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When I was in my early 30s, the only businesses I’d ever worked for were those my family or I owned. I never had a true manager except myself, my parents, or my wife. So, when I accepted my first corporate job, I didn’t know what to expect from my manager. What I didn’t expect was nothing.
Over my first three months in this job, my manager called me once and only once – to tell me my cell phone bill was too high. The few times we met in person, he alone talked through the meeting while multitasking. I had no opportunity to share my thoughts and ideas, and he never once asked me a question.
His lack of interest and investment in me annihilated my engagement in the company. While my performance was high, I wanted input, feedback, recognition, and counsel. I longed to be connected and part of a team.
When my manager left the company during my first year, it started me thinking. What kind of manager had I been in the past? What kind of manager did I want to become? What type of manger did I want my future managers to be? I knew I wanted to have – and be – a great manager, one who treated people with respect, coached and mentored employees, and saw them as real human beings with meaningful lives and valuable experiences that extended beyond the business.
Today, much of my work focuses on helping organizations build great managers. When I ask leaders about their managers’ ability to engage and coach their teams, I often hear: “They’re managers. They should already know how to do that!”
Really? Based on what?
Most managers were great individual contributors who were “rewarded” by being asked to lead a group of human beings. Until that point, they brought the best of themselves to work every day, and then they were tasked with bringing out the best in others. Wait a minute – these are very different things that require vastly different skills.
Here’s an example of a frequent conversation I have with managers:
Gary: What’s holding you back from coaching and engaging your employees?
Manager: I don’t have the time.
Gary: What else?
Manager: I don’t know how! I don’t know what to say!
Gary: Aha … but if you knew what to say and how to coach your employees, would you find the time?
Manager: Of course I would!
Let’s be honest – it’s not really about time. It’s about competence, capability, and comfort. Promise yourself that you’ll never use this excuse again!
I’ve invested a lot of time studying what I call Great Managers. In working with Fortune 500 companies, I’ve found that no matter how intelligent the leader, exceptional the plan, or robust the training, you can’t achieve organizational goals without Great Managers.
What ultimately sets Great Managers apart from ordinary managers is this: They have the ability to coach their people. Here’s the good news: Regardless of role models, coaching style, or experience, anyone can learn to become a Great Manager.
Being a Great Manager begins with believing:
Many managers think they need to have all the answers, solve all the problems, and tell their employees how to implement their solutions. When they check to see if instructions were followed correctly, they tell people how to improve or adjust.
But, Great Managers don’t “yell and tell.” They engage employees in genuine conversations, tapping into their passions, knowledge, and experience. Great Managers ask. I designed the ASKcoaching model to help mangers: Align with their employees on the coaching topics to be discussed, Seek to understand their employees’ perspective first, and Kickstart shifts in actions and behaviors that will deliver better results. Managers can increase their chance of becoming Great Managers by using a series of Powerful Questions to lead them through each of these important steps.
With the ability to coach and build strong relationships with employees, you will achieve a higher level of engagement, greater job satisfaction, increased productivity, and lower turnover.
In my next blog, I’ll share some principles for coaching and introduce you to the 12 Powerful Questions that will change the way you manage forever.
About Gary
Gary Magenta is committed to the development of leaders and managers. He does this based on a strong perspective that if leaders and managers want to change their businesses, they must start by changing how they engage their people. He is a Senior Vice President of Root Inc., a consulting company that helps organizations execute their strategy through people. During his 13 years at Root, Gary has partnered with CEOs and executive teams at Fortune 500 and Global 2000 organizations throughout North America and Europe with a holistic view of their businesses, their people, and the customers they serve.
Whatever the challenge, Gary brings over 25 years of business experience to every project, supported by a realistic outlook, a durable “street sense” for creating results, and a sense of humor that puts things into perspective. To order a copy of Gary’s book, The Un-Bossy Boss: 12 Powerful Questions to Make YOU a Great Manager, click here.
