4 Ways Managers Can Help Their Employees
How to Ask For Help
Moving Beyond “The Program”
Many organizations want to help their employees develop and grow so they can be effective and engaged in their work. They invest in programs (ex: mentoring, coaching, leadership) and while some are effective, they also do another thing: they make the program about the program. Yes, the program runs well, and people like it, but do people actually do the thing?
Yes, it would be great that people who participated in the coaching program had a good experience and felt like they learned something, but what you ideally want is that person to go out and when engaging with their employees, they actually start to coach or mentor. Or yes, let’s absolutely build a program on a culture of feedback, but let’s actually make sure that people well, give feedback!
Same with mentoring. Sure, you want mentees and mentors to work, but what would be really impactful was if the 1000 people in your organization got into a practice of mentoring one another?
Managers and The “Four Horsemen” of Help
We all have to learn and need information, insights and ideas about how to do our jobs. Oftentimes it doesn’t come naturally or from memory, it requires us to go out and engage with the outside world to find the information or skills to solve the problem or do the task. Managers and leaders play a role in this - they often are the first line of defense to helping employees do their jobs effectively.
I’ve been thinking about the programmatic efforts of key learning and development programs, and I’ve been thinking more about how we get managers to more effectively put these into practice. In my experience, context really matters, so I’ve tried to come up with some contextual clues for each of these elements, and how managers can use them to help their people. For now, I’m calling them the four horsemen of development.
1)Apprenticeship
Learning by doing. Showing or co-creating something so your employee can complete a task or project in the moment or shortly thereafter. This gives them the chance to build the “sets and reps” needed to do those specific things.
What It’s good for: Being able to onboard someone gently into doing something that they may need to do repetitively or consistently as part of their job.
2)Feedback
Observed information about a past behavior or set of actions with the intent of a future behavior that achieves a desired result. Helpful to make someone who cannot always see the full impact of their behaviors aware of that behavior, especially if it helps them be better at the behavior they are trying to exhibit.
What It’s good for: When you directly observe an employee do something and can be specific about what you saw, especially if it is something they have to do consistently. (ex: running a meeting, public speaking) And when you see someone doing something that you’d love to see them keep doing because it makes a positive impact.
3)Coaching
Coaching is about partnering with an employee and helping them work toward a desired goal or outcome. The hallmark of coaching is guided open ended questions, and focuses on “the answer is within the individual.” It can be used for both a performance perspective (ex: improving how to run a sales call) as well as developmental perspective (ex: identifying and working toward a career goal)
What it’s good for: Helping with a short-term specific goal that has been identified. When you believe your employee has specific insight on wanting to improve or get better. When an employee is genuinely stuck, but wants a partner to help find an answer.
4)Mentorship
Sharing your experience with someone to help them gain the context that helps them make a decision, get unstuck, or handle a challenge. This also tends to be focused on an employee’s development, so not just about today, but about the future. Your superpower is sharing your lived experience or expertise on that specific topic because your employee is facing a similar challenge.
What it’s good for: Developmental conversations about career opportunities as well as when an employee has a specific situation or challenge that you have previously encountered and they have asked for your specific guidance. Note: while some manager-employee relationships can lead to a mentorship, the power dynamic can sometimes make it difficult. Be thoughtful about this one.
Why this matters
A manager’s job is to get a team to a desired outcome and to bring out the best in each employee. Simply telling your employees what to do, isn’t helpful, nor is it scalable. Finding ways to help them learn and develop in the flow of their work is critical to doing the job of a manager.
Different needs require different approaches. Not all of the things you employees come to you with are the same. Different circumstances may require you to think specifically about that moment, why, how you can best support their ability to get things done (in the moment) and their longer term learning and development.
Secondly, how you work with one employee might be entirely different with how you work with another. If someone is brand new, a more hands on approach probably might be best. But if you have an experienced high-performer, they may operate better with more of a coaching mindset.
It provides a shared language and understanding. As you start to use these terms more frequently, it also gives your employees an understanding of how they can engage with you as a leader. One of the hardest things to do sometimes is to ask for the specific help that you need. This gives a language to use, and an accessible onramp to asking for help.
Last but not least, it helps employees become more self-sustaining. As you do this more often, it may help them understand when they actually need some support, and in some cases, they might actually be able to go out and get it on their own. Over time, they might be able to get their own feedback, or get apprenticed by others, etc.
Conclusion: Learning Programs Aren’t just for leaders, they’re for everyone
Circling back to where we started, while leadership programs are meant to be for leaders, the actual methods and tools can be helpful for everyone. Even if you aren’t a manager, having language to ask for the learning and development you need can be incredibly helpful in terms of getting you the help you need to do your job, but also in building your own knowledge and skills as an effective employee.
Before You Go:
I want to thank all of you who replied or wrote to me about my post from last week about finding and using your voice. I appreciate the feedback and encouragement!
As a follow up, as you may know May is National Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month in the United States, and I'd love to come speak to your organization.
I have a favor to ask: If you enjoy what I write about and share, and think your company would benefit, especially on topics related to leadership, and professional development, I’d love an introduction to your AAPI Employee Resource Group or HR team. Feel free to reply if you’d be interested directly or if you’d be open to helping with an intro. I’m grateful for your support.
Thank you!
Al