What Does Coaching Bring to Team Management?

According to the International Coaching Federation, 80% of employees who received coaching reporting increased self-confidence, and over 70% reporting improved work performance, relationships and communication skills. What’s interesting – this data was collected in 2009, but it took a series of post-pandemic burnout outbursts for mainstream management to realise that there’s more to keeping an employee engaged than a competitive salary and a dental package. 

As vegan brands face simultaneous challenges and compete with both vegan and non-vegan brands for attention, credibility and customer loyalty, particular benefits are expected from creating a coached environment where each team member feels safe, seen and empowered enough to perform at their highest level. Coaching is not just some motivating pep-talk to get people psyched up to do their job. It is a complex and insightful process in which a coach helps an individual see their strengths and areas of improvement, and helps one develop a focused pathway to align one’s personal and professional growth.

Coaching managers

A brand can approach coaching on multiple levels, from implementing a coaching leadership style at the managerial level (yes, this will involve additional training for managers) to employing a certified coach to work with individual employees. The sooner a company integrates coaching into its daily operations, the better. Structural changes will be significantly more effective if introduced in conjunction with coaching programmes. Coaching management aligns closely with contemporary organisational practices, where the emphasis is on long-term development and employee engagement.

A coaching manager is a leader who genuinely cares. They understand that motivation, trust, and engagement are earned, not commanded. They listen and ask questions that guide their team members to find their own solutions to existing problems, rather than merely pointing to a company’s best practice list. They encourage their team members to analyse problems, draw conclusions, and engage actively, rather than issuing orders and following up with charts and reports. A coaching manager leads by initiating conversations and treats every team member as an equal, not merely as a subordinate.

However, there is always a risk of a manager employing superficial coaching techniques to manipulate employees. The way to distinguish between a genuine coaching manager and one with a good set of manipulative skills is to observe who benefits from the conversation – whether it is the team member or the manager themselves. A manipulative manager is always focused on their own objectives. They may appear to be good listeners and ask the right questions, but ultimately, they disregard any input other than their own. They may speak favourably about support and cooperation but demand immediate results and leave their subordinates to ‘work their magic’. They provide feedback without offering solutions, and each piece of feedback is essentially a thinly veiled insult. And ultimately, they promise to ‘be there’ for their team members, but are perpetually too busy to address any deeper issues.

Teamwork

A true coaching manager’s objective is to focus on a team member’s growth, understanding that a team or project will only thrive if each member feels accomplished. Each team member is acknowledged for their strengths and is encouraged to utilise these on a daily basis. They feel they contribute to a community, not just a project team.

Effective coaching enables teams to redefine their objectives and priorities with a growth and problem-solving mindset, and navigate uncertainty with drive and confidence. The coached team is focused on finding solutions, not assigning blame. Each person takes responsibility for problems, and credit for achievements. The sense of shared responsibility and accomplishment is deeply woven into the team dynamics. During every brainstorming session or product launch, each team member is aware of the significance of their input and feels appreciated for the value they bring at every step of the process. Team members communicate openly and straightforwardly, they do not argue but learn to agree to disagree, which in turn allows everyone’s input to be considered.

Note that effective coaching, with all its benefits, will not rectify a compromised organisational structure. A good coaching manager cannot compensate for a company’s lack of career growth opportunities, fair compensation, or bonus plans. However, it will help individual teams overcome difficulties and focus on their growth objectives. At the managerial level, coaching is about reinventing management and communication styles to ensure employees feel seen, acknowledged, and valued. Employees who feel this way are much more likely to remain in their roles and are willing to dedicate more effort and creativity to their work. Introducing a coaching management style is not a seasonal project. Scheduling regular sessions with groups and individuals, or making sure that managers continuously develop their coaching skills will ensure that coaching management becomes a fundamental part of the company’s culture, and not just a temporary fix.

Individual roadmaps

For a coached employee, a manager serves more as a mentor than a boss. A coached employee is not held accountable through a system of rewards and penalties, but rather through the milestones in their development path. Reaching an employee’s full potential involves mapping out their individual roadmaps, highlighting their strengths and areas for development, and creating a development plan accordingly. Sometimes, this might involve a horizontal career change, but usually, it results in outlining a roadmap of growth objectives and the means to achieve them. As a result, a coached employee is fully aware of their job description, responsibilities, and areas where they can excel, as well as those requiring development as they align personal and professional growth.

For an employee, a company’s coaching program provides an opportunity to develop their career path with active support from their manager(s). A coaching manager’s primary objective is to support their employees in their long-term professional growth, with regular catch-ups and brainstorming sessions being key, rather than focusing solely on short-term goals and achievements. Employees feel that these regular catch-ups are their manager’s priority, not a side task amidst a long list of duties. A well-coached employee feels motivated, inspired, and supported in following their growth path. Personally, they also become more confident in real life and more conscious of small victories and appreciating life’s little moments.

For recruitment purposes, it is beneficial to map out not just job descriptions and responsibilities, but also, if not above all, the soft skills and motivations that drive an individual to achieve their fullest potential in the role. The recruitment process should include questions about motivations, personal goals, and whether the candidate is eager to develop continuously and is a team player. A coaching recruiter, or a one aspiring to become a coaching manager, focuses on an individual’s willingness to develop both professionally and personally in the long term, rather than merely their current skills. Granted, recruitment will take more time, effort, and engagement than simply ticking boxes for degrees, certificates, and previous job experiences, but this will pay off nicely as new recruits will contribute to both the company’s growth objectives as well as its supporting culture.

VFR’s guide to coaching

A brand’s quick win would be to employ a certified coach to engage with employees and ask specific questions to assess their feelings about their current roles and responsibilities. It is, however, important for a hiring manager to distinguish between an experienced and an inexperienced coach. A good, experienced coach asks open questions (e.g., what, where, who, how often/many), listens more than talks, guides individuals to find their own voice and solutions, and provides nudges and challenges for reflection and action. An inexperienced or biased coach asks closed questions (e.g., why), talks more than listens, and suggests and manipulates towards certain outcomes.

A good coach focuses on addressing key issues, such as an employee’s biggest drives and fears, and uses insightful tools such as SWOT analysis or the Wheel of Life to help individuals understand how balanced – or unbalanced – their current life is. A more seasoned coach would use metaphors to help individuals open up and reflect upon their current life situation, such as the journey metaphor. By asking individuals where they are now and where they are heading, they guide them towards realising what they need in life and whether they are heading in the right direction – or any direction – at all.

Work-life balance is not just about finding enough time to rest and recharge. It is about recognising that both areas influence each other, and that if an individual is unhappy and unfulfilled in one, they will eventually give in to the mistakes and burn out in the other. A coach, having collected employees’ answers and insights, should work closely with the company to form a long-term plan to address existing issues and focus on creating a healthy and supportive work environment that will ultimately deliver better business results and unexpected breakthroughs. However, engaging a coach and implementing a coaching management system must be followed through, as creating expectations without delivering is worse than ignoring the issue altogether.