Everyone knows that coaching employees is necessary for their own growth and the success of your company. And of course you should manage them and lead them as well. Or should you? Is there a difference between coaching employees, managing employees and leading employees? In my opinion, yes, though the lines are often blurred. One of my mentors defined coaching as a matter of re-teaching, reminding, re-whatevering people of things they already know or should have been paying greater attention to earlier in life. The other part of coaching is awakening people to what they were never previously taught, the 2 and 2 they never were shown add up to 4. It’s a perfect definition in my opinion. Managing is a ‘here’s how you do it’ function, and leading is a ‘there’s the goal; how you get there is up to you/us’ function. Subtle difference for sure and the terms are often used interchangeably. While both managing and leading could include coaching, coaching does not include managing or leading. How do you know whether you should be coaching, managing or leading employees? First, it will depend on the role and responsibility level of the employee. The more senior their position the more likely you are to coach or lead rather than manage. Junior folks need more direction till they develop the requisite skills. It also depends on the issue that occurred or skills that need developing. For example, how to communicate more effectively is best handled through coaching. Teaching someone to create a business plan is a management function. But recognize that in the lifetime of any employee you will be dividing your time between coaching, managing and leading. Coaching employees is the most difficult as it requires time, patience, practice and dedication from both parties. You may even find that you have to coach employees on your not managing them. This means getting them to think for themselves, to take risks, to recognize what needs doing and figure out how to do it. You want to lead rather than manage them, and that happens through coaching. I bet by now you’re totally confused. What I want you to take from this article is that effective coaching allows you to spend more time leading rather than managing. With time being a commodity we can’t create more of, think how much you’ll save if you lead more and manage less.   © 2014 Incedo Group, LLC