Seven practices to develop a coaching managerial style

Jun Traditional order and control management is being replaced by a coaching management style, asserts new research from the BI Norwegian School of Management. Good economic results alone are no longer adequate. In addition to generating results, organizations have become a values workshop, helping employees develop a meaningful life. The school has developed seven practical tools to assist managers develop a coaching style.

The profile of the “new” manager is distinguished by thinking and acting like a coach, maintains Morten Emil Berg, Assistant Professor at BI Norwegian School of Management. He is one of Norway’s foremost experts on coaching, and works with manager training, team development, and organizational changes, in theory and in practice. He maintains that the idea of a coaching manager is not some kind of hocus pocus, but rather systematized good sense. Managers support and challenge their colleagues to manage themselves, says Berg.

A manager is herself, trusts herself, and finds her own way, while also being open to objections, paradoxes, and dilemmas. She is in good company. These ideas reflect the inspirational thoughts of Socrates, Aristotle, Rousseau, Kierkegaard, and Rogers and Adler, points out the BI expert.

Morten Emil Berg has developed an overview of seven practical tools for becoming a coaching manager.

1. Training through Role Playing

Coaching managers readily take their entire extended management group on two-day training workshops. Participants work in small project groups of 6-9 members throughout the workshop.

The object is to get to know each other, build networks, and generate team spirit. Much of the time is used on role playing, based on real challenges and opportunities facing the managers.

The problem can be a difficult colleague, a lack of personal efficiency, an imbalance between working life and home life, and, not the least, being able to give feedback without putting the recipient on the defensive.

Managers work together in groups of three during the role playing itself: One owns the problem to be solved (the coachee). The second manager is the coach, asking good questions and suggesting various courses of action. The third plays a constructive “Devil’s Advocate”. The participants learn from each other, solve concrete problems, and build a culture.

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