American Executive - Where Business Leadership Begins

In the early years of professional sports, it wasn’t uncommon for senior players to double as coaches. Maybe it’s time to revive the concept of player-coaches in business. With leaner organizations and the loss of baby boomers in the workforce, talent management skills are critical for every manager. Plus, giving managers responsibility for the development of their reports can make their jobs easier.

The US will not have as many available players in the workforce over the next 40 years. The working-age population will only increase minimally as the baby boomers retire. As the number of qualified applicants goes down, the price organizations are willing to pay to acquire talent goes up.

However, just because talent is getting more expensive doesn’t necessarily mean it’s getting better. In fact, the number one reason people give for quitting their jobs continues to be “a bad boss.” This disenchantment costs US companies an estimated $350 billion in lower productivity and higher turnover.

Companies spend a lot on recruiting and retaining but skimp on development. The typical US company spends 50 times more to recruit and retain a $100K professional than it does on developing that person once he or she comes on board. It’s important to recognize that money isn’t the best motivator after all. On the contrary, research shows the top three reasons people stay in a job are interesting and challenging work, open communication, and opportunity for growth and development. Money was eighth on the list.

Often, talent management manifests like this: companies look to high-performing individual contributors to find new supervisors to manage front-line contributors. These supervisors then become candidates for managers who manage other supervisors. Managers become candidates for directors who manage single organizational functions. Directors become candidates for VPs who manage business units. Finally, VPs become candidates for C-level positions, who manage entire organizations.

Of all the transitions, moving from individual contributor to manager is one of the most difficult. When you become a manager, you have to stop solving problems and making all the decisions yourself and start helping others solve problems and make decisions. This is definitely the behavior of a good coach.

But in reality, people get promoted into their first management role because they are good at solving problems, not because they can coach. As a result, many managers fail to make the transition and continue to contribute individually alongside their reports. The new manager, trying to solve all the problems of his or her reports, feels overwhelmed. The reports, having all their decisions made for them, feel micromanaged and unnecessary. The organization doesn’t get the results or the management it invested in.

These ‘bad’ managers driving people to other companies are the result of an organization’s failure to develop player-coaches. Conversely, when organizations develop their new managers from individual players into player-coaches, they get a positive return on their investment. Managers get better at developing others and, as a result, find their own jobs easier.

Think of HR as a gym
The player-coach job goes beyond getting the job done today, making sure that people will have the skills they’ll need to do the job five years from now. To achieve this, there must be a shift of the development role from HR to management. Who knows more about the skills and development needs of each individual contributor better than the player-coach who sees their work performance on a daily basis? And acting as a player, the manager is in the best position to put team members in each position and determine what drills and training the individual needs to get better at what they do.

So HR has a new job: developing and supporting player-coaches. Think of HR as the gym. HR supports the manager by ensuring the training systems are in place. Managers decide which employee needs what particular training and when they need it, and HR provides it.

Here are the three roles of the coach that go beyond traditional management into development:

1. Ensure people are in a job that makes the most of their skill sets. People enjoy doing work they can do well. This requires taking the time to get to know your people, their skills, and the areas where they would benefit most from development.
2. Create an environment where people feel integrated and valued. When asked, 67% of people say they learn the most when working with a colleague. Improve job satisfaction with a culture of collaboration and teamwork.
3. Provide ongoing development. Ask questions, listen, and provide timely feedback.

Three behaviors of effective coaches
A new coach takes on the responsibility for developing others, ensuring that people are in the position that best uses their talents, and/or they get the training they need to bring their skills up to par. Consider these behaviors in developing player-coaches.

1. Asking questions. Asking questions communicates confidence in players and allows them to learn to solve problems and make good decisions on their own. It also models good decisionmaking processes, teaching direct reports when decisionmaking should be inclusive and when time and circumstances demand autocratic action.
2. Listen to and get to know your people. Many managers only intervene when things are going badly. Instead, structure time on a regular basis to hear what’s going right. People will want to talk to you. As a result, you’ll hear about all issues, good and bad, in time to make a difference.
3. Provide timely feedback. Timing is often what differentiates feedback from criticism. When giving feedback, use the SBI model. First present the (s)ituation, next describe the (b)ehavior, and then state the (i)mpact of the behavior. Most importantly, don’t forget to give positive as well as developmental feedback. When people only near negative feedback, they stop listening.

Companies that recognize the merits of balancing dollars spent on recruiting and retention with those spent on the development and promotion of better managers will see a positive return on their investment. Effective coaches who understand the day-to-day demands of their team players will produce a work environment that is more interesting and challenging, has better communication, and presents more opportunities for growth and development—the proven motivators.

Christopher Musselwhite is the founder, president, and CEO of Discovery Learning (www.discoverylearning.com ), which has been providing experiential hands-on learning and personal assessment solutions to businesses, government, and nonprofit organizations around the world since 1990. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .