Management Coaching Styles: The Definitive Guide

Improve Your Management Coaching Styles With The Help Of Our Two Experts in HR, Learning & Development, Web Psychology, and Human Behaviour

Management coaching styles have taken on a new importance since the pandemic. Leaders and managers realise that to adapt quickly to changing circumstances, they need to think flexibly and get their employees on board. The big controversy is, how much money and management time businesses waste through ineffective management coaching styles.

Traditional ‘authoritarian’ coaching reflects the autocratic leadership styles that have historically dominated business, but in recent years workforces have changed and become more diverse, and expect a more democratic or laissez-faire approach. So, which management coaching style should you use, and when? Our Definitive Guide addresses this vital question and helps you put the different styles to work. The Definitive Guide to Management Coaching Styles is for everyone, from small businesses, where the owner is also the manager and does the coaching, to larger companies. Use it wisely!

Rise to The Challenge, With Our Management Coaching Styles Guide

In this complete guide, you’re going to discover all about Management Coaching Styles. You’ll learn the different coaching styles, the best ones, the advantages and disadvantages of each, and the different coaching styles in the workplace. You’ll also see coaching style of leadership examples, and action steps you can implement… Of course, you will be intrigued by our interviews with the experts. And we think you’ll find our takeouts and conclusions at the end very helpful, too.

Calling out all:

• HR managers
• L&D managers
• Category managers
• Account managers

If you’re based in the UK, you might recognise the names of our experts and know you are in for a treat (drum rolls please!)

📩 DOWNLOAD NOW: FREE GUIDES FOR HR MANAGERS AND TRAINING OFFICERS

Now the question is: how can you embody the best of Management Coaching Styles and empower your team? Well, that’s where this complete guide comes into play.

You will discover:

• • I – What are Management Coaching Styles
  • II – The Different Management Coaching Styles
  • III – Management Coaching Styles in the Workplace
  • IV – Coaching Leadership Style
  • V – Interviews with the Experts
  • VI – Management Coaching Styles Inspiration
  • VII – Key Takeouts
  • VIII – Take Your Management Coaching Style To The Next Level With Making Business Matter

First, A Word To The Wise. Poor Management Coaching Styles Are No Joke!

TV shows like The Office are hilarious in showing us how incompetent managers like David Brent can be equally ineffective at coaching, but they make a serious point. Some otherwise competent managers are incompetent coaches and don’t realise.

Previous generations of employees tolerated poor management coaching styles, but millennials and Gen Z are likely to reject them and move jobs out of frustration. Proving the point, in 2022 Qualtrics’ third annual Employee Experience Trends Report found that 5% fewer people planned to stay in their current jobs than in 2021, and women in middle management roles were three times more likely to find a new job. It’s an urgent problem we need to address. So, let’s get started!

PART I – What are Management Coaching Styles?

Everybody seems to be a coach today! Scroll through your LinkedIn feed, you can’t escape them. Coaches’ omnipresence is one of the reasons why coaching has had such a negative connotation with companies that tend to have strict rules and procedures.

Going back to David Brent in The Office, another reason why coaches are trending like they are is that we’ve come a long way from a rigid management style (and rigid managers – no offence!) to a more lenient, open, and coachable leadership style of management.

What is a Coaching Style of Management?

A coaching style of management involves a leader focusing on developing team members as individuals. It elevates the whole team’s performance by showing each member the importance of their position in the group and using teaching and mentoring tools to bring out the best in them. Ultimately, the team’s combined knowledge determines their thinking. It’s a collective response.

We’ve All Heard About The Battle of The Titans – Are You a Manager Or a Leader?

A leader embraces coaching – a more personal approach and guidance to lead employees and teams towards success. A manager who is risk averse and afraid of change would probably prefer to stick to what they know and what works. But from experience, calling people into a meeting room, sitting them down and lecturing them simply doesn’t cut it.

Most of us have a little bit of the manager and the leader within us. The culture we work in moulds us, shapes us, and transforms us. That’s how we learn to become leaders. Yes, leadership is a learnable trait, and using your leadership and managing different coaching styles is what makes you the leader of tomorrow – or rather, today.

In a nutshell, it’s about application. So here are four ways you can embrace coaching, in whatever style works for you:

• Be personal – just like marketers target their ideal audience, don’t treat employees as just another number, target them individually. Moreover, don’t offer them a massive programme, offer them training that caters to their individual needs.
• Keep it specific – Ask for the exact results you want, and don’t expect employees to be mind readers.
• Give honest feedback, but be kind.
• Be a solution provider, not a problem finder – Come up with a plan to help employees and ideally involve them in the process.

