Kim Morris Lee
It’s not magic. Leadership focused on guiding and coaching is the foundation for building workplace teams that exceed expectations. Yes, often this type of leadership is exhibited by “managers” or “supervisors.” Being in a management role, however, is not a prerequisite to guide and coach staff toward achieving work related goals.
High workplace performance is realized when people use initiative, communicate clearly up and down the organization; solve their own problems using a collaborative approach and resolve conflict. Managers and leaders can have a huge effect on staff performance by guiding and coaching employees in these competency areas – initiative, communication, problem solving, and conflict resolution. But, whether functioning as a manager, project lead, or individual contributor, opportunities to guide and coach staff may be presented as routine work responsibilities are being addressed. Recognizing these opportunities and taking the right action can be the difference between working with a team that achieves phenomenal results and one that merely anguishes over results that need to be achieved.
Research has shown that the role of the manager is pivotal to employees giving discretionary effort. John Purcell, in a study titled, 'Understanding the people and performance link' looked at the relationship between employee attitudes, discretionary behavior, and organizational performance. Employee and manager discretions were also considered. The research results suggest that employee discretion, “going the extra mile,” was linked to the effectiveness of managers and the amount of ‘managerial discretion’ given.
'Managerial discretion' and employee perceptions were explored around the following areas:
- Involvement and communication
- Dealing with problems in the workplace and treating employees fairly
- Respect employees get from their immediate line manager
- Extent to which employee’s line manager provided coaching and guidance
- Employee’s feelings about how good the organization is at sharing and exchanging knowledge and experience
The employee group that scored highest in terms of positive employee perception, across the five areas, was the highest performing work group. This is additional evidence that employee coaching and guidance are critical elements to achieving workplace results.
Leaders and managers interested in developing high performing work teams and becoming more supportive of staff will need to focus on often dismissed “soft skills” (patience, kindness, approachability, encouragement – even the simple act of smiling). They can have enormous impact on effectiveness with people. Most important, these skills have been shown to have direct or indirect effect on:
- flow of information that can lead to the valuable insight and wonderful ideas we’re all looking for from productive work teams
- enthusiasm that leads to focused thinking and extra effort that we all want to see from ourselves and others in the workplace
Research in the last 10 years has established the link between good people management practices and organizational performance. It has been shown that the leadership and management style of the manager is critical to the amount of discretionary effort an employee gives to an organization. Developing leaders and managers to guide staff, focus on positive attitudes, and leverage team strengths may lead to higher employee engagement, more productive work teams and provide UIC with a valuable return on its investment.
A primary role for managers is to support the employee professional development process – be a sounding board and provide counsel. Good career coaches build strong, committed, and productive teams.
Take steps to improve team leadership abilities today by completing courses offered by UIC HR Organizational Effectiveness. A few instructor-led and online options are listed below.
- Business Coaching: Getting Ready to Coach --- online course
- Leadership Essentials --- Instructor-led workshop
- Managing as a Coach and Counselor --- online course
