Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    HBR Guide to Coaching Employees (HBR Guide Series)
    HBR Guide to Coaching Employees (HBR Guide Series)
    HBR Guide to Coaching Employees (HBR Guide Series)
    Ebook169 pages2 hours

    HBR Guide to Coaching Employees (HBR Guide Series)

    By Harvard Business Review

    4.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Help your employees help themselves.

    As a manager in today’s business world, you can’t just tell your direct reports what to do: You need to help them make their own decisions, enable them to solve tough problems, and actively develop their skills on the job.

    Whether you have a star on your team who’s eager to advance, an underperformer who’s dragging the group down, or a steady contributor who feels bored and neglected, you need to coach them: Help shape their goals—and support their efforts to achieve them.

    In the HBR Guide to Coaching Employees you’ll learn how to:

    • Create realistic but inspiring plans for growth
    • Ask the right questions to engage your employees in the development process
    • Give them room to grapple with problems and discover solutions
    • Allow them to make the most of their expertise while compelling them to stretch and grow
    • Give them feedback they’ll actually apply
    • Balance coaching with the rest of your workload

    Arm yourself with the advice you need to succeed on the job, from a source you trust. Packed with how-to essentials from leading experts, the HBR Guides provide smart answers to your most pressing work challenges.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarvard Business Review Press
    Release dateNov 18, 2014
    ISBN9781625275387
    HBR Guide to Coaching Employees (HBR Guide Series)
    Author

    Harvard Business Review

    Harvard Business Review es sin lugar a dudas la referencia más influyente en el sector editorial en temas de gestión y desarrollo de personas y de organizaciones. En sus publicaciones participan investigadores de reconocimiento y prestigio internacional, lo que hace que su catálogo incluya una gran cantidad de obras que se han convertido en best-sellers traducidos a múltiples idiomas.

    Read more from Harvard Business Review

    Related to HBR Guide to Coaching Employees (HBR Guide Series)

    Related ebooks

    Training For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Coaching: What Is It And Does It Work?

      Sep 30, 2020

      Business coaching is big business. Two years ago, the International Coaching Federation had 53,000 members and estimated that there were 100,000 life coaches in the world. Another estimate of note is that it is currently a Billion Dollar business, es

      8 min read

    • Article

      10 Ways to Fail Miserably at Office Politics

      Apr 30, 2021

      “Office politics,” says Boston-based Karen Dillon, “is impossible to avoid. But it is manageable if you know what not to do. As the former editor of the Harvard Business Review magazine and author of the HBR Guide to Office Politics, Dillon provides

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Fearless Organization

      May 1, 2019

      The Fearless Organization
      9 min read

    • Article

      How To Ask For Feedback

      Oct 20, 2020

      David Klein began his career at McKinsey, an organization obsessed with feedback. So, in 2011, when he launched New York City-based student loan lender CommonBond, Klein decided to made feedback core to his company’s culture. When seeking structured

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Practice of Positive Leadership

      Sep 1, 2019

      Great leadership is surprisingly rare. Why is that? While there are plenty of well-intentioned individuals in leadership roles, they face a few key challenges. The first is time pressure. Research shows that when we’re under time pressure, we become

      6 min read

    • Article

      HR Tech Helps Fuel a Culture of Innovation

      Aug 5, 2019

      Technology is the primary driver of innovation at all kinds of businesses. It’s widely used in areas such as marketing, supply chain logistics, commerce solutions, and others. Businesses that embrace technology are much more likely to develop a cultu

      2 min read

    • Article

      Can You Teach Leadership?

      Dec 2, 2022

      Can You Teach Leadership?
      9 min read

    • Article

      Mostly On Managing Up

      Jan 17, 2023

      I can't recall having a boss I did not like. Sadly, that's not the case for everyone, with more than half the respondents in one large study reporting they had quit a job because of someone they perceived as a bad manager. I've stuck around Auckland

      2 min read

    • Article

      No Bad Teams, Just Bad Leaders

      Jul 11, 2019

      Idon’t know exactly when this happened, but over the last several years the dialogue around leadership has degenerated into a fluffy, abstract conversation about desirable leadership attributes. We seem to spend an inordinate amount of time and energ

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Power of Positive

      Sep 1, 2019

      The Power of Positive
      5 min read

    • Article

      Do You Need a Coach?

