COACHING AS PROBLEM-SOLVING

Recently in introducing the very first 5-Minute Manager training in Hong Kong, I began by making one of the most important distinctions between managing and coaching. This distinction explains why managers manage the organizational processes and coaches seek to enable a client to actualize his or her potentials and visions.

Namely, coaches invite clients to dream of their future, imagine what’s possible, unleash the required potentials, and begin to act on their plans by taking effective action. That’s what a coach does. Managers, in conversations with employees, make sure that the visions, plans, strategies, tactics, and performances that actualize the company’s purpose are understood and followed. They work with people and through people to fulfill the vision and to work out any and all problems that get in the way.