Knowing how to identify manager coaching needs is essential for the success of any business. The performance of managers directly impacts the overall performance of the company. While it is essential to equip your managers with the skills they need to thrive in the workplace, identifying the areas where they may be lacking or are in need of further training can be challenging.

The right coaching will enable your managers to draw out the strengths and skills of the people they are managing, freeing them up to focus on other matters. To help you better serve your staff and get a greater return on your training investment, follow the steps outlined in this article.

Conduct a Training Needs Analysis

A training needs analysis is a process of identifying the development needs of your managers and any gaps in their skills and knowledge in order to determine the level and type of training they require.

The right training will empower your managers to perform their roles more effectively, helping to boost productivity and optimize the results of their team and ultimately, the company. It also helps to keep your organization run by competent and well-informed managers, ensuring your competitive advantage. The following steps can act as a useful guide when conducting a training needs analysis:

• Determine your objectives: Establish your organization’s goals and the outcomes you want to achieve through training your managers.
• Define your required knowledge and skills: Identify relevant competencies and behaviors required from your management in order to create training programs that match these requirements.
• Determine gaps in performance: This will enable you to determine which areas managers need further coaching or training in.
• Recommendations: At this stage you can determine the most appropriate training programs for your managers.
• How to train: Consider how best to train your managers. You may wish to find expert coaches on certain management topics, provide on-the-job training, arrange external seminars or use web-based training platforms such as Hone.

Encourage Feedback

One of the best ways to identify manager coaching needs is by asking them what kind of coaching they feel they need to become more competent and productive in their roles and to perform more effectively.

Invite your managers to share their views and feedback on areas they feel they can improve in or require more support with. This can be achieved through informal, face-to-face interviews with each manager or by conducting management-level surveys to identify areas of deficiency across each department.

A well-designed survey or questionnaire will garner a range of responses through both open-ended and closed-ended questions allowing your staff to express themselves and their coaching needs more fully. This format also allows for submissions to be made anonymously, making it potentially more effective in gauging results than in-person interviews.

Assess Your Current Training Resources

Once you have a better understanding of the coaching needs of your managers, a review of your current training resources can help you determine what needs to be put in place to further support or fine-tune your coaching objectives.

Providing old, outdated or simply unnecessary training to your managers that does not match with the goals of your business is inefficient in terms of time, money and resources. Aligning your training with your managers’ needs will ensure you are focusing your resources in the right direction and addressing the specific areas and concerns your staff have highlighted.

Find the Right Coach

Business coaches address numerous managerial areas ranging from motivation, crisis management, strategic planning, diversity training, and interdepartmental communication, to fundraising and team building. Finding the right fit is essential to achieving your desired objective.

A good place to start is by finding a coach who shares your organization’s core values and has the relevant industry experience and an impressive track record for improving employee performance at a managerial level. These coaches will have the right expertise and can employ specific strategies that will elevate your staff and their workplace performance.

You can also narrow the search for prospective coaches by hosting introductory coaching sessions with your managers in a variety of scenarios, such as group and peer coaching. This will allow you to make an informed selection based on the feedback given by your staff.

By implementing the guidance in this article, you will be better placed in identifying the manager coaching needs within your workplace.