One of the questions I receive frequently from managers is about getting their managers or executive team to coach them. They often fear retribution if they bring it up- as if they are crossing a line. When we provide our program to organizations, everybody says you should start with the executive team, which I agree with, but often it gets pushed down to management levels below the executive team. Executives are incredibly busy today, but so are managers below this level!
Unemployment is currently low in the United States, so there is a talent pool challenge. The number one reason an employee quits an organization today has very little to do with the organization; whereas, studies will show the major reason is their boss.
The other thing we hear frequently in our business is that managers don't have time to coach which begs the humorous viewpoint: Who interviews candidates when that employee leaves the organization?
Both of these challenges- getting executives to coach as well as managers really need to be put into alignment with one another. Alignment is such a powerful force, as is the concept of progress. If executives and managers are in alignment, that consistency builds trust and a regularly scheduled consistent basis. If both levels of leadership acknowledge strengths and focus on the good things employees do from top to bottom, talent retention will improve as will the ability to recruit top talent.
What happens to trust when executives ask managers to coach, but they are not coaching? What happens to managers who say they don't have time to coach and they start to lose talent or have an inability to recruit talent? All of these questions provide organizations a huge opportunity as this goes back to one of my infamous jokes or hopefully at least a humorous viewpoint on coaching: Leaders coach every day. They coach people to stay or go because nobody ever has a neutral day. We either have great days or bad days.
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