The boss can mentor, but can the boss really coach?
I often hear senior management (Pres, CEOs, MDs ) say they’re good coaches to their key people. And I see more books exhorting leaders to be Chief Coach. Hmmm..
Many bosses can mentor, (often be great mentors), but it’s not quite the same thing as coaching.. I personally don’t think bosses are good coaches. Occasionally, yes, but not often.
The usual relationship between a boss and subordinate is authority and follower. If that was not the case, there wouldn’t really be a business structure. And yes, I know that there are companies that fancy themselves as flat organisations, trumpeting “we don’t have politics here.” But I don’t usually buy it–and I’m writing about the norm, not the exception.
A subordinate [usually] has very little interest in telling the boss his or her weaknesses, or what is bothering them. The boss [usually] has one primary concern; can the subordinate truly contribute what they’re supposed to, the way the boss and company prefers to have it done.
Do they want to help their subordinate? Absolutely. Does the boss need to spend one-on-one time understanding their subordinate’s challenges, worries, motivations, future? Yes, but in very limited doses–and if they spend a lot of time on it, they ain’t managing the team. A healthy distance between boss and subordinate is just that; healthy.
Most people, especially senior level, are measured on their performance, not potential: that’s a by-product. Coaching is about potential, and determining what in the overall performance needs work and improvement. A coach’s job is to watch and listen again and again until [agreed upon] changes can be seen. A patient will tell a Dr what’s hurting them. The Dr.’s concern is the pain, what ails the patient, and how to fix what is wrong. And that conversation is only between healer and patient.
The main goal at work is to get the job done, not digging into someone’s history or worse, vulnerabilities, which is manipulative and overly political, and most of us have been through that sort of nefarious management, sometimes dressed up as coaching..
A boss should often leave the coaching to external coaches with no vested interest in the company. Mentoring is different, as I mentioned earlier, and can certainly be beneficial for high-potentials if handled with foresight.
Mixing coaching with managing, or mentoring, can often lead to a boss trying to do far too much. That just confuses the rank and file–they won’t know how to react or work properly. They almost always want the boss to lead. Leave the management to the managers and coaching to the coaches, life is confusing enough..
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