Why You Should Coach Your Team (And Not 'Teach' Them)
Updated: Jun 13, 2020
If you are a manager and want to transfer your expertise to your team, #Coaching is better than teaching, because people don’t learn as much when you give them solutions. Also, coaching boosts motivation and a sense of fulfilment in employees.
Sir John Whitmore defined coaching as “unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.”
Being directive defeats the purpose of hiring people. If you manage a team of 5 people, it’s because 5 brains and 10 hands can produce and figure out more stuff than just your 1 brain and 2 hands. These 5 brains have a fraction of your experience, but coaching is the fastest way to transfer your expertise to them. Sounds interesting?
Most managers are poor coaches, according to research published on HBR (e.g. many mistake coaching for giving advice like, ‘Why don’t you try doing THAT?’). But they can improve “in a short amount of time (15 hours)”.
Managers must practice coaching in a safe environment before doing it with their teams. A coaching expert’s supervision is essential, as practicing with nonexperts reinforces bad habits and poorly understood coaching techniques - which leads to “wasted time, money, and energy.”
