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Thanks to almost 200 of you who responded to last week’s survey, we have some pretty interesting data to look at over the next couple weeks. Today’s data — as my title suggests — gives us all a whack in terms of the contrast in the data. Here is a pretty self-explanatory table:
So the “whack” comes from the data in the black rectangle. When looking at which of the five intervals on which routine, real -time coaching occurred, the “current manager” and the “worst-ever” manager scored the same — NEVER. To put it differently, over 2/3 of the worst managers, and a whopping 40% of current managers “never” give real-time coaching. That is s-c-a-r-y. And, if you look up one row to the “best manager ever,” it doesn’t get a ton better. In fact, the highest category for best managers was once or twice a month.
Contrast those scores with the green rectangle of what people think they themselves do when they’re at their best, and what they think is “optimal.” In those scenarios fully 1/3 would or do coach 2-3 times a week. In these best-case and optimal cases, about 7 of 10 coach or would coach at least once a week on ongoing work. Only 2 in 10 current managers coach at this “at least weekly” rate, barely better than the 16.9% of the “worst-ever” managers.
The silver lining in the data is found in the blue rectangle. 52.5% of the readers who responded say they coach at least once a week — not so far off from the 70% optimal.
Unless you’re seeing something entirely different than I am, this data about real-time, day-in-and-day-out coaching is screaming at us as managers: PEOPLE WANT MORE FREQUENT COACHING AND FEEDBACK!
In the next couple weeks we’ll look at equally fascinating data on longer-term coaching and just what kind of coaching people want. Hint: more surprises ahead, as you
Lead with your best self!