In this article, London Metropolitan University Senior Lecturer Giovanni Bordone shares his insight on the issue of much current training not being effective today, and how best to approach it. (⬇️Jump to Giovanni’s section)

The History of Management Coaching

Coaching as we know it was born in 1830 at Oxford University, in England, where a “coach” was slang for a tutor who “carried” a student through an exam. Since then, this idea of coaching has travelled around the world, inspiring innovation in other countries such as Australia, where the first coaching psychology programme emerged in 2000.

From nutrition to sports, people in many fields have been fascinated by coaching and got involved in its advancement, and one of the front runners was the personal development industry. Different types of coaches emerged, such as relationship coaches, financial coaches, and HR coaches.

Since the early 2000s, the word coaching has become mainstream. And like anything trendy, we rush towards it and want to be part of that cultural revolution. The good news? Companies are now embracing the power of coaching and empowering managers to use it. And it couldn’t come with better timing.

Why Does Management Coaching Matter?

With AI taking the world by storm, many traditional jobs are changing and shifting. Hence, it’s now more important than ever for HR and L&D managers to be on top of it, to guide and coach employees towards a brighter future. It is in these times of uncertainty that you are needed the most. So put your Superhero costumes on and let’s save the world, one employee at a time!

Today more than ever, the Gibbs reflective cycle, in which people reflect on their learning and what they’re getting from it, should take precedence over rigid training systems. For example, one of the industries ‘hit’ most by AI is marketing and creativity. With ChatGPT causing panic among marketers and creatives, you can read here what Harvard Business Review web psychologist and bestselling author of Business Unusual, Nathalie Nahai has to say about how HR managers can help ease the panic and be superheroes. (⬇️Jump to Nathalie’s section)

PART II – The Different Management Coaching Styles

Each coaching style is unique, and different members of your team might react better to specific ones. As an HR manager or L&D manager, it’s important to master all styles and talk to each employee with their preferred coaching style to get the best out of them and help them reach their targets and goals.

In 1930 Dr Kurt Lewin conducted studies into group dynamics, and from his work emerged three types of Management Coaching Styles:

1. Autocratic

2. Democratic

3. Laissez-Faire

Let’s look at these in more detail:

1. Autocratic Coaching Style (Sometimes Called Authoritarian Coaching)

Autocratic coaching has some vestige of the traditional and more rigid managerial type of coaching we discussed earlier.

“My friends, I’ve travelled each, and every highway, and more, much more than this, I did it my way.” So sang Frank Sinatra – or you might prefer Sid Vicious’ punkier rendition! Joking aside, this type of coaching doesn’t leave much room for interpretation or improvement. The manager or coach has their system they want to push to the employee.

This type of coaching style is task-oriented instead of people-oriented. Referring to the MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator) personality types, it’s for ‘STJ’ people – sensing/ observing, thinking, and judging, rather than their ‘NFP’ colleagues – intuitive, feeling, and prospecting.

Pros of Autocratic Coaching:

• Gives structure
• Gives stability
• Gives certainty

Cons of Autocratic Coaching:

• Too rigid
• Too impersonal
• Too slow

In coaching, nothing is black or white. So, the autocratic/authoritarian coaching style can be good in certain situations that require more structure. An example could be with a new employee looking to find their way around the company, or a team during a merger and acquisition when every one of the first 100 days counts. Let’s look at some real-life examples.

Authoritarian Coaching Sounds Tough. But It Isn’t All Bad.

In our first real-life example of authoritarian coaching, sales reps are coached to have structure and discipline in their work. They’re regimented, just like the Jehovah’s Witnesses. You have your call list, do the call, go through the pitch, and take the order. In the grocery company I worked for, there was a command hierarchy, the district manager, area sales manager, and regional sales manager. They sat in on our calls and worked to mould us into a particular type of person. The trouble is, people are individuals, and when we’re given a job, we want to get on with it, our way. Back to Frank Sinatra!

Authoritarian coaching is fine for teaching new systems and procedures, but when you have to learn new behaviours in front of your peers, it can expose your vulnerabilities and inadequacies, which is humiliating. The classic example is army training, but civilian training can be just as daunting. A real-life example is presentation skills training in a marketing services agency, where the coach makes no allowances for different temperaments. Like group learning at school, this can be traumatic for introverts and even lead to bullying, if people lack confidence and it’s not handled properly.

Taking an ‘Authoritarian’ Position to Create an Inclusive Environment for Employees: A Real-Life Example

Sometimes, the structure and stability offered by authoritarian coaching can be beneficial. In a privately owned British confectionery company, one of the founders is autistic, and they and their co-founder partner have had a lot of exposure to autism, and the challenges and the benefits it brings. Drawing on their personal experiences with their children, who are also autistic, they wanted to ensure they could create an inclusive working environment, in which everyone is treated as an individual, and not defined by their condition.

