If we are not developing our people, we should stop calling ourselves leaders! I don’t know why leaders ignore the coaching part of their jobs. But I work with so many organizations and hear the same story again and again.

“I never hear from my boss unless something is wrong.”

“I get feedback once a year at my performance review.”

“I am not sure what I need to do to earn a promotion.”

The fact is, coaching is a part of a leader’s job that is too often ignored. As leaders, we need to step up, do our jobs and develop our people!

How are you doing coach?

The Leader is the Coach

One of my primary responsibilities when leading people is to be sure they are growing. Developing my people is not the responsibility of the training department or some outside consultant. It is my responsibility. It is my Duty!

Duty Defined in 12 Words or Less

Taking action based on our assigned tasks and moral obligations

The leader is the coach. I may have training personnel or a consultant to augment my efforts, but if I am relying on them to take care of people development, then I am ignoring a major part of being a leader. Coaching is a leader’s moral obligation.

The Five Best Times to Coach

1.  Consistently

As a leader, I learned to ask myself, “Whom did I make better today?” If I ever looked back on my day and didn’t have a definitive answer for that question, I knew I did not have a good day as a leader. I need to be coaching and developing my people everyday.

Click on the title to read a related blog:  Performance Reviews vs. Performance Reveals

2.  Immediately

In the Army, we were taught to never walk by a mistake. If something needs to be corrected, I need to stop and make the correction. Waiting until tomorrow or next week’s meeting does not work. By putting off those conversations, I create an environment where the details become secondary.

3.  Privately

“Can I speak with you privately for a second?” This is a great first phrase every leader should learn if they are about to have a hard conversation with someone. A coach needs to correct immediately, but without broadcasting the conversation to the people within ear shot. These are private conversations.

4.  Publicly

The old saying – admonish in private and praise in public is true. When someone does something well, there are few things more powerful than to praise them in front of their peers. It not only builds up the individual, it also reinforces my expectations and gives my team a clear picture of what good looks like.

5.  Early

I must be actively engaged in coaching a new employee. The early weeks and months in a new role are crucial to a person’s long-term success. As a coach, I need to prioritize coaching a newly hired or newly promoted team member. By devoting myself to their success early, I develop early rapport and trust that will make their job and my job easier in the future.

The Bottom Line:

Coaching is a leader’s job. If I am not coaching, I am not leading. When should I coach? Consistently. Immediately. Privately. Publicly. Early.

Even if my job description says nothing about people development, as a leader I have a moral obligation to make my people better. When I coach people, I am doing my Duty.

How do I know if I am a successful coach? I need to ask myself:

Are my people growing or are they stagnating?

Can I take a two week vacation and feel confident my team can handle things while I am gone?

The answers to those two questions will tell me a lot about my coaching.

Question:

How would you answer those questions?

Dave Anderson is coauthor of the Amazon Best-Seller Becoming a Leader of Character – Six Habits that Make or Break a Leader at Work and at Home with his father General James L. Anderson (USA Retired).

You can order Becoming a Leader of Character on Amazon by clicking here:

bit.ly/LOCBook.

You can also find Becoming a Leader of Character at Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million and other retailers.