When the Data on Coaching Whacks You Upside the Head

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:

frequency of coaching

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!

 

comment_count comments
Top rated
Newest
Oldest
Top rated

Comment as a guest:

>