Coaching and mentoring

Middle managers and supervisors, if they survive at all post re-engineering, will have to operate with less certainty and few rules. They will have to manage 'empowered' teams who expect, and can cope with, a fair degree of autonomy. 'Middle' will be less of a vertical construct (being between the senior executives and the workers) and more of a horizontal notion (managing the boundaries between different semi-autonomous groups).

Senior managers will come to rely less on an army of intermediates to carry their messages down and to prepare and report information upwards. Information technology will put senior managers in greater touch with the performance of their part of the business and they will (in theory) be able to make better informed decisions. They will also have to cope with wider spans of 'control', often managing remotely located staff.

Multi skilled, semi autonomous teams will be required to meet the relentless pressure for quality and efficiency improvement. It will become less clear 'who's in charge' as staff are encouraged to take more control themselves. They may also find themselves working in more temporary structures than at present - moving from one team to another, often working on projects rather than 'doing a job'. Staff will have to become more flexible and have to cope with a good deal more ambiguity.

False assumption 1: 'Fix their attitude'
This relies on the notion that some how if you can change peoples attitude, you will change their behaviour. In the past some Quality Training, and, more recently so called 'Empowerment' training have taken this route. It often fails for the obvious reason that attitude is inextricably bound up with environment. Attitude change will be short lived if that is all that changes.

False assumption 2: 'Fix their knowledge'.
Give managers the latest theories, case studies, and conceptual models and hope that they can convert this into new ways of working. There is, of course, no guarantee that managers can turn abstract theory into practice.

Failure 1: Lack of reinforcement.
Training is often not given the importance it deserves. Managers sent on training courses sometimes feel they have done something wrong (not that they are being invested in). Senior managers send people on courses they have not attended themselves and so cannot reinforce the messages. Often the existing working environment prevents the manager from practising the new skills.

Failure 2: Treating symptoms.
This involves identifying and trying to fix specific weaknesses. The danger is that the weakness is a symptom of a wider cause. For example, a manager who appears to make poor use of time gets sent on a time management course, while the real problems lie in the clarity of the job and its objectives.

Working with senior managers who are introducing major change. They maintain full responsibility and control of the changes, we bring experience of doing similar work elsewhere. In the early stages, the relationship can be a very intense partnership but this changes over time until we act simply as a sounding board or challenging stimulus.

Helping front line managers develop performance management skills. Systems do not improve performance, people do, and yet often companies expect new Management Information or control systems to deliver unrealistic benefits. We have found that time spent helping managers to learn what decisions and actions they can take and helping them to develop the necessary skills ensures that the systems changes deliver their benefit.

Helping managers settle in to new roles. As roles change, managers need new skills. Often they do not have time for costly external training, nor is it always appropriate. Through coaching and counselling, managers can work from their own experience while absorbing and learning how to use new skills.