Digest 6. What’s the true impact of managerial coaching on performance?
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The disappointment shared by practitioners about the ineffectiveness of performance appraisals is not a new issue in the HR field. Its failure to improve employee performance has been a prevailing concern which has led several organizations to question if it would make any difference to abolish the whole process.
Moreover, practitioners and scholars in management alike have often overlooked the social context of performance appraisal and management. This can greatly impact the entire practice. In fact, as we have seen in a digest 4, the interpersonal relationship between leaders and followers affect the way appraisals are perceived and accepted. When a supportive and trusting relationship is formed, employees will likely perceive feedback as fairer, more useful and will be more motivated to improve.
Accordingly, the greater emphasis put on the leaders’ role in the performance appraisal process has led to a shift towards the “manager as coach”. Instead of being an “appraiser”, the supervisor becomes a developer using the day-to-day interaction to sustain employee learning, engagement and performance. With this in mind, could managerial coaching be the missing ingredient for effective performance management systems?
Driving performance with managerial coaching
One of the (still limited) studies which tried to investigate the impact of managerial coaching on employees was conducted by Dahling, Taylor, Chau, and Dwight (2016). They studied the impact of managerial coaching on sales goals achievement in a global pharmaceutical company in the US. The company held a large-scale developmental intervention, where 136 managers were asked to coach effectively their 1,246 sales representatives in a role-play simulating selling conversations. The managers were, in turn, observed and evaluated with respect to their coaching skills for developmental purposes. The researchers matched and analyzed data concerning the managers’ coaching skills and the salespeople performance. At the end of the year, managers that were better skilled in coaching behaviors had their employees attain higher percentages of their sales goals. Interestingly, by analyzing the frequency managers exhibited coaching behaviors over the year, it was found that the amount was irrelevant in the case of highly skilled coaches, indicating that managerial coaching quality over quantity should be the maxim.
Infographic created by REAL PAL - Managerial coaching skills
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Another study by Dello Russo, Miraglia, and Borgogni (2016) found that a coaching leadership style can lead employees to have a more positive experience of their performance appraisals and perceive it as less politically biased. This is because employees exposed to this style of leadership tend to see the actions of the leader in the performance management setting in continuity with the coaching behaviors. Thus, the managers are judged free of any political consideration in their evaluations and seen as genuinely concerned with the individual growth of the employee.
What are the relevant coaching skills?
Despite agreeing that managerial coaching is important, researchers have described it in many ways. However, according to Dahling, Taylor, Chau, and Dwight (2016), there are several common elements that can be summarized in a multidimensional definition, which can inspire managers to:
Provide continuous constructive and developmental feedback;
Serve as a behavioral model for good performance and moral norms of conduct;
Work collaboratively with each employee to set engaging, challenging goals that motivate performance.
In sum, managerial coaching is complex and should be personalized based on the needs of each individual employee. It includes the provision of feedback, but it goes beyond it embracing additional elements such as behavioral role modeling and goal setting.
Organizational implications
In conclusion, yes, managerial coaching is an essential ingredient for the effectiveness of performance management systems. Therefore, organizations that decide to improve the coaching skills of their managers should take into account the following:
Leaders should be aware of the main goal of performance management - developing employees - and show behaviors aimed at developing employees on an ongoing basis.
Organizations should offer leadership development programs to train managers in coaching skills. Managers should be able to offer support and guidance for personal and professional development, understand and value employees’ needs and capabilities, involve them in crucial decisions, engage them in higher standards and goals, and act according to moral principles.
Improving the quality of coaching should be the focus, rather than the frequency with which it is executed. Creating systems to track the absolute amount of coaching that occurs, will probably be irrelevant.
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References: Dahling, J. J., Taylor, S. R., Chau, S. L., & Dwight, S. A. (2016). Does Coaching Matter? A Multilevel Model Linking Managerial Coaching Skill and Frequency to Sales Goal Attainment. Personnel Psychology, 69(4), 863–894. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12123
Dello Russo, S., Miraglia, M., & Borgogni, L. (2016). Reducing Organizational Politics in Performance Appraisal: The Role of Coaching Leaders for Age-Diverse Employees. Human Resource Management, 56(5), 769–783. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21799