How many of you have heard that term? In the moment coaching. What does that mean to you?

When most people, that are not or have not been in a management role, hear the term coaching they immediately think they have done something wrong. This is not and never should be the case. Coaching is something that is vastly important in every level of every organization and should be done regularly to ensure proper understanding.

 

Some of the most effective coaching I have ever received in a leadership position has been immediate as the situation has occurred. This is anything from a quick heads up that I added the wrong number onto a report or being pulled to the side and being given a different way to talk to one of my agents. I have had one manager that was great at providing me in the moment coaching and development and he is the reason I am where I am today.

I have been a manager for almost a year now and I have grown and learned a lot in the way of leadership in that time frame. When I first became a manager I spent most of my days in an office trying to get my tasks completed and making sure the business stayed afloat. This “worked” to an extent as I was able to make sure the day to day operations maintained but it really made my leadership staff struggle.

4 months after I became a manager I was given the feedback that I was always busy and always in my office. As I value feedback I wanted to take action on this to see how it could affect my leadership team. The next day I spent the whole day out of my office and on the floor with my people. The ironic thing was that I actually got more of my daily task work done while I was out there and was able to provide positive reinforcement to my supervisors as they saw me implement the coaching and training style that I was teaching them with both themselves, their peers and their agents.

After this I committed to my director that I would spend 4 days a week on the floor and 1 day a week in my office getting things done. I hold myself to this and make sure that I spend the majority of my day on the floor with my people. This has allowed my people to grow more in the past few months than they would have in years if I just stayed in my office.

Here is my challenge for this article, take the next day that you are in the office and go out with your people. If your people work out of an office go sit in their office instead of their own and encourage them to do the same things with their people. If you have challenges that you cannot overcome by doing this reach out, ask your manager or your peers for help.

Jared