Starting a new job can be a daunting experience for anyone, but it’s amplified for someone with autism. The company has additional processes in place for onboarding new members smoothly and making sure they are comfortable with the tasks, surroundings, and their new colleagues. This commitment resulted in the company winning the King’s Award for Enterprise: Promoting Opportunity, in 2023.

2. Democratic Coaching Style (Sometimes Called Participative Coaching)

This is the push and pull approach, where some guidelines are set as a base but input from employees is preferred. The HR manager or coach involves employees in decisions about their coaching and sets goals accordingly. This involves a working relationship between manager and employee. Connections are made, and long-term success is assured. Also, this is the best way to help employees develop decision-making and communication skills.

Pros of Democratic Coaching:

• Gives flexibility
• Recipients have autonomy
• Empowers employees

Cons of Democratic Coaching:

• It might be too time-consuming
• Could get too personal
• This style might lead to negative emotions if team members have a fixed mindset and are asked to break from it

Democratic Coaching – Some Real-Life Examples

In PR and advertising agencies, the goal is for employees to think independently and arrive at the best solutions for the client. Hence my first boss, in a small agency, taught me everything I needed to be an account handler and paid for me to go on the CAM PR Diploma course. He gave me the grace to be myself and let me argue with him before steering me gently back.

When I moved to a bigger agency, one of the directors was designated chief coach and worked with us and our line managers to make decisions and set goals for our learning and development. It worked, but with many different people to think about, it was slow.

3. Laissez-Faire Coaching Style

Here is where coaches create the right environment for employees. A great example is Warren Buffet, the investor who hires the right people and lets them work their magic. Other examples are IT and FMCG companies, and management consulting firms, that create a ‘campus’ environment.

Many experts such as Shawn Anchor, the author of ‘The Happiness Advantage,’ study extensively how to bring happiness to work. They recognise that the environment, and more specifically social support at work, is a big factor.

The psychologist Dr Sonja Lyubomirsky concluded in her research that 10% of our happiness is affected by our situation, but we can control 40% of it ourselves. So, the environment we work in can affect us very powerfully, but if we appreciate how it is doing so, we can navigate it.

Some Pros of Laissez-Faire Coaching:

• Creates a Zen environment conducive to better performance at work
• Great for problem-solving
• Ideal for teams who are successful, know their strengths and want to improve further

Cons of Laissez-Faire Coaching (worst case scenario):

• Too many variables to handle
• The coach lacks authority
• No feedback from learners, so no chance for improvement

The Different Management Coaching Types

Over the years many different coaching styles have been added to the first three styles we talked about. Here is a list of the 13 different types of management coaching:

1. Autocratic
2. Authoritarian
3. Democratic
4. Laissez-faire
5. Vision
6. Holistic
7. Mindful
8. Bureaucratic
9. Developmental
10. Group
11. Transformational
12. Intuitive
13. Transactional

What Are the 4 Styles of Coaching That Are Most Used Today?

• Autocratic Coaching
• Democratic Coaching
• Laissez-Faire Coaching
• Holistic Coaching

The holistic style is worth singling out because it’s one of the coaching styles most used in sports coaching. Businesspeople often hold up sports managers and coaches as examples to follow. That said, holistic coaching in work can be problematic for people who are new to this. It asks them to look at the professional, spiritual and social aspects of their life, and the interdependence of their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. This can be overwhelming! Not only have they possibly never thought about it before, but it requires a degree of openness and intimacy with the coach, which people may find uncomfortable. Holistic coaching is best suited to mature people who have developed the creativity and self-awareness to be self-guided.

So Which Management Coaching Style is Right for You?

It depends on what stage your company is at in its life cycle, what projects you’re undertaking, and where your team are as individuals. As teams develop, the coaching they need is likely to evolve from autocratic to holistic:

1. Autocratic Coaching is based on self (Initial stage)
2. Democratic Coaching is based on team (Intermediate stage)
3. Holistic Coaching is based on having a “collegiate” environment, where everyone is committed to learning and achieving (Advanced stage)

Most importantly, as the coach you should ask yourself what type of leader you are. Here are some questions to get you started:

• Are you more task or people-oriented?
• Do you prefer to inspire and empower or give directives on what’s best?
• Do you want to create a fast-paced, results-driven environment or a collegiate one?

The Pros and Cons of Coaching in Management

Remember how we said that coaching had a bad reputation but now things are changing? Let’s look at some of the pros and cons of coaching in management.

Pros of Coaching:

• Improves individual and team performance and engagement
• Increases confidence
• Reduces staff turnover
• Heightens loyalty
• Create a positive culture of learning and development, where reflection and self-improvement are encouraged

Cons of Coaching:

• The company’s goals might change, which might affect the work being done and you will need to do more coaching
• Closer connection: it can get emotional and uncomfortable
• Coaching isn’t ideal in high-pressure environments needing results quickly unless it’s autocratic

What Is Coaching Commonly Used For?

