How to train managers as career coaches

It has never been more vital to retain top talent. Loyal and high performing employees are hard to come by, so keeping hold of them is an important part of any business strategy. The modern work arena is increasingly focused on internal career mobility and promotions, as well as those meaningful conversations that can answer questions from employees such as, “Where can I go next?”. Annual performance reviews just aren’t enough any more.

And it is the management level that is pivotal to all of this. They are at the coal face of talent management, talent development, and retention efforts. Which means they need to step up to the plate when it comes to leading employees along a satisfactory and worthwhile career path, as well as capitalising on workers’ skills.

But how can a manager be a career coach as well? Not only should managers supervise what their team is doing, they can be trained to take on a coaching mindset by supporting the career journey of each individual member.

In this article, we’ll cover why it matters to train managers to coach employees, what skills a manager would need, and how this all ties in with what Careerminds has to offer.

Here are a few facts and UK statistics to drive this home.

• If managers haven’t had any formal leadership training – and that accounts for 33% of current UK managers – it’s unfair to expect them to take on the mindset of a career coach when they haven’t been developed themselves.
• A mere 15% of UK workers have regular career growth conversations with their managers, meaning there’s a huge gap between what is ideal and the reality of the situation.
• The same study shows that less than a third of employees enjoy regular 1-2-1s with a senior member of staff, and only 22% are offered clear performance metrics and expectations.
• From the perspective of the employee, 40% of them believe their managers do not possess sufficient training or the right skills to effectively perform their role.
• Just 17% of professionals have used the skills of a business or career coach, despite the fact that 83% of those who had said that it had benefitted their career.

That shows a gap between what employees need and what managers can offer. Therefore, training managers to coach employees isn’t an extra benefit anymore, it’s a vital part of the career journey and operating a business. This is emphasised by a British Council article showing that those employees who report to managers who possess a credible coaching style are 40% more engaged, make 32% more effort, and are 20% more likely to remain at that company than those who work under managers that haven’t been trained to coach employees. 

So here’s a shout out to business leaders, from a career framework and outplacement point of view –  training managers to coach employees is a strategic investment in talent retention and management, not just a tick-box exercise to please the HR department.

It’s certainly not for everyone, so start by asking your managers if they actually want to go down the route of coaching employees. It’s crucial to get buy-in on this, so listen to your managers and take their views into account before going ahead with a scheme.

Once that’s established, you can set up a programme and meetings to discuss:

• What the goals of the coaching programme should be
• How to fit coaching programmes into the working day
• How the business sees this being enacted in practice
• Identifying any issues that might occur
• Looking at coaching best practice

The main point to cover is how coaching can help direct reports. Below are some tips that manager coaches can employ to help staff.

1. Pinpoint strengths and areas for improvement

This can be an informal discussion, with points of view from both the manager and the member of staff. Get the employee to write a list of their known strengths and weaknesses, which should lead to an open conversation about the sort of work that best suits the individual.

2. List out an inventory of skills

The employee should include everything in which they are competent, so they can assess their abilities in light of all responsibilities and potential career growth. The coaching manager can then look at where the employee’s skills can be used elsewhere in the company, or in external positions, and how the member of staff can aim towards a promotion or outside move.

3. Engage with questions

Don’t think that, as a coach, you have all the answers to an employee’s career journey. The best approach is to engage the employee with pertinent questions that can steer them into proposing their own solutions, solve their own problems, and independently react to issues. Part of the skill in training managers to coach employees is enabling the coaches to act as guides to staff members.

4. Brainstorm

Coaches should be there to help an employee work out what they want, not what the business wants or needs. By brainstorming within a group environment, they can figure out for themselves what type of work engages and energises them. Are they a team player? What are their most recent high points? What sort of work drains or frustrates them? Get them to link up how particular work environments or contributing factors connect together.

5. Set goals, expectations, and career paths that lead to success

Metrics and data can help here, so setting regular weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual goals will help towards giving the employee a structured long-term plan for their future career growth, while simultaneously aiding the company in understanding where each staff member is headed – even if that leads to coaching that person out of the business.

As a manager of teams, you need to have certain skills that will coach your members forward in their careers. There is no point in having a scripted programme, as each member of your team is an individual with different aspirations for their career. Your aim is to forge and develop the right mindset, with the right tools and behaviours.

Let’s look at the key capabilities required when training managers to coach employees, and how these can be built into a training programme.

• Adopt a coaching mindset

Rather than taking the approach of, “What have you done? Now here’s what you do next,” flip this on its head to, “Let me understand your career goals, help you consider your strengths and weaknesses, and then support the development that you want to achieve.”

This approach combines really listening to your employee, asking open-ended questions with a non-judgemental stance, and assisting, instead of telling them, what they should be doing. Part of a training programme could be role playing career conversations and introducing peer feedback during coaching practice.

• Focus on improving conversation skills

This can be done via regular meetings to check in with each employee, to focus on their career and not just their performance. These can be set out using frameworks to give each conversation a focus with real aims coming out of them, so the employee can express potential next steps. They can ponder on questions such as, “Where am I now and where do I want to be? What will help me achieve this and what do I commit to?”.

This is where managers need to learn to structure career conversations which will help members of staff to map their aspirations, identify projects which stretch and empower them, and learn about sideways moves and mentoring opportunities. The British Council article cites that a coaching management style increases psychological safety among workers, with 74% feeling less stress and achieving a 50% higher productivity rate.

• Gather knowledge on career development

It’s vital that managers know about career pathways, company mobility options, required industry skills to move upwards, and how to connect individual targets with business needs. This is when career framework models come into play – an aspect of career pathways that Careerminds can help with.

• Assess the strengths of employees

This can be very useful for workers, especially those starting out in the workplace, to be able to pinpoint their current strengths and any gaps in their skillset. This can then lead to helping staff create bespoke, actionable development plans to move them forward in the right direction. Including a self-assessment module within the training plan will help towards this.

• Remain accountable

Coaching employees is not about having just one conversation and leaving it at that. It’s a process that needs following up, checking in, and holding progress reviews, with follow-up actions that actually happen. Managers are accountable for these, otherwise it will all have been a waste of time.

• Embed a coaching culture and continuous development attitude

Training managers as coaches needs to be embedded across the whole company for the foreseeable future. That translates as implementing training which continues with management support, and establishing metrics that count, such as the percentage of direct reports with career plans. Having all of this can help with boosting the company brand, as future employees will be drawn to a business that clearly cares about its staff progression.

At Careerminds, not only do we help with the outplacement process, we also help organisations to build the internal capability to support career paths with a career framework service.

Contact us to find out more.