Most managers are overwhelmed with emails, scheduling and meetings. And coaching often gets pushed down the priority list as emergencies arise. How can you find enough time to do it all?
What could be going on?
- You haven’t made coaching a regular part of your schedule.
- You don’t understand why coaching is so beneficial.
- You have too much work or too many direct reports.
- You’re uncomfortable coaching and are procrastinating.
Ways to handle it:
1. Block off time on your calendar for coaching.
At the beginning of each week, schedule time to both plan and hold coaching sessions. Go ahead and schedule your next coaching session now. Once it’s scheduled and both parties have committed, you’ll be motivated to prepare and ensure it happens.
2. Set an expectation with your team on regular coaching sessions.
Talk with all of your team members and let them know you’d like to start a monthly coaching session with them. Once you make a verbal commitment to them, you’ll be more likely to follow through with it.
3. Review why coaching is so important.
This might motivate you to make coaching a higher prioritize priority.
4. Reduce your workload to free up time.
You might simply have too much going on. Try delegating more work or reworking your job description and priorities with your manager. It’s also possible your team is simply too large — most managers can only effectively manage five or six direct reports handling different jobs, or 10 to 15 direct reports if the work is very routine. If you think your team might be too large, you could consider whether it’s feasible to shift some of your reports to other teams.
5. Review and practice steps in the coaching process.
If you’re putting off coaching because you’re uncomfortable, review how to coach someone and practice the tips until you’re more confident.
6. Try informal coaching.
You can work informal coaching into your everyday conversations with team members. This doesn’t require a large block of dedicated time and can be highly effective.
