When should I coach as a manager?

I've taught a number of managers how to coach. There's a couple of things that I've observed over the years.

Firstly, coaching is a term that can mean really different things to people. A lot of managers say "oh yea I'm coaching my team". What they mean is something akin to a stereotypical sports coach that is on the sidelines determining plays, developing training regiments, or providing technical correction.

I find this muddies the waters quite a bit when we suggest that managers should be coaching, because that's not actually the kind of coaching we (and the general field of L&D/coaching) refers to.

What's further complicated is that this form of coaching isn't actually bad. It's necessary in the right situations and context. Pure coaching (the kind of coaching that I and other professional coaches do) is incredibly powerful and isn't always the right thing for managers to be deploying. This is the second observation: most managers don't know when to use what.

As part of my training work with managers, distinguish the kinds of coaching managers might deploy so we can get cleaner on the language using what I call the Coaching Continuum.

Note that it's a continuum – managers can and should move along this continuum depending on the situation (more on that in a bit).

To me, there are four places on this continuum to call out. The two extremes are Training and Pure Coaching. Training is pure teaching – someone either has never done something before or needs to learn how to do something the right way. This is when you're training someone how to do certain things and should be used when someone just needs to learn the ropes on something.

Sports Coaching is a different form of training. This is what most people refer to when we say "coaching". It's providing guidance, feedback, and spot correction. Think of a situation where a manager and direct report are discussing some sort of project or task. A direct report already has proficiency in their craft, but they might be thinking about or tackling this body of work in a way that isn't as effective as it could be. Here a manager might have more technical experience and an opinion on how to do it better. Sales teams are really good examples of deploying sports coaching – managers might listen to calls and recordings of their reps and then work with their reps on how to improve certain skills.

Both Sports Coaching and Training are important. They are especially useful when you're developing early careerists – folks who are just starting to learn the craft and don't know what they don't know. They're also good for when the stakes are high – maybe your direct report can overcome an obstacle, but you can't afford a maybe or you can't afford the time for them to fumble through the learning. That's when taking the reins and either doing it and showing them or coaching them through it is highly effective.

Mentoring is also slightly different from above. When you're mentoring, you're becoming less opinionated around what someone specifically should do. You're likely still more experienced than the other person, but you're not telling someone how to do something. Instead you might offer advice or share your learnings from your past to help a direct report determine what they should do.

Pure Coaching is completely different from all the others here. When you operate from a place of pure coaching, you are not providing any answers for someone. You are operating as a sounding board and facilitating the process of learning and progress. Pure coaching only works if you hold the assumption that the person you are coaching has the answer.

You might have noticed that as we move from left to right on the continuum, we're getting less and less opinionated. With Mentoring and Pure Coaching, we're less directive on what should happen, and instead leaving it more to the direct report to determine what path they want to move forward with. This approach is very good when working with senior and experienced members of your team. It's especially good in providing support to those who are already more skilled than you are on the technical craft.