Last Thursday Think Like A Coach: Empower your team through everyday conversations, was officially published! 

I’m still beaming at the thought of being a published author!

How does thinking like a coach help new managers?

In the book I share a story about Sami, a new line manager I was coaching that had written off one of his team as unassertive.

Something she said in a one-to-one prompted him to ask coach-like questions.  

“It’s like magic”, he kept saying to me. 

He thought he was going to have to step in and fix a problem for her but in the end she solved it herself. 

This wasn’t the result of a planned, prepared-for coaching session. It was Sami listening to his instincts in the moment and giving coaching a go. It didn’t need to be ‘perfect’. It was coach-like and enough to change the outcome.  

What would I get from reading it? 

If you’re going to make an effort to do something different, to try thinking like a coach, then it has to be worth it. And here are eight reasons managers tell me it is: 

1. It reduces your workload by empowering your team to be self-sufficient so that they don’t need to keep coming to you with every problem or decision.  
2. You identify problems early because you’re deliberately leaving space for your team members to tell you what’s really going on.  
3. Your team gives you insight into how to manage them more effectively. 
4. It takes the pressure off you having to be the one with all the answers. 
5. It’s developmental, because coach-like conversations stretch people out of their comfort zones in a safe way, encouraging them to think and problem-solve for themselves by helping them learn from their own experiences.  
6. It creates instant commitment and responsibility because the idea comes from them. 
7. Recruitment and retention are easier because everyone wants to work with the manager who believes in their teams and helps them progress. 
8. You get time for your career development because you have a high-performing team. 

 Ultimately, the reason managers adopt a coach-like approach is because it feels amazing. When you help someone come up with their own solutions it’s empowering and energising for both of you.