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