The most common uses for coaching in the workplace are

• Business Coaching
• Teambuilding
• Executive Coaching
• Leadership development
• Communication skills
• Performance Coaching
• Career Coaching
• Sales Coaching

What’s trending in the outside world affects how we see coaching. Here are some popular mainstream coaching practices, which are impacting how we view coaching at work:

• Life Coaching
• Health Coaching
• Relationship Coaching
• Spiritual Coaching

Therapy and counselling are also forms of coaching, and our experience with them may affect how we view coaching in the workplace.

PART III – Management Coaching Styles in the Workplace

How does a leadership coaching style differ from other coaching styles?

Here a leader or senior manager does the coaching themselves and imparts knowledge and experience. With all the different coaching styles to choose from,  they should use a combination to get the best results.

Leadership Coaching is most similar to:

• Democratic Coaching
• Servant Leadership
• Transformational Leadership

And Leadership Coaching is most far from:

• Autocratic Coaching
• Bureaucratic Coaching
• Transactional Coaching

Pros and Cons of Leadership Coaching

Pros:

• Teams and organisations often reach their goals and achieve results
• It creates a higher degree of trust, which leads to:
  • More Motivation
  • More productivity
  • More loyalty
• Feedback and encouragement, which in turn helps growth and better decision-making
• Cohesiveness and cooperation create a positive and productive culture
• Improved communication and teamwork, which leads to:
  • Increased creativity and innovation
  • Building trust
  • Reducing conflicts
  • Creating synergy and increasing productivity

Cons:

• No quick wins
• A lot of time is spent by the coach: this is especially the case with large teams
• It also requires commitment and time from employees
• It’s not effective for every employee, possibly because
  • The employee is at the beginning of his/her career, new to the company, or just simply prefers a more authoritarian coaching style
• Not ideal for highly competitive types of businesses, which require fast pace and authoritarian leadership
• It can be expensive.

Which Coaching Types Are Most in Demand in the Workplace?

• Executive Coaching
• Integrated Coaching
• Performance Coaching
• Learning & Development Coaching
• Team Coaching
• Virtual Coaching (Zoom, Teams etc)

All the types of coaching we’ve mentioned can be done virtually, but coaches need to be aware of how the virtual technology affects the interaction. The chemistry is very different face to face.

Building a Coaching Culture

Two key fundamentals to creating a thriving coaching culture are instilling trust, and making work meaningful. So how exactly can you build such a culture?

• Meet with your team
• Set goals for development
• Give feedback
• Remember to celebrate the wins
• Constantly adjust and adapt

A company that focuses on values, creates systems around the strengths of the employees. The coaching culture thrives in a safe environment, where everyone is valued and respected. This creates trust.

Building such a culture requires commitment and dedication, but the results are worth the effort. However, nothing that comes easy lasts, and most of the hard work tends to pay off one way or another.

As we mentioned earlier in this guide, there are plenty of positives from building a coaching culture. The most prominent ones are

• Better communication
• Higher productivity and team synergy
• Greater loyalty and employee retention
• Better problem-solving and decision-making

Application: How To Improve Your Staff’s Wellbeing

At the start, we quoted  Qualtrics’ Employee Experience Trends Report for 2022. On their website, Qualitrics recommend that managers apply their coaching styles to improve employee well-being, by taking these steps:

• Practise what you preach: Leaders need to be seen working reasonable hours, taking personal time and treating their mental and physical health as a priority.
• Talk openly about mental health: Employees say the number one thing holding them back from taking care of their mental health is that leaders don’t talk enough about it at work.
• Encourage a culture of well-being: Build a culture around how, where and when work gets done, as well as good habits around taking time off.

How Do You Coach Your Manager?

We laugh at David Brent in The Office, but an “impossible” manager is no laughing matter! Michael Hyatt at Fullfocus.co is an expert on this. As he points out, many of us notice things our boss says or does that are ineffective or inefficient, or annoy us. We disagree with them, but often we’re too scared to say so, in case we get shouted at. He offers these tips:

• Is something going on in your boss’s life that affects why they’re like this? Bosses are people too.
• Be humble. Don’t correct your boss because you’re angry with them Do it because you mean well.
• Start with praise, or at least say something kind.
• Avoid confrontation. Ask for permission to speak: “There’s something I need to talk to you about.”
• Put what you’re saying in context. Explain how their behaviour is affecting you: for instance, they cut you off mid-sentence or snap.
• Assume the best: They probably don’t mean to be awful, they’re just not aware they’re like that.
• Believe every interaction matters: You’re here to make things better, and you can!
• Take the risk: What’s the worst that can happen if you speak up? Be bold, do it the right way, and you’ll be fine.

