By Dr Gary Jones on Friday, 11 May 2018
Category: Expert Insights

Could coaching your teaching teams do more harm than good? It depends on what kind of manager you are…

 There is very little correlation between the time a manager spends coaching an employee and their performance, according to new research. In fact, it's been suggested that some very hands-on managers actually do more harm than good.

These surprising findings came from recent research conducted by a research company, Gartner, and are reported in the Harvard Business Review. Gartner surveyed 7,300 employees and managers across a number of industries, along with interviewing or surveying 325 HR executives.

It's important to note that this research was not conducted in schools so there are issues around applicability. It has also been tough to find the original research so the following is taken from a report of the findings – there would be some merit at looking at the original research as there are obvious issues around reporting.

Nevertheless, the research describes four types of coach:

Teacher Managers coach employees on the basis of their own knowledge and experience, providing advice-oriented feedback and personally directing development. Many have expertise in technical fields and spent years as individual contributors before working their way into managerial roles.


Always on Managers provide continual coaching, stay on top of employees' development and give feedback across a range of skills. Their behaviors closely align with what HR professionals typically idealise. These managers may appear to be the most dedicated of the four types to upgrading their employees' skills – they treat it as part of their daily job.


Connector Managers give targeted feedback in their areas of expertise; otherwise, they connect employees with others on the team or elsewhere in the organisation who are best suited to the tasks. They spend more time than the other three types assessing the skills, needs, and interests of their employees, and they recognise that many skills are best taught by people other than themselves.


Cheerleader Managers take a hands-off approach, delivering positive feedback and putting employees in charge of their own development. They are available and supportive, but they aren't as proactive as the other types of managers when it comes to developing employees' skills.

 The article notes further interesting findings:

  1. The continual stream of feedback is "overwhelming"
  2. They spend less time time considering employees' needs so they tend not to cover topics that employees actually need to develop
  3. They fail to recognise the limits of their own expertise and can give poor advice and information.

    On the other hand, the researchers suggest that Connector managers tend to have the highest-performing employees. The research suggests there are four things that Connectors do to achieve this:
  1. They ask questions rather than directing their employees
  2. The insight from the answers to these questions helps them to provide tailored feedback
  3. They recognise the limits of their own skills and experience
  4. They bring in other experts to support employees where their skills or experience may be lacking.

    The Gartner researchers then recommend the following action. Managers should:

There is plenty for a senior leader in a school could learn from this. Here are a few of my thoughts:

References

 "Coaching vs Connecting: What the Best Managers Do to Develop Their Employees Today' – Gartner, White Paper

Managers Can't Be Great Coaches All by Themselves. Harvard business review. May- June, 2018.

Kraft, M. A., Blazar, D. and Hogan, D. (2016). The Effect of Teacher Coaching on Instruction and Achievement: A Meta-Analysis of the Causal Evidence.

This is an edited version of a feature that was originally published on Gary Jones's blog here.

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