Traits To Look For When Hiring A Manager/Coach- Part 1
Finding a manager to build your small business by building up your employees.
Editor’s note: This is part 1 of a two part series identifying good manager traits and the importance of coaching traits.
It’s not always easy spotting a great manager and coach
In sports you can have great players who do not make great coaches, great coaches who are not good managers and great managers who are not good leaders. Finding a manager who can take on the role of a coach and a leader can lead to opportunities to change and grow your small business.
Frequently in small business there can be a lot of overlap between your players, managers and coachs. Understanding what you need and what you have is an important component of hiring and promoting the right people.
Managers vs. coaches
Generally managers are responsible for planning, directing and managing, people and resources, to enable them to achieve a specific outcome or series of outcomes. A coach ideally is more of a facilitator or even partner who focuses on development and ideally improvement of people and teams. Sometimes you need a manager of products, services, information and so on more than you need a coach and sometimes you really nee a coach.
If you compare the role of the manager in baseball to that of the coach in basketball you see some of the functional differences.
The baseball manager ensures the players are put in the right places at the right time and, as needed, makes changes in personnel to meet specific outcomes. If you envision the basketball coach you may see a more active participant in the ongoing ebb and flow of the game. The basketball coach may call out direction to players, as the play is active, provide immediate feedback and expecting the player to take corrective action, as the game is ongoing.
The baseball manager does not have the same opportunity to provide immediate ‘coaching’ instead the manager makes observations and then takes strategic action to make a change.
Both coaches and managers are important so helping your managers be coaches or finding coaches in your organization can be important.
Next- Good Manager/Coach Traits