If you work remotely, you can still coach your manager, but you must be gentle Make your points, but be friendly. You’re not criticising them personally. If they don’t get the message at first, keep on!

What if You’re the Boss, and Your Employees Bite Back?

Do you deserve it, by any chance? Practise being self-aware and present. Stop and think about how others see your behaviour, how you come across, and how it affects their reactions to you.

PART IV – Coaching Leadership Style

What Is The Leadership Coaching Style?

Simply put, a leader acts as a coach. As HR and L&D managers you are that leader. You contribute to the team by rallying the troops and bringing each employee to their goal.

The best time to use the leadership coaching style is when:

• Employees are driven but their engagement and motivation are low
• Trust levels are low, and the culture is toxic
• The company and the employees are disconnected, in values and goals

What Are the Key Skills of Coaching Leadership Style?

A coaching leader needs to develop skills and traits in these areas:

• Professional development
• Goal oriented
• Vision oriented
• Feedback and insights
• Mentorship

Is a Coaching Approach Linked to Emotional Intelligence?

It depends on which style of coaching is being used. Autocratic and authoritarian coaching styles, for example, certainly don’t have much consideration for emotional intelligence. On the other hand, emotional intelligence is important for democratic and laissez-faire coaching styles.

How Does a Coaching Leadership Style Unlock Potential?

Coaching leadership has 5 pillars, known as the 5 leadership pillars of coaching, which help unlock potential:

1. Vision

The coach helps the employee have clarity and focus on their personal and professional future in the near, and sometimes distant, future. This process serves to create a picture in the employee’s mind of where they want to be.

2. Insight

This step helps bridge the gap, or, as Jack Canfield wrote in his book, “getting you from where you are to where you want to be.” This is where the HR helps the employee realise what skills, tools, or training they are lacking or if they need some fine-tuning to help them achieve their goals.

3. Self-Awareness

At this stage, we start looking at behaviour and how we can change it. Working on the belief system is important here, along with driving accountability to employees.

4. Thinking

As results start to show up, as an HR you can help the employees at this stage to focus on what’s negative and turn it around. Why are they procrastinating? What is stopping them from moving to action?

5. Action

The word says it all. All that’s required to unlock the employee’s potential is constant feedback to help them improve and achieve their goals.

What Are the Benefits of a Coach’s Leadership Style?

• Employees feel more valued
• Better long-term results

Research done by Jean Cote and Wade Gilbert into sports coaching showed that participants benefited in four areas:

1. Competence
2. Confidence
3. Character
4. Connectedness

Also known as the 4Cs of coaching.

How Does a Leader–coach Improve Performance?

1. Creating trust
2. Building synergy
3. Bridging the gaps
4. Reconnecting value to work and company
5. Choose the right coaching style

PART V – Interviews with the Experts

ALERT – the Experts Are Here!

In this section of the guide, you will get a sneak peek into the minds of some of the best HR, L&D, web psychologists, and human behaviourists in the UK. Let’s start with:

An Academic Perspective with London Metropolitan University Senior Lecturer Giovanni Bordone

Giovanni has around 20 years of experience in L&D, selling, and management in the luxury fashion industry. He gave training for companies such as Louis Vuitton, Xenia, and Burberry around the world. Giovanni has been a Senior Lecturer for the past four years and gives us his viewpoint from both perspectives, academic and professional.

L&d Managers’ Main Struggle Today is Dealing With Change

Academia is slow to react, they look retrospectively at problems and situations which is not good for anticipation. Now, a lot of teachers tend to explain past problems.

One of the reasons is the huge age gap between educators and students, and this is a big problem that leads to disconnection: “Our brains work differently.”

In digital marketing, for example, we are teaching how things were in the past, and one year ago is already late, while we are already in the future. “It’s a mistake, because we are talking to people who haven’t experienced that.”

In our interview, we went on to talk about ChatGPT and how assessments cannot stay like before. Giovanni said that the conversation should change as well as the approach to training.

Giovanni shared a couple of examples such as how the British Heart Foundation mentioned Vinnie Jones, a footballer students had no clue about because he was way before their time. He also talked about how Gen Z’s might have no idea who Michael Jackson is.

The solution: The way we engage is to step back, change the discussion, and be more forward-looking. It’s also about creating different benchmarks. You need to build trust among participants, on both sides. Lower the barriers, and be more informal.

For example, try infusing technology within the training experience like gamification, augmented reality, and virtual reality. Also, make it fun!

Why Are Pieces of Training Not Sticking With Managers Over the Years, and Why Do Things They Learn Remain Theoretical?

