What is the difference between a manager and a coach? And what skills can you learn from football’s best coaches?

I like to watch football on television (or soccer, as my American friends call it) and for years, we have always described the person in charge of the football team as the “manager” in the UK. In the US and other parts of the world, the person running the team is usually referred to as the “coach”. However, I’ve noticed now in the UK the football manager is more likely to be called “The Coach”.

What is the difference and how does it relate to your job as a manager?

When I ask participants on a seminar to tell me what a manager does what their duties are, they usually come up with responses which include planning, cost control, resource allocation, analysing data, interviewing, solving problems, dealing with customers and other “technical” duties.

When I ask “what are the duties of a coach?” next, I hear replies such as: Lead, motivate, listen, encourage, identify training needs, communicate expectations, believe in their people, inspire, win and get results.

While there are crossover duties between a manager and a coach, which role is going to be the most important in achieving your objectives, goals and outcomes? Is it by being a manager or a coach?

Now I know what you’re going to say. “My organisation and my boss want me to do all the ‘management’ things and that’s how I spend most of my day”. But always remember, at the end of the day, you will ultimately be judged on the success of your staff, rather than your ability to complete a report on time.

If you want a happy and motivated team that does not take time off work, doesn’t look for other jobs, doesn’t give you too many problems and generates results for your business, you need to spend more time “coaching” and less time “managing”.

Here are three steps to becoming a successful coach:

Spend quality time with each team member.

You need to get to know each member of your team better and they need to get to know you. If you listen and show that you are listening, you will gain a much better understanding of each individual and how they are handling the job. It will also send the message that you care about them and you are there to help with problems, both business and personal. You can communicate expectations, encourage and inspire them to do even better.

Give feedback and coach them.

You need to regularly tell each of your team members when they are doing well and when they are not. When you see or hear one of your staff doing something you do like, tell them about it! When you see or hear them doing something you don’t like, tell them about it. You can then coach them on the job or identify training needs and agree a way forward. Most employees want to know how they are performing in their job. They want to know if they are doing it right or how they could do it better.

Believe in each individual.

You need to constantly demonstrate to each team member that you trust and believe in them by what you say, your tone of voice and your body language. They will very quickly sense if you do not trust them to carry out their job and they’ll act accordingly. If you believe that your people are not to be trusted to do their job or they’ll turn up late and go home early, then that is exactly what they’ll do.

On the other hand, if you believe your people will do their job well and they can be trusted to make good business decisions, it is more likely you’ll get a fair day’s work from them.

So there you have it, to get the best out of people, managers need to spend less time “managing” and more time “coaching”.

Alan Fairweather

Associate consultant

d’Oz International

consultancy@d-oz.com