      Sep 21, 2016

      Maybe, if it’s the boss who is becoming the weak link when trying to figure out critical issues

      3 min read

    • Article

      Nail Your Dream Job

      Jul 28, 2021

      Nail Your Dream Job
      7 min read

    • Article

      In And Out

      Aug 23, 2018

      In And Out
      5 min read

    • Article

      What Amazing Bosses Do

      Jul 19, 2016

      Job satisfaction often hinges on the quality of the relationships we have with our bosses. Yet in today’s rapidly evolving, 24/7 workplaces, it’s not always clear what managers should do to create satisfying work experiences and happy employees. My r

      3 min read

    • Article

      Q&A

      Jan 1, 2017

      QUESTIONS FOR Jesse Sostrin, PhD, Leadership Expert, PricewaterhouseCoopers You believe that one of the most overlooked factors in effective leadership is capacity. How do you define ‘leadership capacity’? A leader’s capacity is the time, energy, res

      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for HBR Guide to Coaching Employees (HBR Guide Series)

    4.5/5

    7 ratings2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Great articles on how to effectively use coaching and help employees reach their full potential.
    • 5/5
      Very usefull book ... Yo have it handy on your shelf

    Book preview

    HBR Guide to Coaching Employees (HBR Guide Series) - Harvard Business Review

    HBR Guide to

    Coaching Employees

    Harvard Business Review Guides

    Arm yourself with the advice you need to succeed on the job, from the most trusted brand in business. Packed with how-to essentials from leading experts, the HBR Guides provide smart answers to your most pressing work challenges.

    The titles include:

    HBR Guide to Better Business Writing

    HBR Guide to Coaching Employees

    HBR Guide to Finance Basics for Managers

    HBR Guide to Getting the Mentoring You Need

    HBR Guide to Getting the Right Job

    HBR Guide to Getting the Right Work Done

    HBR Guide to Giving Effective Feedback

    HBR Guide to Leading Teams

    HBR Guide to Making Every Meeting Matter

    HBR Guide to Managing Stress at Work

    HBR Guide to Managing Up and Across

    HBR Guide to Negotiating

    HBR Guide to Networking

    HBR Guide to Office Politics

    HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations

    HBR Guide to Project Management

    HBR Guide to

    Coaching Employees

    HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW PRESS

    Boston, Massachusetts

    HBR Press Quantity Sales Discounts

    Harvard Business Review Press titles are available at significant quantity discounts when purchased in bulk for client gifts, sales promotions, and premiums. Special editions, including books with corporate logos, customized covers, and letters from the company or CEO printed in the front matter, as well as excerpts of existing books, can also be created in large quantities for special needs.

    For details and discount information for both print and ebook formats, contact booksales@harvardbusiness.org, tel. 800-988-0886, or www.hbr.org/bulksales.

    Copyright 2015 Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation

    All rights reserved

    Printed in the United States of America

    10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

    No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior permission of the publisher. Requests for permission should be directed to permissions@hbsp.harvard.edu, or mailed to Permissions, Harvard Business School Publishing, 60 Harvard Way, Boston, Massachusetts 02163.

    The web addresses referenced in this book were live and correct at the time of the book’s publication but may be subject to change.

    Library-of-Congress cataloging information forthcoming

    ISBN: 978-1-62527-533-2

    eISBN: 978-1-62527-538-7

    The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Publications and Documents in Libraries and Archives Z39.48-1992.

    What You’ll Learn

    When you’re swamped with work, it’s hard to make time to coach your employees—and do it well. But if you don’t help them build their skills, they’ll keep coming to you for answers instead of finding their own solutions. That kind of hand-holding kills productivity and creativity, and you can’t sustain it. In the long run, it eats up a lot more time and energy than investing in people’s development.

    So you really must coach to be an effective manager. Got a star on your team who’s eager to advance? An under performer who’s dragging the group down? A steady contributor who feels bored and neglected? With all of them, you’ll need to agree on goals for growth, motivate them to achieve those goals, support their efforts, and measure their progress. This guide gives you the tools to do that.

    You’ll get better at:

    Asking the right questions before you dispense advice

    Creating realistic but inspiring plans for growth What You’ll Learn

    Providing the support employees need to achieve peak performance

    Tapping their learning styles to make greater progress

    Giving them feedback they’ll actually apply

    Giving them room to grapple with problems and discover solutions

    Engaging your employees and fostering independence

    Matching people’s skills with your organization’s needs

    Customizing your approach

    Contents

    Introduction: Why Coach?

    Coaching is leading.

    BY ED BATISTA

    Section 1: PREPARING TO COACH YOUR EMPLOYEES

    1. Shift Your Thinking to Coach Effectively

    You’re learning right along with your employees.

    BY CANDICE FRANKOVELGIA

    2. Set the Stage to Stimulate Growth

    A practical, concrete plan for achieving peak performance.

    BY EDWARD M. HALLOWELL, MD

    3. Earn Your Employees’ Trust

    Build rapport so that they can hear your feedback.

    BY JIM DOUGHERTY

    Section 2: COACHING YOUR EMPLOYEES

    4. Holding a Coaching Session

    Ask questions, articulate goals, reframe challenges.

    BY AMY JEN SU

    5. Following Up After a Coaching Session

    Monitor and adjust.

    BY PAM KRULITZ AND NINA BOWMAN

    6. Giving Feedback That Sticks

    Prevent a fight-or-flight response.