Training doesn’t show a very good return on investment. There are two different aims when it comes to Learning & Development:

1. Teach or learn – this should have a high ROI
2. Entertain – this should be more engaging and relaxed

One example Giovanni gave of training that didn’t go exactly according to plan was when he trained with Xenia and Zara. He was asked to train too many people – 60 to 70 per class and cram extensive information into two to three hours. and with a limited budget.

Getting to Know Giovanni – His Biggest Achievement and His Dreams

When asked about his biggest achievement, Giovanni didn’t blink: it’s the training and events he did with Louis Vuitton in Shanghai.

Most of the trainees were much more senior, more knowledgeable, earned at least ten times more, and were highly respected in C-suite roles.

It wasn’t me teaching something, it was mostly about sharing and bringing topics to life.”

Giovanni’s dream for the future of L&D in the next 5 years is to have a more futuristic approach when looking at a problem instead of looking at the problem day to day.

We can’t find the answers to future problems by looking at the past. As trainers, we really have to look at the future, and different business models.”

And now, a glimpse into the future of HR and L&D with bestselling author and web psychologist Nathalie Nahai

Nathalie is a woman of many talents, a web psychologist and bestselling author of two books, ‘Business Unusual’ and ‘Webs of Influence,’ and host of ‘The Hive Podcast.’ Her unique expertise comes at the right time for us to look into the future.

Our discussion started with the layoffs in the big tech companies and today’s rise of AI, which has led to a lot of fears, like the fear of uncertainty, and being replaced. As a web psychologist and expert in both tech and human behaviour, Nathalie is one of the best equipped to calm our minds and give us hope. We had to start with a big question:

What is Your Projection for the Next 5 Years? How Do You See Employment Progressing When It Comes to the Evolvement/involvement Between Tech/ai and Human Behaviour and HR?

Natalie is quite clear:

“A lot of readjustments must happen, entire segments in different industries will be completely transformed by the different technologies such as ChatGPT. The most affected will be the creative industries.”

Nathalie invites you to think about how we can re-imagine what our roles and human story can be, at a time when technology mediates almost everything.

• What do we value?
• Do we take it on a deep level and say we value creativity and connection – a sense of belonging, purpose, or even flourishing?
• Or on the other hand, do we focus on capitalism, technological acceleration and consumerism? What does this mean for the job market, and more widely, our lives?

According to Nathalie, tech companies will rely less and less on hiring people, all thanks to job automation and advancements in AI. So now the questions to be asked:

What Do All Those Other People Do?

Yes, other jobs will be created, but there is going to be a period of uncertainty and disruption. And compared to previous revolutions like the industrial or agricultural revolutions, this time will be different.

The scale is at a level we haven’t seen before. It’s even touching things we never thought would be touched, like the arts and humanities.”

Envisioning how we might move forward, Nathalie welcomes the idea of having the option to work two to three days per week and “job share” with other employees. Not only would this ensure greater employment for more people, but it would also enable us to reap the well-being and mental health benefits of having the freedom to pursue personal projects.

“One of the issues – and this ties perfectly with the speed of the advancement of tech – is that we’re caught in this myth of exponential growth. So, while in capitalism growth has historically been limited to finite physical resources, now the pace of technological acceleration also represents an acceleration of information architecture. So not only do we have huge changes in the physical substrates – mining more materials to keep making the hardware that sustains our globalised systems, we also have huge growth in the information substrate – all the data we share and consume which feeds back and creates cultural and political rifts. We haven’t thought deeply about the impact on society, or the physical impact on our wider living world.”

What Advice Can You Give Hr L&D Managers So That They Can Reassure Their Employees?

All in all, three psychological needs lead to the flourishing of human life, which fall under the theory of self-determination:

1. Agency – Being in the driving seat of your life and having some sort of control or choice in how you live.
2. Competence – Cultivating the skills and abilities to be able to achieve or work toward your goals.
3. Relatedness – Having meaningful relationships with significant others, and a sense of belonging to something bigger than yourself.

What This Means, Practically Speaking:

Agency: If a company cannot guarantee employees their contracts for at least a year, or two years, then at least it’s important to treat employees with respect and give them the kind of information they need to make their own decisions.

So, if a company knows it’s going through a rough patch, Nathalie suggests that it makes more sense for the cultural integrity of the organisation as well as for the well-being of the staff to own up and suggest choices or alternatives to employees.

Competence: Whenever possible, the company should support people to skill up in other areas that might be complementary and where employees could move their career path so that they are not stuck in a role that will become obsolete within the next 6 to 12 months.

