What Routes Can Coaches Take to Go Above and Beyond for Future Leaders - Article Example

 Abstract In this article we shall summarize the five hidden roles that author Robert Barner thinks is important for a managerial coach to perform to achieve success in imparting developmental teaching to his team leaders. Further we will discuss how these hidden managerial roles help in the enhancement of a leader’s career path. The author has clearly stated that a good managerial coach is one who can perform the five hidden roles effectively. According to Robert Barner (2011), there are five hidden roles which a leader coaching manager needs to perform besides being a good listener, problem solver and a guide for future development and they are as an – Organizational translator, performance consultant, developmental assessor, cognitive mentor and brand advisor.

As an organizational translator, a manager needs to help the leader evaluate the disparities in his fundamental development which can be done by providing him a feedback of his year around performance. Barner has developed a three step crucible model which will provide leaders, especially exceptional leaders, a guide to identify the various job characteristics needed to achieve their future job target. To prove himself as a good coach a manager should guide the leader in every step of the crucible model (Barner, 2011).

As a performance consultant, a manager should ask the leader to form a developmental plan which focuses only on specific target achievement. This will not only help in the personal enhancement of the leader but also lead to organizational development. Further it will also provide a good ground for testing the capability and performance growth of the leader, and thereby enable him to focus only on a particular target rather than the whole set of targets. Thirdly, the role of a developmental assessor requires the manager to guide the leader in choosing the appropriate development task which will enable the leader to test his own capability for handling exceptional leadership challenges and will also provide him an opportunity to interact with other organizational managers.

Also as an assessor the manager should help the leader identify the distinct steps where the leader can prove his capability and thereafter provide him proper coaching and guidance in organizing the steps. The fourth role of a manager requires him to act as a good cognitive mentor for the leaders. To achieve this, he should not only state his achievements during the modeling sessions but discuss in details the decisions and actions he undertook to attain them. This will enable the leaders in understanding the reasoning and scrutiny required to be done for crucial business decisions (Barner, 2011).

Lastly, the manager needs to become the brand advisor of the leaders by providing them useful feedback on the personal image that the leaders have created in the organizations. The manager should have the capability to make a leader understand how the leader’s image is either helping him succeed or proving detrimental for his career which will help the leader in changing himself for the enhancement his career development. Further, as an advisor a manager needs to teach leaders the importance of brand migration.

In other words, he should teach the leader how important it is for him to adapt to different organizational settings and positions. By adapting, a manager should not mean changing one’s personality but the outlook through which others perceive the leader. Lastly to be a good coach, it is very crucial for a manager to teach a leader how to make his first impressions good and effective as it goes a long way in the development of his career. Thus, according to Barner (2011), if a manager can play these five hidden roles effectively, he will undoubtedly become a very successful managerial coach.

References Barner, R. (2011, June). The Five Hidden Roles of the Managerial Coach: What routes can coaches take to go above and beyond for future leaders? ASTD. Retrieved from http://www.astd.org/TD/Archives/2011/Jun/Free/Jun11_5HiddenRoles.htm