A couple of the publications that I read ran articles this month about a recent survey conducted by the consulting firm BlessingWhite. About 700 mid-level employees were asked to evaluate the effect of the coaching they received from their manager on their performance and overall job satisfaction. Fewer than a quarter of the employees surveyed believed coaching had a significantly positive impact on their performance. And, only 20 percent felt the coaching had significantly contributed to their job satisfaction. To add insult to injury, an astounding 10 percent of respondents said that coaching had made them less satisfied with their jobs.

I was really surprised by the results of this survey because they are counter to everything I know to be true about coaching. How could this be? Then, I remembered a coach training class that I observed a while back. At the end of the class, one of the participants remarked that he thought he had been coaching his team members, but he now realized that what he had been doing wasn’t even close to coaching. It was an ah-ha moment for him and several other people in the class. Coaching goes beyond managing.

Now for the good news. Other results from the BlessingWhite survey show that coaching works best when a strong relationship exists between the manager and employee. Employees who reported having strong relationships with their managers scored higher on a series of questions related to engagement.

I’m sure that there are many managers in organizations who are great coaches for their staff members. I’m just as sure that there are many who think they are good coaches, but aren’t. How do you know which one you are? Here are a couple of things to think about.

• How much do you know about your staff members? I’m not talking about their resumes and job duties, but rather their aspirations, values, and strengths. If your answer is ‘not much,’ then you need to spend some time asking the questions and listening to the answers so that you can build the one-on-one relationships that form the foundation for coaching.
• Does your staff trust you? A prerequisite for great coaching, especially in a manager-employee relationship, is TRUST. Be honest with yourself and think about what you’ve done to build trust and what you’ve done to tear it down. And, remember it takes a lot more time to build than it does to destroy.

In the BlessingWhite survey, 84 percent of employees who reported knowing their managers well said that they like their work and go above and beyond expectations. Just imagine the productivity gains your organization could achieve if more than 80 percent of employees were really engaged in their work!