More notes from Managing the Professional Service Firm…
On coaching…
- Coaching is even more important when the market for employees is constrained.
- The best management is not the most intelligent or the highest skilled, but the best at coaching. They can make people feel special and focus their talents.
- Use the Socratic method to stimulate thought.
- Senior people coaching junior people is another form of leverage.
- Maister does the math and shows it’s more profitable for managers to spend their time coaching than to do their own work.
Manager’s performance should be measured by
- the aggregate performance of the group they manage
- 360 degree feedback
He goes on to say more about managing, that he finds there’s a big difference between the duties of a professional and a manager of professionals. The entire chapter is good, but in summary managers should be…
- patient
- willing to give credit to others
- good leaders in tough times