Coaching & Workshops
A manager who answers every question is efficient this week and expensive next year. This session builds the habit of asking instead of telling, which is the difference between a team that depends on you and one that develops.
Why it matters
Managers are usually promoted for knowing things, so answering feels like the job. It is also faster, which makes it hard to argue with in the moment. But a team that brings every question to one person cannot grow, cannot cover, and cannot be left alone.
The manager then becomes the bottleneck and, eventually, the reason good people leave. Nobody stays long in a job where the thinking is done elsewhere.
What the session covers
In the room
Noticing the moment you are about to answer, and asking instead. Simple, and hard under time pressure.
Not a framework with an acronym. A handful of questions that get someone unstuck.
Coaching someone through a decision they have no information to make is cruel. We cover where the line is.
Signs you need this
A manager who is proud of how much their team relies on them is describing a problem, usually without realising it.
If two or three of these are true you are past the point where it resolves on its own. None of them are unusual, and all of them are cheaper to fix than to wait out.
Sound familiar
Afterward
Asking before answering, which is a small habit with compounding effects.
Which is the only route to a team that can operate without one person.
Slower this week, considerably faster within a quarter.
How it runs
Any manager, particularly technically strong ones promoted for expertise. Pairs naturally with the feedback session as a full day.
Sessions run on site or virtually, and they are built around situations attendees bring rather than case studies from a textbook. You get a fixed fee before we start, and the person who scopes it is the person who delivers it.
Practicalities
Questions
No, and it should not. It gives them a coaching habit for the moments where it helps, while remaining a manager with decisions to make.
Any manager, and particularly technically strong ones promoted for expertise.
Today, yes. That is precisely why the habit does not form on its own and why it needs deliberate practice.
Half a day with practice, or a full day combined with feedback training.
That is us coaching your leaders. This is teaching your leaders to coach their people.
No, and we are not trying to produce one. This is a habit and a small set of questions, not a discipline.
Some will, and some things genuinely need an answer. We cover where the line sits, because coaching someone through a decision they lack the information to make is unkind.
The practical test is whether the manager can be away for two weeks. It is blunt and it is honest.
Related
Senior-led, delivered by the person you meet
Tell us about your managers and we will scope a session. No obligation, and we will say if one of the others fits better.
Tell us what is going on