distant concept left to collect dust on a forgotten shelf. Typically the focus is on their team’s input, not output.

The problem with all of the above is that it ignores the first priority of any manager, managing people. The good news is, becoming a better manager isn’t difficult.

Fundamentally, it comes down to understanding the role. The primary objective is to create a high-performing team and to deliver results, there is no questioning that. However, before results can come, the right environment has to be created.

Ultimately, everyone is a product of their environment. In the workplace, this can be broken out into different building blocks, which include but are not limited to:

• Team curation.

• People development.

• Reducing friction.

• Workload and task management.

Note that workload and task management are at the bottom of the list. This is no accident. What many managers don’t realise is that by focusing on all of the other elements first, success is all-but guaranteed.

First, team curation. Many people hire exclusively for skill sets, ignoring the harder-to-assess character traits of an individual. There’s just one issue - no successful, high-performing team was ever built by simply throwing together anyone who tests well technically. Instead, it is vital to focus on hiring for character and fit, rather than skill proficiency. Remember, you can teach someone a new skill, but teaching them not to be an arse is almost impossible.

This leads beautifully into the second bullet point, people development. As a manager, you exist to develop the people in your team. That is why it’s essential that you evolve from managing to coaching. Understand what each individual’s strengths and weaknesses are, then give them opportunities to learn the skills they need to be successful. Use your 1:1s to focus on what they need from you, not on what you need from them. Engage in constructive dialogue, provide feedback, and steer them in the right direction. Most importantly, start assessing them on their output, not just the number of hours they put in.

Thirdly, it is essential that you reduce friction. All companies have tedious processes and barriers to execution, your job is the bulldoze them. Do what you can to remove whatever causes your team the most pain so they can spend more time on real work.

Once all of these steps have been successfully implemented, workload and task management will become much easier. More importantly, you’ll have a happier and more productive team, with lower staff turnover and improved morale.

Remember, coach your team, don’t just manage them.

Book Notes

I am currently reading Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life.

• It’s time to let go. It might even be time to sacrifice what you love best so that you can become who you might become, instead of staying who you are.

• We cannot invent our own values, because we cannot merely impose what we believe on our souls.

• We rebel against our own totalitarianism, as much as that of others. I cannot merely order myself to action, and neither can you. “I will stop procrastinating,” I say, but I don’t. “I will eat properly,” I say, but I don’t. I cannot merely make myself over in the image constructed by my intellect (particularly if that intellect is possed by an ideology).

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Ending Quote

"A good coach can change a game. A great coach can change a life." - John Wooden

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