[MUSIC] Many of the managers I work with have varied reasons for not coaching their teams. In this lesson I will list the top reasons managers give for not coaching. In order to better understand these challenges we'll review some examples that demonstrate why coaching is a key role for managers. And finally, we'll compare proactive versus reactive management coaching styles. So the truth is there's a lot of managers who don't coach. Now if we sort of take out the didn't even know they weren't coaching person, [LAUGH] because there is a lot of those. We really think about where we kind of use the word a lot. Are you coaching your employees, did you meet with you employees, are you coaching, have yo been have you been having coaching conversations with your employees? Right, this is kind of the cadence that we hear on a lot of organizations. There's still a lot of managers who are actively not coaching. And I think it's important that we address those reasons why, because I think a lot of them are legitimate, it's just that they're not good enough excuses [LAUGH] to not be coaching, okay? First one, time. I don't have time. Second one, email. I'm overwhelmed in email. Third one. I have too many meetings I have to go to. I'm sure that one sounds familiar. It's just not a priority right now for me. No one else coaches their people so why should I? My manager doesn't expect me to. My manager doesn't coach me. And then there's time. I don't have time. All of my employees are too far away. I manage a virtual team, and then there's time. [LAUGH] Did I mention that? I don't have time. And lastly, there's the skill. So, what I actually usually find is that a lot of these excuses, I don't have time, I'm too busy, I have too many meetings, my people are everywhere, is more of a translation for, I don't really know how to coach my team. Right? So the reasons are pretty consistent, hopefully some of those resonate for you, so this on going discussion will make some sense because it's very common for people to say they don't have to coach their people. But here's what I want you to think about. I want you to think about this as an example. What if I gave you a million dollars to invest, what would you do to maximize the performance of that money, would you put it in a pillowcase? Would you put it in the bank? Would you invest it in stock? What would you do with it? So now I want you to think about this. Think about the people that work for you and think about how much money they make every year, their individual salaries or hourly rates. How much of an organizational investment are you managing? So if you have people on your team who make $20,000 a year, $10,000 a year, $125,000 a year, right? People are making all sorts of different kinds of income. And I'm using dollar amounts, you all work in different currencies, so you can insert your own currency exchange there. But regardless, right? Everybody who comes to work gets paid. So, how much of the people who work for you getting paid. That is the organizational investment you are managing. Okay? So for purposes of discussion, let's just say it amounts to $1 million. Are you building on your investment? Are you insuring that it is performing? If I am giving a million dollars, the company is basically saying hey here is a million dollars to invest in the organization's success. And the way that you do that is you get these seven to ten people to manage. When I go coach and develop them, am I maximizing that investment? Am I actually helping the organization improve? And am I being responsible with that financial investment that they have given me? Coaching our team as managers is a responsibility. If you really think about the amount of investment being made in your team by the organisation, there's a responsibility just dollar for dollar, in what are we paying people, for what are we getting? So there's always an opportunity to improve and there's always an opportunity to be what I call a rockstar, right? So you get a million dollars, you get a million dollars, you get a million dollars. Three managers who have teams who are equally responsible for contribution to the success of the organization. How cool would it be or is it when your team outperforms everyone because of your investment in them? When we pay attention to developing skills and behaviors in folks, we get results. It really does pay off. And once you have that brand as a manager that you develop people and you help them be more successful, you will always be able to hire better talent. They just comes to you,and guess what, when you can hire better talent, your job gets easier [LAUGH]. It's such a good thing to coach your team and build a high performing team, because in the long run, your work becomes easier. Do you like that? I love that at the end. And I experienced that. That's why I'm so passionate about it. I want to give you an example though of a manager who doesn't coach. This is pretty typical. So let's say this manager's name is John. And he's totally overwhelmed. And he's averaging 200 emails a day. He has to go to three meetings a day. Either teleconferences or face-to-face. He has nine direct reports, and when I ask him if he's coaching, he says he doesn't have any time. So when he's the problem that he faces is not only does he have all these meetings to go to and all these emails to respond to, but he also has a line out his door when he's in the office. His employees are waiting for him. They need to talk to him. They have issues, they need help, they need resolution. So he comes in every day, and as soon as he walks in the door, he's already behind. And then, his employees just keep him distracted all day, because he's got all these questions he has to answer. Because of his reaction, so he's reacting to his work. He's not positioning anything proactively. He's doing it all in reaction. And what he's actually doing is he's teaching his employees to behave this way, that this is sort of now this negative spin cycle we have where they come to him, he answers, they come to him, he answers. There's no positive, proactive effort on his part is simply a reaction. John can actually get ahead of this, and he can really put into place some simple coaching practices that will help his workload and lift his employee's performance. So what I always recommend to a guy like John, which I will tell you, I talk to people like him on a regular basis. Is first of all, set aside dedicated time to meet with each employee. Now depending on the pace of your business, that could be once a week, that could be once a month, that could be once a quarter. So it doesn't have to be like daily. It's just know your business. If you're really fast paced business, you might need to connect with your employees more frequently. Ask employees to hold non urgent questions, for that one on one time that you have dedicated. The key to that is you have to meet that expectation. You have to keep your commitment to your employee, that you're going to meet with them at that time. Identify the common challenges that employees are facing and build some training for them. If you have five people always asking you about the same stuff, maybe there's a gap in learning and you need to teach everybody the same thing all at once, instead of five different people at different times. And practice this consistent coaching strategy for 90 days. Be consistent. Here's what's going to happen. When your employees know that they're going to get dedicated time with you, they start to relax. If they don't know when they're going to get time with you, that's when they stand outside your door. And part of it is teaching them that not everything that they need help with is urgent. That there are some things that can wait. So we have to teach people that. And when we meet with them, we can address their specific concerns. We can do the coaching work, which we're going to talk about in the future modules here. And then we can really, really help these employees develop so that they're not constantly coming to the door. But right, this is a negative spin and exercise, because John will say he doesn't have time to coach, but the truth is, he doesn't have time not to coach. [LAUGH] Not coaching is actually creating all this reactive time that he doesn't feel like he can get a handle on. So, as we continue to do this work together, I am very confident that you're going to see the value in setting up consistent coaching practices, outside of even just the techniques I'm going to teach you. Just the structure is so valuable. In summary, managers can find a lot of reasons not to coach their employees. The managers who don't coach run the risk of poor employee skill, poor team and organizational performance, poor employee engagement. Low employee retention and high turnover and organizational expense. Coaching really can make such a huge difference in the
