When to Coach and Mentor Your Employees

"Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction."  ~  John Crosby

"The ultimate leader is not afraid to develop people to the point they surpass him or her in knowledge and ability.”  ~  Fred A. Manske, Jr.

"Example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing.”  ~  Albert Schweitzer

“One day with a great teacher is better than a thousand days of diligent study"  ~  Japanese Proverb

I have read a lot about why Managers should coach employees. A lot has also been written on how to coach employees. You can find many articles on the Pygmalion Effect, which explain how employee coaching works. But I have only seen very few articles, however, that help you to know when to coach employees.

That's what I will attempt to do here.

By and large in our careers, I would suspect, any successes we have enjoyed have had, at their base, the founding action that someone once in our past believed in us.  And if  any of us have done things we didn't think at the time that we could do, it was because someone else thought we could. 

We who have experienced this have seen first hand the following truth in action: A good leader will make the members of his team see what they can become, rather than what they presently are.

Before Coaching Employees

At the heart of employee coaching lies this fact: Most of the time, a manager should not coach their employees.

To understand that counter-intuitive statement, it helps to know what employee coaching is and what employee coaching is not.

Giving employees the knowledge and skills they need to perform their job tasks is not employee coaching; that is employee training.

On the other hand, employee coaching is an on-going process of helping employee identify and overcome the hurdles that prevent them from excelling at their jobs.

Note that employee coaching involves helping employees identify solutions to their performance barriers: You are not coaching your employees when you tell them what to do.

When Not To Coach Employees

Before you can effectively coach employees you must know that they are properly trained and that they know what is expected of them. The following instances are NOT the time to coach employees:

Their training is not complete

When an employee has not been completely trained, it is a waste of your time (and theirs) to try and coach them in those aspects of their job.  If they have been properly trained for their job, you can coach them in that part, but not in the areas where they have not yet been trained.  Make sure the training is done first; then do the coaching.

They don't know the expectations

It serves no purpose to coach employees who don't know what is expected of them and how their results are measured.  Remember that employee coaching is supposed to be designed to help them overcome performance barriers.  Too often, I have seen talented employees moved off of positions where, if led properly, would have excelled to the benefit of both themselves and their superiors, if only they knew where they were expected to be.  If you don't point them in the right direction, they won't know how to get there.  Set clear objectives for your employees; then do the coaching. 

Don't rush it

Coaching and development take time.  When you're in a hurry, you will not do a good job.  You will not take the time to help your employees identify solutions; rather, you will be more likely to just tell them what to do.  Like everything worth doing, you have to make the time to do it right.  Then do the employee coaching. 

Stay calm

When you're upset, you won't exhibit the enthusiasm and friendliness you need to be effective as an employee coach.  You may not be fair or equitable.  You may even give subtle signals to the employee that could undermine the coaching you have been doing up to this point.  Get your emotions in check, and not for insincerity's sake.  Then do the employee coaching.

When To Coach Employees

We need to let people to make their own mistakes so they can learn from them. We can train them and advise them, which will help some of the time, (which then, by definition, means that there will times that their training and your advise will be of no help), but actual experience is often the best teacher.

A good manager, therefore, will hang back and resist the impulse to jump in every time an employee encounters difficulty. A good manager will always monitor what their employees are doing, but will not intervene to coach their employees except in the following circumstances.

Their behavior is dangerous
When an employee is doing something that could cause harm to themselves or to others, you have to step in.  This is one instance where you can't let someone learn from their mistakes.  You need to provide immediate coaching.  Rather than tell them the solution, however, you can still suggest a couple of alternatives and let the employee figure out which is best.  Make sure they understand why the behaviour they were planning was dangerous though;

Their actions are illegal or unethical
You can't allow employees to do things that are illegal and you shouldn't allow them to do anything unethical.  Whether the behaviour is illegal or unethical because of intent, design, or ignorance, you can't allow it.  As with dangerous behaviour, provide alternatives, let them decide, and explain why the planned behaviour was a poor choice.

They are hurting the team
You need your employees to work together as a team.  If one member of the team is doing something that will cause the others to exclude him/her from the team, you have to step in.  If an employee always takes credit for the work of their team, you need to coach them.  If an employee in a close area (re: cubicles) always yells into the phone and disturbs those around him, you have to step in and help him/her find a different behaviour.

They are repeating their failures
When employees have repeatedly tried to solve a problem, and their solution isn't going to work, you need to step in.  Often we try something and it fails or succeeds.  If it fails, we try it again to make sure we did it the way we meant to.  If it still fails, most people move on to something different.  If the employee keeps trying, however, they aren't learning.  Start coaching them.

The financial costs are too great
Almost any mistake is going to cost the company money, either directly or in lost profits.  You can't step in every time an employee might make a mistake just to save money.  Consider it an investment in the employee's learning and development.  However, if their planned actions would have a significant negative effect on the company financially, you have to step in.  You have a responsibility to the company to protect its fiscal assets that is as great as the responsibility to develop its human assets. Provide the employee with alternative behaviours; let them figure out the appropriate choices, and explain why you had to step in.

Managing this issue

Knowing when to let an employee make a mistake they can learn from and when you need to step in and coach them is the balancing act. You have to balance their opportunity to learn and grow against the harm they could do to themselves, their team, and the company. The more confident you are in your own abilities, the more you will be able to let your employees make their own choices. Remember, you role in coaching employees is to help them find the right behavior, not just tell them what to do.

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 If you have any suggestions or topics you'd like to see covered, or if you'd like help with an issue you're currently experiencing, please drop me a line at gbossinakis@live.com
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