Source: forbes.com
As more organizations embrace the concept of a coaching culture, people development is not left to the C-suite alone. Beyond balancing employee workloads and cascading executive communications, today’s managers are more responsible for fostering both individual and collective goals, growth, ownership and independent thinking across their teams.
While this cultural transformation can’t happen overnight, small, intentional changes can help managers make a meaningful difference within a single quarter. Here, members of Forbes Coaching Council share practical actions managers can take to ensure team members feel guided and empowered, creating success multipliers all around for teams and the company.
Make Curiosity Your Default Leadership Style
The best thing a manager can do to promote and build a sustainable coaching culture is to ask lots of questions and make curiosity an anchor within their team and organization. The inclination to be a “fixer,” or to tell instead of ask, squashes creativity and innovation. So asking questions is the single most important thing that one can do to nurture an environment where coaching becomes second nature. – Michele Davenport, MOSAIC COACHING SOLUTIONS
Tailor Communications To Each Individual’s Personality
Have your team take a personality assessment, then actually use it. Adjust how you give feedback, set goals and run check-ins based on each person’s personal preferences. When people feel seen and communicated with in ways that fit how they’re wired, coaching is more effective. – Megan Malone, Truity
Use Coaching Skills To Enhance Your Primary Function
The reality is you can’t “just coach” team members because of your role. You are also accountable for their performance and, unlike a pure business coach, have the right to hold them accountable for their performance. You can’t ignore that. You can still, for example, use coaching skills to better understand their perspectives, to draw out their ideas and to show genuine interest in who they are. – Dr. Joel M. Rothaizer, MCC, ABPP, Clear Impact Consulting Group
Ask More Questions, Talk Less And Listen
Managing often includes telling someone what to do, giving direction and leading, and little time to explore what they are thinking. Coaching involves asking questions and listening more than talking. Coaching focuses on what the person being coached already knows and helps them get in touch with their own internal wisdom. It allows for much more agency, autonomy and self-efficacy. – Sunny Smith, Empowering Women Physicians
Stop Solving Your Employees’ Problems For Them
Once a week, replace giving advice with this question: “What do you think is the best next step?” When you resist the urge to fix problems and instead use curiosity and listening to help your employees think through it themselves, they generate their own solutions and feel more ownership. Being coached empowers them to succeed. – Jamie Lewis Smith, Pixel Leadership Group, LLC
Stop Starting Conversations With Answers
If you want your team to feel coached—not just managed—stop starting conversations with answers. Start with one open, honest question and then have the discipline to listen. Resist the urge to fix, advise or redirect. Coaching begins when people feel seen, not corrected. Curiosity over control, presence over pressure and humility over expertise. – Jerry Colonna, Reboot
Schedule Dedicated Coaching-Focused One-On-Ones
It’s simple: Hold a weekly or biweekly 15-minute coaching one-on-one, separate from status updates. Ask each of your direct reports, “What’s the real challenge? What outcome matters most? What options are you considering? What support do you need from me?” End with one commitment and one capability to practice this week. Track it. When people feel ownership and growth, they feel coached, not managed. – David Ribott, Ribott Partners
Drive Individual Engagement With Open-Ended Questions
Leaders can incorporate coaching into their daily interactions by demonstrating genuine curiosity. Managers should ask open-ended questions to encourage engagement and provide timely feedback that supports desired behaviors. By understanding what matters most to each employee, leaders can meet individuals where they are and support them in progressing toward their goals. – Karen Tracy, Dr. Karen A Tracy, LLC
Clearly Signal When You’re Coaching Instead Of Managing
To make your team feel genuinely coached, be intentional and open about when you are in the role of coach versus manager. While it sounds “corny,” consider an accessory like a “coaching hat” or a background change on a virtual meeting—some way of signaling that you are advising as a coach, not a boss. Another option is to set up pure coaching meetings where you focus on learnings, insights and future development. – Jill Helmer, Jill Helmer Consulting
Model Desired Skills And Behaviors In Everyday Interactions
Integrate coaching methods throughout the team and demonstrate the desired skills simultaneously. For example, set the tone of a meeting by using calming communication language to build a foundation of expectation for what is going to be discussed. – Michelle Martin Bonner, AMMEMPOWERMENT
Coach For Judgment, Not Answers
Replace advice with one standing question in every one-on-one: “What are you optimizing for right now?” Then shut up. Most people don’t need fixing—they need help seeing their own trade-offs. When managers coach for judgment rather than answers, teams feel trusted rather than supervised. That shift builds thinking capacity, not dependency. – Alla Adam, Adam Impact Institute
Swap Status Updates For Growth Conversations
Management focuses on tasks and metrics. Coaching focuses on growth and ownership. One practical shift is to replace one monthly status update with a development conversation. Ask what they’re learning, where they feel stretched and what capability they want to build this quarter. Then follow up accordingly. When growth conversations are consistent, people feel coached, not just evaluated. – Chantée L. Christian, My Best SHIFT
Delegate Real Decisions And Debrief After
Give one team member ownership of a meaningful decision this quarter—and stay out of it. Clarify the outcome, constraints and stakes, then let them think, recommend and execute. Debrief afterward: What did you notice? What would you adjust? People feel coached when their judgment expands, not when their manager talks more. – Yasir Hashmi, Yasir Hashmi Holdings
Create Space For Teams To Think Out Loud
Use your two ears and one mouth in that ratio. Simply talk less than the person you are talking to. One practical step this quarter: Create space for your team to think out loud. Don’t interrupt, multitask or rush to solve problems. Just be present and listen. The more they talk, the more they process and learn. Coaching isn’t giving answers; it’s helping others find their own through thoughtful listening. – Alex Draper, DX Learning Solutions
Connect People’s Aspirations To Their Daily Work
Get to know the people beyond the work. The simple question of asking, “What are your career aspirations?” and connecting that to the work and impact within the organization goes a long way toward kick-starting the “coaching” conversation. – Ed Brzychcy, Lead from the Front
Introduce Peer-Based Group Coaching Sessions
Shift from exclusive one-on-ones to regular group coaching sessions. Beyond one-on-one check-ins, facilitate open, peer-supported discussions where the team collectively explores questions like, “Biggest shared challenge right now?” “Lessons learned from recent wins or setbacks?” or, “How can we support each other’s growth?” Guide the conversation lightly with powerful questions, encouraging peer feedback and accountability for team and personal commitments. – Samuel Rodrigues, Baxtter Corporation
Build Psychological Safety Through Genuine Care
A manager should show care and create a safe environment that opens the door for two-way communication. Coaches are experts at cultivating safe and supportive environments where they seek to listen to understand, not to respond. A good leader-as-coach should work to develop coaching skills and range to support team members individually and collectively. – Lauren Russell, UpwardMind
Coach To Your Standard, From Delegation To Completion
As a COO/CoS, the difference between being managed and coached is whether guidance changes the quality of the work. Coaching works when it happens throughout the process, from task delegation to completion. With clear checkpoints, you sit with people at key moments, talk through outcomes and adjust together until they can deliver to standard without you. – Desiree’ Stapleton, Goal Accomplishment Made Easy
Turn Mistakes Into Co-Created Learning Moments
Instead of simply pointing out mistakes, ask open-ended questions to understand where the employee went wrong in their actions or thinking, and then help them get back on track by exploring how they think they’ll reach the desired outcome. Approaching a meeting as a co-creative discussion will increase an employee’s buy-in, ownership and accountability. – Hanneke Antonelli, Hanneke Antonelli Coaching, Inc.