Gallup - Coaching

Through the most comprehensive study on coaching ever completed, Gallup’s Chief Scientist, James Harter, discusses the personal approach taken by great managers to coach on a personal level.  Traditionally, managers have been promoted into management with different expectations of their role.  Today, there is more awareness on the people side of business due to the potential profitability that has been proven through research. 

Coaching is an integral part of this improved profitability and engagement when seeking to encourage development.  It has been proven that this improved level of engagement cascades through the organization.  When executives are more engaged, they are more likely to develop the managers that report to them.  Similarly, when managers are engaged, they are more likely to develop their employees.  Down to the front line, people who have been developed are more likely to treat customers well due to the natural reciprocity inherent in human beings.  Additionally, when the front line is developed, they are 25-30% more likely to do things in the community.  Therefore, senior manager engagement is a key component in a healthy work place.

A simple but no less important, finding of the Gallup study is that when people come to work, their human side does not leave.  The best managers do not forget this and they appeal to human nature.  They could even be considered some of the best applied psychologists, though most would probably not think of themselves that way.  They may not understand the details of how the brain fires, but they understand that this affects how employees perceive their world.