Relatedness: A lot of employees are talking about employee experience and giving people a sense of greater nourishment through personal programs. But without meeting the first two needs – Self-determination and a sense of competence, without being honest and having the integrity to be transparent with employees, all the rest falls apart. You can have lovely team meetings and give all the extra benefits, but if employees do not feel respected and don’t have the knowledge to make decisions, it won’t matter.

How Can Management Coaching Styles Get Employees Onside?

First, managers can get employees onside by asking the right questions, being willing to look for the right questions, and being open enough to listen. Sure, it’s easy to listen when the company is doing great, but what’s important is to listen when the company is facing challenging times. To listen and tolerate the answers.

Next, another important point Nathalie mentioned was holding space. “To be able to witness the person as they answer the question,” and let them say their piece.

Finally, Nathalie shares a practical tool to help people develop the art of holding space. This is practising non-violent communication, or ‘NVC,’ which Marshall Rosenberg has written books about. NVC is an approach to enhanced communication, understanding and connection, that boils down to this simple truth – you can choose not to be confrontational. 

PART VI – Management Coaching Inspiration

Leadership Coaching Quotes

“In the past, a leader was a boss. Today’s leaders must be partners with their people; they no longer can lead solely based on positional power.” – Ken Blanchard

“Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.” – Timothy Gallwey

“Good leadership isn’t about advancing yourself. It’s about advancing your team.” – John Maxwell

“If there is anything I would like to be remembered for it is that I helped people understand that leadership is helping other people grow and succeed. To repeat myself, leadership is not just about you. It’s about them.” – Jack Welch

“A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.” – Jim Rohn

“There is only one thing worse than training employees and losing them, and that’s not training them and keeping them.” – Zig Ziglar

“Managers help people see themselves as they are. Leaders help people to see themselves better than they are.” – Jim Rohn

“Tell me, and I’ll forget. Show me, and I’ll remember. Involve me, and I’ll learn.” – Marla Jones

“A coach is someone who tells you what you don’t want to hear, who has you see what you don’t want to see, so you can be who you have always known you could be.” – Tom Landry

And if you’re looking for more inspiration, check out Mr. Miyagi’s quote.

Example of Leadership Coaching in Action

The list below is a non-exhaustive list of my favourite leaders, do you resonate with them?

Andrew Carnegie:

If you’re a personal development reader, you probably heard of one of the most-sold books in the world – Think & Grow Rich. The author Napoleon Hill was coached by the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie and with his guidance of 20 years, and his introductions, he created this masterpiece.

Dale Carnegie:

Dale Carnegie founded one of the most impressive personal development programs still running today.

Phil Jackson:

Phil used customised coaching which led to six NBA championships for the Chicago Bulls and other titles for the Los Angeles Lakers. One of his tricks was to give a book to each player based on their needs.

Sir Alex Ferguson:

Sir Alex Ferguson is one of the most decorated coaches in the world of football. He is most famous for his authoritarian leadership style and remembered for his explosive reprimands of players, which were known as the “hairdryer” treatment.

Some Other Famous Leaders You Might Like to Consider

• Transformational Leaders: Sir Winston Churchill, Jeff Bezos
• Charismatic Leaders: Oprah Winfrey
• Personal Development Leaders: Bob Proctor, Jack Canfield, Brian Tracy
• Laissez Faire Leaders: Warren Buffet
• Democratic Leaders: Nelson Mandela
• Autocratic Leaders: Martha Stewart
• Visionary Leaders: Elon Musk

Key Pointers to Becoming the Best Management Coach

1. Questions, questions, questions

Simply, the better you get to know your employees by asking the right questions and the more trust you build in your connection with them and the team, the better results you will get.

2. Never back down from a challenge

Challenges are meant to help you grow. We attract our relationships – in this case, employees – so that both of us heal. You should both try and see the problem from the other side.

3. Connect

Treat your employees like your best friends, and be their biggest cheerleaders. Listen to their problems and their feedback and support them in their times of need. And if you’re thinking I’m in a big company with so many employees I don’t have time – delegate it – hire more HR managers. Did it cost more money? Well, Anthony Robbins might answer you: “It’s not about the resources you have, but your resourcefulness.”

Part VII: Key Take-Outs, To Bring This To Life In Your Business

What Are the 4 Types of Coaching?

Some people boil all this down to 4 types:

• Executive Coaching:

This is about equipping senior employees to identify their performance weaknesses and develop their leadership skills. In large businesses, CEOs and senior directors do this informally as part of their leadership, but sometimes external coaches and psychologists get called in.

• Performance Coaching:

Help people perform their job roles more effectively.

• Team Coaching:

Managers facilitate effective communication and collaboration between employees. This can be for general purposes, or dealing with specific challenges, like changing the way the company does business.

