manager or coach?
What is the difference between coaches and managers?
By Chris Halward, Managing Director, True North
"What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet; " Romeo and Juliet
When I was growing up every football team, professional or amateur had a manager. Nowadays, certainly in the professional game, the team has a coach. The same has not yet happened in the organisational world, but perhaps it should? If organisations changed the role titles from manager to coach would it make a difference?
It is important to recognise that there are important differences between a coach and a manager. The role of a manager requires a much broader skill set than that of a coach. The coach will be focused on getting the most from people, whereas the manager is looking to get the most from all of the resources they have in order to achieve given goals agreed with others. And let's not forget that managers might need to discipline or even to dismiss individuals - not typically seen as a coaching activity!
True North has been training managers to use coaching techniques for over 10 years now. A challenge that our clients often face is getting buy-in from managers to explore coaching. Many managers are concerned that using coaching requires them to develop a more 'intimate' approach which they can feel uncomfortable with. This attitude will be more obvious in some organisational cultures than it is in others of course, but in our experience it is very common.
To address the issue it is important to emphasise that the purpose of a programme of 'coaching for managers' is to help them explore how they might develop a particular management style.
We highlight the link between coaching and management best practice. Good managers clarify goals, they ask good questions, they listen carefully - so do coaches. Good managers explore the potential of their people and help them to develop because they understand that this will motivate them, as well as ensure they require less supervision - so do coaches. Explaining coaching not as something new, but as something that good managers do will take away the mystique and allow managers to more easily buy-in to the approaches.
A critical factor in being a successful manager is communication and developing some of the skills used by coaches is a powerful way of improving communication between a manager and their team - whatever the manager is called!