Feedback, feedback, feedback – we expect more and more frequent feedback from managers. But why do some employees underestimate it and a large part of them not cope with its adoption? The lack of coaching skills is the reason feedback often does not fulfil its role.

Meetings between employees and supervisors are very often simply an occasion for evaluation. Quarterly, semi-annual, annual, ad hoc, quick check-in. We learn what we are doing wrong, or what “we could do better.” Boomer and Gen X managers find it hard to appreciate. They have been taught, growing up, not to expect praise for good work and not to want to ‘spoil’ the younger ones.

If managers do not have coaching skills, providing feedback, however frequent it may be, will not fulfil its role. And at stake is the ongoing productivity of our employees, who in subsequent studies tend to declare that “recognition” is one of the most important motivators for them. On the employee market, it is a game of high stakes.

The need to maintain or increase productivity is the most important reason why companies decide to start coaching programs. Coaches provide what is often missing in relationships with managers – space for reflection and pressure – free assessment of their own work, for defining barriers that an employee faces and which reduce their well-being and efficiency, for defining their own aspirations and needs and planning new approaches to difficult issues.

Effective, multi-dimensional support makes employees work smarter, more efficiently and at a higher level of quality, reduces the amount of time they spend on tasks and performs these tasks better, faster and more as a team.

The best coaching inspires and gives confidence, precisely because it concerns not only what the employee does wrong, but also what he does well, what he faces and what he needs. This broadens the perspective and personal awareness of the employee, and increases productivity at the same time. Let’s not overdo it. Coaching? I know, this is a novel idea.