• Peer Coaching:

Here, a colleague, or someone in the peer group on the same level, does the coaching. An example is a PR account handler being asked to cast an eye over a new colleague’s written work as they settle in. People shouldn’t begrudge helping with ad hoc peer coaching, it gets noticed and shows managerial potential.

10 Management Coaching Techniques You Can Adopt

So, here’s how to embrace this. Management trainers MTD say there are 10 coaching techniques all managers need. Here they are:

1. Listening: If you’re not an effective listener. you’ll struggle as a coach.
2. Asking open-ended questions: Quite simply, you need to get your people talking.
3. Collaboration: Teach your team to work collaboratively together.
4. Making good use of time: Make every minute of the session count.
5. Establishing teams: You need to be able to create and motivate successful teams.
6. Emotional intelligence: Coaching sessions can be stressful if people feel they aren’t doing well. Hence, managers need to understand people’s feelings and react properly to them.
7. Communication: You need to voice your opinion clearly, so people understand it.
8. Setting ‘SMART’ goals: Every training session needs objectives: people should own their learning.
9. Good judgement: Is the training session valuable to the employees and does it help the business?
10. Followthrough: Follow up with the employees on what they learned and gained from the session. Moreover, think of Gibbs’ reflective cycle.

Management Coaching Techniques: What’s In A Session?

In the end, the content of a management training session will vary, depending on what needs to be addressed, but typically it will cover:

• Introduction: The coach presents themselves and the candidate sets out their goals. Establishing an early rapport is critical.
• Goal setting: The candidate talks about their challenges and with the coach identifies areas for improvement.
• Carry out the coaching.
• Review the learnings and agree next actions.

Part VIII: Take Your Management Coaching Style to the Next Level With Making Business Matter

From his four-year study as Senior Lecturer at London Metropolitan University, Giovanni Bordone concludes that most of the time the problem is not in the management but rather in choosing the right management coaching style. So, as the HR or L&D leader in your company, are you choosing the right coaching style?

Become the best HR and L&D leader in the UK by joining our training program and discovering how we make training stick and remember to lead with action.

Now you know how to take your coaching style to the next level, let’s help you step into the world, your new world, with an action plan. Let’s make sure that you embody the best version of coaching that suits you.

We at Making Business Matter strongly support personal and professional growth. As an HR manager, L&D manager, category manager, account manager, or partner working in the UK grocery industry, we want to help you by giving you an action plan specially created for HR and L&D managers working in the UK. And that’s not all. In our training, you will learn about work-based activities, receive a roadmap for line managers to support their teams, and our 5-level evaluation (chain of evidence) to show the ROI of our training. Here’s the thing. We call what we do ‘Sticky Learning’ – that’s because it sticks!

Conclusion – We’ve Got The Answers, Now What’s The Question?

In this complete guide, you have discovered Management Coaching Styles, the different management coaching styles, management coaching styles in the workplace, coaching leadership styles, interviews with the experts, and the management coaching styles inspiration.

In part I you found out about the origins of management coaching styles, the development of management coaching styles, and the coaching management style advantages and disadvantages.

Part II showed you the different coaching styles, autocratic coaching, democratic coaching, laissez-faire coaching, holistic coaching, authoritarian coaching, vision coaching, mindful coaching, bureaucratic coaching, developmental coaching, group coaching, transformational coaching, intuitive coaching, transactional coaching, business coaching, teambuilding coaching, executive coaching, leadership development coaching, communication coaching, performance coaching, career coaching, sales coaching, life coaching, health coaching, relationship, spiritual coaching, which management coaching style is right, and the pros and cons of coaching in management.

We discovered in part III how the leadership coaching style differs from other coaching styles, the pros and cons of leadership coaching, and building a coaching culture.

In part IV you found what is the coaching style of leadership, what are the key skills of coaching leadership style, that the coaching approach is linked to emotional intelligence, how a coaching leadership style unlocks potential, what are the benefits of a coach leadership style, and how does a leader–coach improve performance.

After that, our interviews in Part V helped you to uncover an academic perspective with LMU Senior Lecturer Giovanni Bordone and the bestselling author, the Hive host and web psychologist Nathalie Nahai.

In part VI you discovered leadership coaching quotes, examples of leadership coaching in action, and key pointers to becoming the best management coach.

In Part VII you read about some key takeout points to help you bring all this to life in your business, and in Part VIII you learned how to take your management coaching style to the next level with Making Business Matter.

We hope you’ve enjoyed our Definitive Guide to Management Coaching Styles! Send us a message on LinkedIn, and we’ll send you tools, processes, and strategies on how to best cope with today’s changing work landscape. There’s no fluff, it’s all about Making Business Matter.

Action: For even more useful content on coaching, check out our ultimate guide on Coaching Skills.

Updated: June 2024 by Charles Smith