Coaching for Managers: Helping Employees Problem-Solve
As a Manager, you want to coach your employees to solve problems in their own, rather than always needing to solicit you as a manager for feedback. At the same time, you’re wanting to make sure that everyone on your team is functioning collaboratively, without operating in silos—and of course, you also need to make sure that you have efficient ways of keeping projects moving forward.
A coaching skill for Managers that can improve efficiency on your teams is teaching employees the skill of how to problem-solve. You can make this unique to the functioning and operations of your specific team. Here are some ways to do that:
1.) Determine the “guardrails.” You can’t say you want your employees to drive independently, without letting them know what the boundaries/guardrails are. When employees know what the guardrails are, it keeps them from going too far or too long without getting Manager input. Clarify how far you want someone to work independently, as well as what the sticking points are for when you want them to check in before proceeding.
2.) Proactively brainstorm. Teach your teams that when they need to reach out to you, they do so by proactively bringing 2-3 different solutions or thoughts for how to handle a situation. For example, instead of the team reaching out and simply saying, “We’re stuck; what do you want us to do?” train them that when they reach out, it follows a format of: “We’re stuck because we’re not sure about ____________. Two ideas we had for moving forward are to ___ or ___, but we wanted to check in with you, first.”
3.) Operationalize values. Many organizations have values such as “commitment” or “courage.” Very few organizations have operationalized these values, to share what it looks like when the values are put into action and when they’re not. For instance, what does “commitment” mean? Does it mean staying late every night, working weekends, coming in early? Or does it mean doing your very best and checking details, willingness to keep working on a project until it’s excellent, or something else? Even if your company has not operationalized its values, you can—simply write down the value and define actions or mindsets that someone would exhibit if they had adopted that value. Once you’ve operationalized your values, you can use them as a decision-making matrix for your team. Eg, ask your team when they are determining how they make decisions, “How would each different possible course of action honor our values?”
When Managers use coaching skills with their teams, teams have more autonomy, they are higher functioning, and they are more efficient. Making sure that each of your employees can problem-solve also gives them more advanced career experience and prepares them for future promotions where they would take on more responsibility. Last, but not least? It greatly reduces the amount of pings and requests that you get from your team, removing you as a roadblock to the team taking action. Helping employees problem-solve is an upfront investment of your time that pays dividends.