As managers, one of our main missions is to know our teams, their needs, their concerns, their aspirations etc ...

We must therefore be able to but also know how to take a real interest in people, identify their skills as well as their motivators and needs.

What makes a manager coach different from an expert / operational manager?

An expert manager is recognized for his/herknowledge of the knowledge and his/her expertise.

A manager coach is known for his/her ability to truly listen and understand individuals in order to lead them towards performance and personal satisfaction.

An expert manager solves the problems of his/her teams and gives the answers. A manager coach guides, develops and asks powerful questions in order to allow individuals to find their own path and to perform.

The expectations of employees vis-à-vis the manager and the company regarding the development and recognition of their skills are increasingly strong. This now requires managers to adopt a “Manager Coach” and Positive Leadership posture. The challenges in terms of talent management and retention, skills development and team dynamics depend mainly on the ability of managers to adopt this posture. Through Positive Leadership and the Manager Coach posture, managers have the opportunity to work with levers that speak to Baby boomers and generations X as well as to generations Y and Z.

Baby boomers, Generations X Y and Z

Did you know? As of 2020 50% of the workforce consists of generations Y and Z and by 2025 it will be 75% ...

Beyond the proportions, we must understand the very specific expectations that make up this new generation: they want to be empowered and seek a challenge; they work for companies whose "purpose" they share; they value teamwork, communities; they want to be actors in their development; they can be loyal to the company if their needs are taken into account and are often more loyal to the manager than to the company. The start-up mode does not scare them, on the contrary it motivates them.

While the other (Baby boomers and Generation X) remain more in a clearly defined career logic, Generation Y considers that they can learn and progress continuously. This vision is reflected in the expectations of responsiveness towards management: the “feedback” must be immediate and continuous and they need to feel that their talent is valued as often as possible and that they are given the means to progress.

But above all they want to feel genuinely "heard", that they are going to be developed and that they will have opportunities to evolve.

As for the youngest of Generation Z, the “digital natives”, they go even further: their identity is truly multidimensional, their logic of multichannel communication, asks them to adopt an agile mode of operation vis-à-vis an organization that is still very heavy.

(source White Paper RH Mercer / Wyman 2016)

It is therefore in this context that the manager coach position takes on its full meaning, since it meets the needs of these 4 generations at the same time.

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