MANAGERS AND THE “MINDSET OF A COACH”

Dear Members and Friends,

The China-Italy Chamber of Commerce (CICC) is pleased to share with you an article written by our member Gi Group:

Coaching has been a strategic managerial asset since several decades. However, only a few companies fully embrace it in their leadership model. The others are just used to mentioning coaching as a general “skill”, without understanding its high organizational relevance.

More than developing a skill, turning managers into coaches is a real transformational process that requires a dynamic and agile corporate culture, authentic values toward people and consistent behaviors by all employees, from the top managers to the internships.

It’s part of a cultural transformation that puts employees’ development at the center. As main consequences of this choice, the organization gets a better engagement, both at individual and group level. Employees overcome challenges, reaching ambitious goals and reinforcing self-confidence. Teams raise their performance, bringing about an overall higher productivity.

To make a long story short: coaching makes happier and more productive employees.

Turning managers into coaches can have many benefits for everyone in the workplace. This is the reason why enhancing a coaching culture is a so powerful asset for forward-looking employers.

Managers should look at their “coaching journey” as it was a leadership one, honing both their management style and behavioral competences. They don't need to be certified Coaches, but they need to build the “mindset of a coach” and the following core coaching competences, like listening and questioning, building empathy, authenticity and trust, providing people with support and no judgment.

The more managers play the role of coaches, the more they will become good listeners, raising their overall capability to be more perceptive and to sharpen both social awareness and social management skills. These are both essential assets for reinforcing their emotional intelligence too.

Managers are sometimes tempted to tell employees what to do. Rather than giving pure advice, managers should focus on powerful questions that guide employees through a discovery process on their own. In order to be real Managers-Coaches, they need to learn how asking appropriate questions, at the right time, in a given context, so that the question may trigger certain reflections and insights in their employees.

Managers-coaches can empower employees to take ownership and solve problems under their guidance, working together as a high-performing and solution-oriented team. This is one of the hardest shift for managers, because it includes capabilities such delegation and engagement, as well as the ability to build trust and transparency.

The coaching relationship develops trust by reinforcing the connection between the manager-coach and his/her employees. This happens at several stages. At the beginning, when a manager listens to the team member without any judgment, the team member’s self-esteem increases as he/she feels valued and respected. Secondly, empowered employees require less supervision because they have more ownership and accountability toward their jobs. At the end, when managers-coaches use a coaching approach rather than pure instructions, they win the "hearts, souls and minds" of the team members, building stronger relationships with them.

Coaching can transform under-achievers into outstanding performers. Any organization where managers are expected to coach employees should ensure a suitable cultural mindset and leadership model.

Only people who challenge themselves first are capable of helping others expand their own abilities, change their behavior, make decisions, fix problems and find new solutions.

Coaching is not only a pure skill. It is a whole mindset managers and organizations should embrace and foster.

Enza Artino

Global Employer Branding & Talent Acquisition Senior Manager at Gi Group

Gi Group is one of the world’s leading companies providing services for the development of the labour market. The Group is active in the fields of temporary and permanent staffing, search and selection, HR consulting and training, as well as in a variety of complementary activities.

Kind Regards,
The CICC Team