Great leaders don’t just correct performance. They develop people.
One of the easiest things for a manager to do is identify what someone has done wrong.
The order wasn’t completed correctly. A customer complaint wasn’t handled well. A deadline was missed. A procedure wasn’t followed. A goal wasn’t achieved.
The manager sees the problem, tells the employee what should have happened, and moves on.
Problem solved.
Or was it?
Over more than 40 years of leading, training, and developing people, I have learned that correcting a mistake and developing an employee are two very different things.
Correction may fix today’s problem.
Coaching can improve tomorrow’s performance.
And that difference matters.
Managers Correct. Leaders Develop.
There is nothing inherently wrong with correction. Leaders have a responsibility to establish expectations and address performance that doesn’t meet them.
Sometimes an employee simply needs to hear:
“This is the expectation, and this is what needs to change.”
Leadership should never become so focused on coaching that we become reluctant to address poor performance directly.
Accountability still matters. But problems begin when correction becomes our primary method of managing people.
Imagine an employee who makes a mistake and immediately hears:
“You should have done this.”
“Why didn’t you do that?”
“I’ve already told you how this needs to be done.”
The employee may understand what the manager wanted, but very little learning may have taken place.
In fact, the employee may simply learn one thing:
Don’t make mistakes in front of the boss.
That’s not development.
Coaching Changes the Conversation
A coaching leader approaches the same situation differently.
Instead of immediately supplying the answer, the leader begins by trying to understand what happened.
“What was your thought process?”
“What were you trying to accomplish?”
“Where do you think things went off track?”
“What could you have done differently?”
“What would you do next time?”
Those questions accomplish something that simply telling an employee the answer cannot.
They make the employee think.
And when employees think through situations themselves, they begin developing judgment.
That is one of the greatest benefits of coaching.
As leaders, we should not want employees who constantly need us to provide the answer. We should be developing people who are increasingly capable of finding the answer themselves.
Don’t Steal the Learning Opportunity
Leaders often become leaders because they are good at what they do.
They have experience.
They have solved problems.
They often know exactly what someone should do.
And that creates a temptation.
An employee comes to us with a problem, and within thirty seconds we give them the solution.
It feels efficient. But efficiency isn’t always development.
Every time we immediately provide the answer, we may be taking away an opportunity for that person to learn how to solve the problem.
Sometimes one of the most powerful questions a leader can ask is simply:
“What do you think we should do?”
You may be surprised how often the employee already has a reasonable answer.
They may simply lack confidence.
A leader who asks questions before providing answers helps build that confidence.
Coaching Doesn’t Mean Avoiding Difficult Conversations
There is an important distinction here.
Coaching is not about being soft on performance.
It isn’t about avoiding uncomfortable conversations or allowing repeated mistakes to continue.
In fact, effective coaching requires clarity.
An employee must understand the expectation.
If performance isn’t meeting that expectation, the leader needs to say so.
The difference is what happens next.
A correcting manager primarily focuses on what went wrong.
A coaching leader also asks:
How do I help this employee become more capable because of this experience?
That may mean teaching.
It may mean demonstrating.
It may mean practicing.
It may mean asking questions.
And sometimes it may mean clearly telling the employee that a behavior or performance issue must change.
The best leaders know which approach the situation requires.
A Simple Coaching Approach
Coaching doesn’t have to be complicated.
I’ve found that many everyday coaching conversations can follow a fairly simple process.
1- Start with the situation.
Make sure both you and the employee understand what occurred. Stick with facts rather than assumptions.
2- Ask for their perspective.
Before telling them what you think, ask what they think.
“What happened from your perspective?”
This often reveals information the leader didn’t know.
3- Encourage reflection.
Ask the employee to evaluate their own performance.
“What went well?”
“What could have gone better?”
“What would you change?”
Self-evaluation helps create ownership.
4- Guide rather than immediately solve.
If the employee is moving toward the right answer, help them continue thinking it through.
If they don’t have the knowledge or experience necessary, that’s when the leader can provide more direction.
5- Agree on what happens next.
Coaching should eventually lead to action.
“What will you do differently next time?”
Now the employee owns the next step.
6- Follow up.
One coaching conversation rarely develops someone.
Development happens through continued conversations, observation, feedback, encouragement, and accountability.
Make Coaching Part of Everyday Leadership
Some managers think of coaching as a formal event.
They schedule a coaching session.
They complete a form.
They document the conversation.
There may be times when that structure is appropriate.
But the most effective coaching often happens in small moments throughout the workday.
After a meeting. Following a customer interaction. While reviewing a project. After an employee makes a decision. During a conversation about a problem.
These moments provide leaders with opportunities to ask questions, reinforce good decisions, challenge someone’s thinking, and help employees see situations differently.
Coaching becomes much more powerful when it is part of the relationship rather than an occasional management activity.
The Goal Is Greater Independence
One of the measures of successful leadership is what people become capable of doing without us.
If employees need their leader to solve every problem, make every decision, and provide every answer, we haven’t truly developed them.
Our job as leaders is not to make people dependent upon our experience.
Our job is to help them develop their own.
That requires patience.
Sometimes giving someone the answer takes thirty seconds while coaching them toward the answer takes ten minutes.
But those ten minutes may save hours in the future because the employee has learned something they can use again.
More importantly, they are becoming more confident and capable.
The Leadership Lesson
After four decades of working with leaders and employees at many different levels, I have become convinced that one of the greatest opportunities leaders have is to turn everyday performance situations into development opportunities.
-Correct when you need to.
-Set clear expectations.
-Hold people accountable.
But don’t stop there.
-Ask questions.
-Encourage reflection.
-Teach.
-Guide.
-Challenge people to think.
-Help them learn from both their successes and their mistakes.
Because the goal isn’t simply to have an employee leave your office knowing what they did wrong.
The goal is to have them leave better prepared for what they will face next.
Great leaders don’t just correct performance. They develop people.
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