Coaching Your Manager

Your relationship with your boss may have more to do with your success and advancement in your career than just about any other factor. Whether you are in a new job or a remote job, or you have been in your position for months, knowing how to coach your boss will improve your career and your life.

The process of coaching is simple: You check your ego at the door, and you work out what is best. Coaching up is just a process of working with your boss to obtain the best possible results for your boss, your organization, and you. You do this by honoring and respecting each other's ideas and intelligence through dialogue and brainstorming, without pushing a personal agenda, instructing, or demanding that others see things your way. Coaching is not political maneuvering; rather, it is a deliberate effort to bring understanding and cooperation into a relationship between individuals who often have different perspectives.

Think of your role as a coach (whether you're coaching up, down, or sideways) as a process of understanding what organizations want from their people, what leaders want from their teams, and what employees want from their leaders.

As a prerequisite to developing your coaching style, while you must continue to focus on delivering results, you must also know your own motivations, values, and needs. These motivations (perhaps to make a contribution, to enjoy yourself, to learn, to earn respect, to make friends, to feel trusted, to work with people you trust and admire, to be part of a team, to share your talents, and to be valued) are absent of ego and are your springboard for coaching and helping others, even your boss.

Coaching your manager is a process of communication: listening, sharing, questioning, learning, shifting, and growing-all with an eye toward making your boss look great. And it is a process of self-awareness. In order to be a great coach to others, you must leave all baggage (ego, needs, turf issues) out of the equation, and you must continually choose growth over fear. Coaching focuses on what is best, what is most important, and even what is most urgent, and considers how best to respond to those things, providing you with opportunities to explore ideas and solutions you had not considered before.

Ask yourself, your boss, and your team questions like:

• What is next?

• Is there a solution here?

• Is this the right time to start this?

• Is there another way?

• What is possible?

• If you knew you would not fail, what would you do now?

Asking questions is sometimes hard, especially in a culture in which you are paid to have the answers rather than the questions. Yet it is that very questioning and exploring that will shift you into a healthy relationship with your boss and will create visibility, job satisfaction, and increased productivity.