HBR Guide to Coaching Employees

Arm yourself with the advice you need to succeed on the job, from the most trusted brand in business. Packed with how-to essentials from leading experts, the HBR Guides provide smart answers to your most pressing work challenges.

HBR Guide to Better Business Writing

HBR Guide to Coaching Employees

HBR Guide to Finance Basics for Managers

HBR Guide to Getting the Mentoring You Need

HBR Guide to Getting the Right Job

HBR Guide to Getting the Right Work Done

HBR Guide to Giving Effective Feedback

HBR Guide to Leading Teams

HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter

HBR Guide to Managing Stress at Work

HBR Guide to Managing Up and Across

HBR Guide to Negotiating

HBR Guide to Networking

HBR Guide to Office Politics

HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations

HBR Guide to Project Management

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW PRESS

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ISBN: 978-1-62527-533-2

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When youre swamped with work, its hard to make time to coach your employeesand do it well. But if you dont help them build their skills, theyll keep coming to you for answers instead of finding their own solutions. That kind of hand-holding kills productivity and creativity, and you cant sustain it. In the long run, it eats up a lot more time and energy than investing in peoples development.

So you really must coach to be an effective manager. Got a star on your team whos eager to advance? An under performer whos dragging the group down? A steady contributor who feels bored and neglected? With all of them, youll need to agree on goals for growth, motivate them to achieve those goals, support their efforts, and measure their progress. This guide gives you the tools to do that.

Youll get better at:

• Asking the right questions before you dispense advice
• Creating realistic but inspiring plans for growth What Youll Learn
• Providing the support employees need to achieve peak performance
• Tapping their learning styles to make greater progress
• Giving them feedback theyll actually apply
• Giving them room to grapple with problems and discover solutions
• Engaging your employees and fostering independence
• Matching peoples skills with your organizations needs
• Customizing your approach

Coaching is leading.

BY ED BATISTA

Youre learning right along with your employees.

BY CANDICE FRANKOVELGIA

A practical, concrete plan for achieving peak performance.

BY EDWARD M. HALLOWELL, MD

Build rapport so that they can hear your feedback.

BY JIM DOUGHERTY

Ask questions, articulate goals, reframe challenges.

BY AMY JEN SU

Monitor and adjust.

BY PAM KRULITZ AND NINA BOWMAN

Prevent a fight-or-flight response.

BY ED BATISTA

Tap the deep smarts of your subject-matter experts.

BY DOROTHY LEONARD AND WALTER SWAP

Adopt efficient habits and claim found time.

BY DAISY WADEMAN DOWLING

Theyll continue to grow through self-coaching.

BY ED BATISTA

Pitfalls to watch out forand how to remedy them.

BY MURIEL MAIGNAN WILKINS

Find approaches to learning that your employees will be motivated to follow.

BY DAVID A. KOLB AND KAY PETERSON

You cantand shouldntgive them equal time.

BY JIM GRINNELL

Help them avoid classic beginners errors.

BY CAROL A. WALKER

Dont promote people before theyre ready.

BY KERRY A. BUNKER, KATHY E. KRAM, AND SHARON TING

When to interveneand how.

BY J. RICHARD HACKMAN

After graduating from business school, I was hired by a founding board of directors to launch a new organization, the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network. I had shared a leadership position before, but this was my first time as a solo chief executive, and I believed it was my responsibility to come up with the best ideas myself and champion them aggressively.

This approach led to a number of conflicts with my directors. A mentor of mine on the board took me aside and said, We think youre a talented young guy, but you have some rough edges. Wed like you to invest in yourself and get a coach. One of my former professors had a coaching practice, and I asked her to take me on as a client. That was one of the best things Ive ever done.

Although few coaching clients ultimately decide to become coaches, as I did, my positive experience of coaching is typical. The tremendous growth in the field over the past 20 years has been driven by consistent reports from clients who feel more effective and fulfilled as a result of the coaching theyve received. And it doesnt help only at the individual level. Although researchers cant yet precisely measure coachings effect on organizational performance, numerous studies (published in the Journal of Management, Consulting Psychology Journal, and other publications) show a positive impact.

Being coached helped me understand that I could make the biggest difference as a leader not by doing more than everyone else but by empowering other people to do more and motivating them to do their best. This meant letting go of certain responsibilities and recognizing the limits of my expertise. I didnt need to have all the answers; I just needed to ask the right questions. In short, I came to realize that effective leadership looks a lot like coaching.

But what do we mean by coaching in the first place? The simplest definition is asking questions that help people discover the answers that are right for them. A more specific definition that applies to you as a leader and manager is a style of management primarily characterized by asking employees questions in order to help them fulfill their immediate responsibilities more effectively and advance their development as professionals over time. The emphasis on