Manager as Coach

In theory, managers serve as guides, directors, decision makers, and energizers for their employees. Unfortunately, few managers have, themselves, been trained in the skills and techniques to get the best results from their employees, and managerial styles can run the gamut from permissive-but-ineffectual to aloof to autocratic. In The Manager as Coach, the authors focus on the key purposes of coaching—improving individual performance, solving problems, and securing results—in order to address the challenges of effective management head-on. Dispelling popular myths and misconceptions about coaching as a passing fad or a collection of superficial motivation techniques, they offer practical tools for mastering the skills of effective coaching to the benefit of employees and the organization, identifying four primary roles that managers—as coaches—play on a regular basis: trainer, career advisor, strategist, and performance appraiser. Featuring diagnostic exercises, worksheets, and a listing of resources, The Manager as Coach will help readers develop the qualities and skills to align individual and organizational goals and forge dynamic, productive relationships. Whether large or small, manufacturing or service, every organization selects managers and assigns them the task of securing results through people. In theory, managers serve as guides, directors, decision makers, and energizers for their employees. Unfortunately, few managers have, themselves, been trained in the skills and techniques to get the best results from their employees, and managerial styles can run the gamut from permissive-but-ineffectual to aloof to autocratic. This volume in The Manager as… series addresses the challenges of effective management head-on by exploring the role of manager as coach. Focusing on the key purposes of coaching—improving individual performance, solving problems, and securing results—the authors dispel popular myths and misconceptions of management coaching as a passing fad, a process of endless tutoring, or superficial motivation techniques, and offer practical tools for mastering the skills of effective coaching to the benefit of both employees and the organization. They identify four primary roles managers—as coaches—play on a regular basis: trainer, career advisor, strategist, and performance appraiser. Featuring diagnostic exercises, worksheets, and a listing of resources, The Manager as Coach will help readers develop the qualities and skills to align individual and organizational goals and forge dynamic, productive relationships.

Jerry W. Gilley is Professor and Chair of the Organizational Performance and Change and Human Resource Studies Programs at Colorado State University. Previously on the faculty at Iowa State University, Western Michigan University, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, he also served as Principal and Director of Organization and Professional Development for Mercer Human Resource Consulting. Currently serving as President of the Academy of Human Resource Development, he is the author, co-author, or co-editor of numerous articles and over a dozen books, including The Manager as Politician (Praeger, 2005), The Performance Challenge, Beyond the Learning Organization, Stop Managing, Start Coaching, and the award-winning Organizational Learning, Performance, and Change. Ann Gilley is Associate Professor of Management at Ferris State University and Vice President of Trilogy Consulting Group, a performance consulting firm. Formerly on the faculty at Colorado State University, she is the author, co-author, or co-editor of several books, including The Manager as Change Leader (Praeger, 2005), Critical Issues in HRD, The Performance Challenge, Beyond the Learning Organization, and the award-winning Organizational Learning, Performance, and Change.