6 ways coaching skills transform organisations, managers, and teams 

Article written by Farley Thomas, Co-Founder & CEO of Manageable  

The need for management transformation has been a topic of conversation for years. And yet, organisations are talking a lot more than they are doing.  

If organisations continue to train (or not) their managers in the same ways as before, the stubbornly low levels of engagement, well-being, and productivity we’re seeing today will never be resolved. 

After all, what else will follow a generation of accidental managers ill-equipped to meet their team’s needs, other than a new generation positioned to do exactly the same? Today’s leaders are informally training tomorrow’s leaders to reflect their management style, whether they know it or not. 

So what can be done? 

Coaching skills unlock the paradigm shift that’s needed. By developing a coaching style, managers can transform the way they lead today and in the future. Here’s how. 

1# Coaching skills help you listen better — naturally and inclusively 

The first benefit of coaching skills is the ability to listen better. Managers with coaching skills help their people feel heard, psychologically safe, and able to communicate their ideas fully without fear. 

We’re all familiar with ‘active’ listening practices and esoteric listening models, but being a good listener doesn’t have to be that difficult or forced. People feel they are talking to a good listener when a conversation flows naturally. You want the other person to follow your train of thought, so that they understand your perspective, play back your wording and ask for clarification where needed. Good conversations involve two people building on each other’s contributions to reach a new understanding together. 

Coaching skills empower managers with greater empathy and curiosity to see the world from another person’s perspective — and help them put aside their own experiences and biases that otherwise get in the way. 

2# Coaching skills reveal biases and cognitive traps 

Speaking of biases. Biases are human, but if unchecked within your managers, these biases lead to myriad issues: lack of diversity, disengagement among team members, lack of innovation, poor performance, and more. 

Coaching skills can help managers understand their inherent biases (because we all have them) and stop projecting their experiences onto the experiences of their team. With awareness, they can mitigate these cognitive traps and the impact they have on their approach to managing. 

3# Coaching skills create a positive, aligned environment 

A coaching style encourages managers to create opportunities for employees to reflect, learn, and grow. Once managers are no longer projecting their experiences and thoughts onto their teams, team members are naturally able to be more authentic, leading to better engagement and satisfaction. 

Coaching skills also teach managers to rise above the day-to-day and better align team and individual goals with business objectives. This can help nurture engaged, ambitious, high-performing teams — pulling together and individually in the same direction. 

4# A coaching style leads to powerful goals and performance 

Goal-setting is standard practice in all teams. But in a team where the manager is also a coach, the bar is raised regarding how committed each individual is to achieving their objectives.  

The curiosity and connectivity that a coaching style encourages leads managers to make meaningful connections between individuals’ strengths/values and the ambitions of the team. The result is a team that reaches further, together, and succeeds on an individual and collective level. 

A coaching style also helps managers tackle underperformance from a position of curiosity and enablement rather than criticism, which enables learning and improvement. 

5# Coaching skills teach managers to challenge constructively 

Managers with a coaching style won’t shy away from challenging others. Coaching skills help managers appreciate that giving constructive feedback from a position of kindness and candour is a powerful way to develop the team.  

Managers with a coaching style can learn ways to mitigate negative emotions by acknowledging and engaging with these emotions, rather than navigating away from them. 

6# A coaching style inspires more confident management 

Confidence isn’t a given in managers. 

Any program or investment in managers has to focus on competence and skills. But we also need to give them sandboxes and training grounds where – through trial, error, and expert feedback – they can develop their confidence. Together, competence and confidence is an amazing combination. 

With confidence, managers who coach can take their transformed leadership style into the wider organisation and inspire change in others. This is the best and most effective way of ending the reign of the ‘accidental manager’ and positively impacting key business metrics to improve the overall health of an organisation. 

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