I struggle with the idea of manager-as-coach for several reasons. My issue is with the expectation that managers will have a coaching role. They can have behaviour like a coach of that helps their relationship with staff, but they shouldn’t be expected to coach.
The relationship between manager and employee is asymmetrical, power-wise.
The manager is going to do things to the employee that a coach wouldn’t do to a coachee.
The recipient is not going to want to reveal to a manager things they might reveal to an independent coach.
And most of all, many managers are neither trained nor suited for coaching.
Steven Fitzhugh added three more reasons in a Linkedin comment
– Even of those that are trained and skilled, managers are broadly overloaded and simply don’t allocate time to plan and deliver effective coaching interventions for their people.
– In a non-zero number of cases the coachee may choose to seek employment elsewhere and the coach supports them in that endeavour. Impossible for a manager.
– Sometimes (actually quite often) the employee is being coached on issues that arise from their manager and how to handle them.
Also Colin Newlyn pointed out
the manager has a preset agenda in terms of goals to be hit and work to be done.
Golf coaches don’t need to be world class golfers but they need to know how to play golf, how to teach golf, and the science of golf swings. Coaching isn’t just about asking the right questions, though that does seem to be a school of thought. My experience is that employees are often smarter and know more about the work than their managers do, therefore managers should never feel entitled to coach – or teach – solely because of their position. And if they really do have superior knowledge of the work, then perhaps that mastery is wasted in a management role.
If a manager coincidentally happens to be good at coaching, they could arguably do it as a second job.
But it’s not their job, they don’t have time, and many don’t have the skills.
If you reduce management numbers and redeploy, that’s another matter…
Keep coaching separate. The best coaches are professional coaches. The next best are the masters in the craft being coached.