    BY ED BATISTA

    7. Enlist Knowledge Coaches

    Tap the deep smarts of your subject-matter experts.

    BY DOROTHY LEONARD AND WALTER SWAP

    8. Coaching Effectively in Less Time

    Adopt efficient habits and claim found time.

    BY DAISY WADEMAN DOWLING

    9. Help People Help Themselves

    They’ll continue to grow through self-coaching.

    BY ED BATISTA

    10. Avoid Common Coaching Mistakes

    Pitfalls to watch out for—and how to remedy them.

    BY MURIEL MAIGNAN WILKINS

    Section 3: CUSTOMIZE YOUR COACHING

    11. Tailor Your Coaching to People’s Learning Styles

    Find approaches to learning that your employees will be motivated to follow.

    BY DAVID A. KOLB AND KAY PETERSON

    12. Coaching Your Stars, Steadies, and Strugglers

    You can’t—and shouldn’t—give them equal time.

    BY JIM GRINNELL

    13. Coaching Your Rookie Managers

    Help them avoid classic beginners’ errors.

    BY CAROL A. WALKER

    14. Coaching Rising Managers to Emotional Maturity

    Don’t promote people before they’re ready.

    BY KERRY A. BUNKER, KATHY E. KRAM, AND SHARON TING

    15. Coaching Teams

    When to intervene—and how.

    BY J. RICHARD HACKMAN

    Index

    Introduction: Why Coach?

    by Ed Batista

    After graduating from business school, I was hired by a founding board of directors to launch a new organization, the Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network. I had shared a leadership position before, but this was my first time as a solo chief executive, and I believed it was my responsibility to come up with the best ideas myself and champion them aggressively.

    This approach led to a number of conflicts with my directors. A mentor of mine on the board took me aside and said, We think you’re a talented young guy, but you have some rough edges. We’d like you to invest in yourself and get a coach. One of my former professors had a coaching practice, and I asked her to take me on as a client. That was one of the best things I’ve ever done.

    Although few coaching clients ultimately decide to become coaches, as I did, my positive experience of coaching is typical. The tremendous growth in the field over the past 20 years has been driven by consistent reports from clients who feel more effective and fulfilled as a result of the coaching they’ve received. And it doesn’t help only at the individual level. Although researchers can’t yet precisely measure coaching’s effect on organizational performance, numerous studies (published in the Journal of Management, Consulting Psychology Journal, and other publications) show a positive impact.

    Being coached helped me understand that I could make the biggest difference as a leader not by doing more than everyone else but by empowering other people to do more and motivating them to do their best. This meant letting go of certain responsibilities and recognizing the limits of my expertise. I didn’t need to have all the answers; I just needed to ask the right questions. In short, I came to realize that effective leadership looks a lot like coaching.

    But what do we mean by coaching in the first place? The simplest definition is asking questions that help people discover the answers that are right for them. A more specific definition that applies to you as a leader and manager is a style of management primarily characterized by asking employees questions in order to help them fulfill their immediate responsibilities more effectively and advance their development as professionals over time. The emphasis on asking questions is noteworthy when we consider that conventional leadership roles typically position the leader as the expert, someone who provides answers and whose domain knowledge is one of the foundations of her authority. In contrast, when a leader acts as a coach, she needs to adopt a different mind-set and add value in different ways.

    It’s no coincidence that the increased demand for coaching has accompanied the shift from command-and-control hierarchies to flatter, more distributed organizations. In the 1950s, management thinker Peter Drucker coined the term knowledge worker to describe a newly emerging cohort among the white-collar ranks; today most professionals fall into this category. Because they require (and desire) little or no direct supervision and often know more about their tasks than their managers do, knowledge workers usually respond well to coaching. Unlike directive, top-down management, coaching allows them to make the most of their expertise while compelling them to stretch and grow. As their manager, you set overall direction for them—but you let them figure out how best to get there.

    Many senior managers and HR executives have come to view coaching as an investment in high potentials or as a perk for stars. Others still see coaching mainly as a corrective measure for underperformers. Daniel Goleman noted in his classic Harvard Business Review (HBR) article "Leadership That Gets Results" (March–April 2000) that despite coaching’s merits, it was used least often among the management styles he studied. Leaders told Goleman that they didn’t have time to coach their employees, and you may feel the same way. But coaching is broadly applicable, and managers at all levels can benefit from working with their direct reports in this way. You may need to encourage those around you to participate—and you may need to be persuaded yourself.

    If so, I urge you to give it a try and gauge the return on your investment. Although external coaches like me will always play an important role in supporting leaders and their teams, coaching shouldn’t be our exclusive domain. It’s an essential management tool, and there are circumstances when a coaching manager can be more useful than a professional coach. I often help clients reflect on difficult experiences in order to make sense of what happened and extract some learning, but these conversations occur days or even weeks after the event. A leader who has coaching skills can help team

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1