Why is coaching so important for you as a manager?

This figure also mirrors data from David Hawkins’s work using the map of consciousness, which uncovered that 85% of people operate and live below the courage line.

This is significant because, at that level of fear, people are net takers from the workplace they belong to and lack the courage for self-enquiry and growth, as this requires a level of vulnerability they are unable to show.

In both cases, 85% of the workforce cannot actively participate in their own development using feedback or others as a guide.

These are clearly not good manager traits.

A challenging journey but where is it going?

From school age, we are taught that you must have the correct answer. We are assessed individually, and collaboration is called cheating. Teamwork, outside of basic sports, is not encouraged. As we leave the education environment, we use a CV or resume to build a story of our individual success. In our jobs, we are hired by job title to perform a specific skill in the great machinery of the large organisational environment.

Externals are bought in to fill a skills gap, make up the numbers, or take risks if it all goes wrong.

Everyone is employed as an individual who already knows how to do their job.

Bonuses are often given to those who succeed above the average.

Most people operate in this environment, so it is no wonder that 85% are too afraid to seek open help to grow and learn.

The two biggest fears that dominate modern life are the fear of an uncertain future and the fear of being cast out in some way by their work, family, or social groups.

Most people and organisations have active strategies to avoid these situations and will go to extraordinary lengths to live in a certain and safe world.

Brene Browne is a researcher and storyteller who's spent two decades studying courage, vulnerability, shame, and empathy. Her research shows that everyone experiences shame or guilt at some point and what is underlying these emotions is the fear of disconnection from others.

Yet, we live in an increasingly uncertain world with natural, political, business, and technological disruptors occurring daily. Not a day goes by without news about an unexpected change causing disruption.

Real threat to not belonging = losing your job

Organisations will not hesitate to let people go, ask for changes in work/life, such as 100% in the office, or just let 1000s of people go in an increasingly challenging economic landscape.

Product and service development is getting more complex with increased competition from AI, cheaper and more diverse labour from abroad and individuals working with more flexible arrangements elsewhere.

Customers expect more complex services and products in shorter timeframes and lifecycles, and they are asking for all this for less money. This is happening with products and services whose timelines are difficult to estimate in advance and uncover all sorts of hidden challenges and unexpected faults in the creation, delivery, and support stages.

Most people are employed because of the skills-based value they offer and the results this is expected to deliver. The message is that the organisation cares about you as a person, but this is simply not shown in the data.

You are employed for what you do, not who you are.

This creates an unhealthy attention on performance and no attention on mental health, internal strategies for success, or personal development.

Coaching is a way to get both of these needs met.

That goes a long way to resolving this tension in you and your reports and makes for not only a happier team but a more productive one.

The first step in getting ahead is to break the stigma and fear of getting help. You must first break the fear and create patterns of external help in your working life. (i.e. stop just doing it all on your own).

This will break the ceiling you accidentally created for yourself.

According to data, 70% of organisations offer coaching to their staff, especially leaders, but the take-up of this support is extremely low (15% at most).

We recently ran a leadership program for a large company with some of the best coach teachers in the world, and frequently, there would be sessions with only one or two people attending.

(Those who did say it was an outstanding and beneficial experience).

HBR (Harvard Business Review) research shows that coaching boosts employee productivity by 44% and a study from the ICF shows that ROI on coaching hours can yield a massive 788%.

Getting ahead and staying ahead as an exemplary manager usually means:

This is what coaches do; they enable a much faster and more rapid approach to achieving better management and leadership skills.

Being a coach changes your management approach.

A survey of 1826 HR workers showed that 85% believe it will be crucial for business leaders to work on their coaching skills over the next few years.

Coming from a society organised around the culture of being right creates a psychology of being unable to listen to others when they are innovating, suggesting ideas, or speaking out. You can see this in any meeting, where the same voices dominate the conversation, and others say little or nothing.

Yet, one of the three significant factors affecting employee mental health is feeling that they are being listened to. (The others are safety and meeting other needs.)

It has been said that people don’t leave a job; they leave a bad manager.

However, when we examine this further, we find that it is usually because they feel unheard, unfairly treated, or cannot grow and progress in their role to the level they believe they are capable of.

Being a good coach solves these problems for the manager who is struggling with turnover, unhappy employees, or is just stagnating in their progress.

A quick search of the job portal Indeed shows there are over 16,000+ managerial jobs that explicitly ask for coaching as a skill. More and more employers are asking for coaching skills as a standard for management positions.

How do you know you are a good manager coach?

Gordon McAlpine, a Strathclyde University Business School fellow. McAlpine, a technology entrepreneur turned coach who judges the Great British Entrepreneurship Awards (GBEA), shares that he is concerned that there is little regulation in the coaching world and many managers think they are good listeners and coaches but are actually not, or in his words ‘they haven’t got a clue what they are doing”.

Taking a recognised coaching course with the International Federation of Coaching (ICF) is the best place to start.

However, reviewing many provider offerings, they are aimed at life coaching or non-business applications. Finding an ICF-accredited program that is aimed at the professional manager or leader was a difficult challenge.

But not anymore.

The Art of Professional Coaching: Unlocking Human Potential in Business (ICF Level 1) is a program The Deeper Change Academy are offering you as a businessperson.

This program is the first of its kind to offer real coaching expertise to managers and businesspeople alike.

It is led by two of the most qualified and highly experienced business professional coaches in the world. (would you expect anything less from Deeper Change!).