双语哈评|Managers can’t be great coaches all by themselves
2018/7/25 8:00:00 哈佛商业评论

    

     In a utopian corporate world, managers lavish a constant stream of feedback on their direct reports. This is necessary, the thinking goes, because organizations and responsibilities are changing rapidly, requiring employees to constantly upgrade their skills. Indeed, the desire for frequent discussions about development is one reason many companies are moving away from annual performance reviews: A yearly conversation isn’t enough.

     有观点认为，在理想的职场中，管理者应不断向直接下属提供反馈。这之所以必要，是因为组织和职能总在快速变化，要求员工持续升级技能。很多企业逐步取消年度绩效评估，部分原因是希望更频繁地进行绩效讨论——每年一次显然不够。

     In the real world, though, constant coaching is rare. Managers face too many demands and too much time pressure, and working with subordinates to develop skills tends to slip to the bottom of the to-do list. One survey of HR leaders found that they expect managers to spend 36% of their time developing subordinates, but a survey of managers showed that the actual amount averages just 9%—and even that may sound unrealistically high to many direct reports.

     It turns out that 9% shouldn’t be alarming, however, because when it comes to coaching, more isn’t necessarily better.

     然而在现实中，不间断的指导很少见。管理者任务繁重、时间压力很大，因此“帮助下属培养技能”经常排到待办清单的最下面。一项调查显示，HR 领导者希望管理者拿出36%的时间培养下属。但另一项针对管理者的调查显示，这个比例平均只有9%，而在很多员工看来，这也很难达到。

     不过根据一项研究，9%的比例或许并不算低。对于辅导员工，并不是投入的时间越多越好。

     To understand how managers can do a better job of providing the coaching and development up-and-coming talent needs, researchers at Gartner surveyed 7,300 employees and managers across a variety of industries; they followed up by interviewing more than 100 HR executives and surveying another 225. Their focus: What are the best managers doing to develop employees in today’s busy work environment?

     为了解管理者如何更好地提供指导、帮助员工成长，Gartner的研究人员调查了来自多个行业的7300名员工和管理者，并采访100多名HR高管、调查225名HR高管。研究者的关注重点是：在当下繁忙的工作环境中，最佳管理者如何培养员工？

     After coding 90 variables, the researchers identified four distinct coaching profiles:

     研究者总结出90项要素，并归纳了四种指导员工的风格：

    

     Teacher Managerscoach employees on the basis of their own knowledge and experience, providing advice-oriented feedback and personally directing development.Many have expertise in technical fields and spent years as individual contributors before working their way into managerial roles.

     “教师型”管理者依据自身的知识和经验指导下属，提供的反馈以建议为主，并亲自指导员工的学习和发展。很多这类管理者具备技术专长，在成为管理者之前多年进行独立工作。

     Always-on Managersprovide continual coaching,stay on top of employees’ development, and give feedback across a range of skills. Their behaviors closely align with what HR professionals typically idealize. These managers may appear to be the most dedicated of the four types to upgrading their employees’ skills—they treat it as a daily part of their job.

     “全天候型”管理者持续提供指导，积极帮助员工成长，并对员工的各项能力给予反馈。这类管理者的表现很接近HR人士的期待，他们把培养员工视为日常工作的一部分，是所有类型的管理者中最投入的。

     Connector Managers give targeted feedback in their areas of expertise; otherwise, they connect employees with others on the team or elsewhere in the organization who are better suited to the task.They spend more time than the other three types assessing the skills, needs, and interests of their employees, and they recognize that many skills are best taught by people other than themselves.

     “牵线型”管理者会在自己的专业范围内提供指导，或把下属介绍给本部门或其他部门中更懂行的人。相比其他三类管理者，这类管理者用更多时间来评估员工的能力、需求和兴趣。他们认识到，很多技能更适合由其他人来指导。

     Cheer leader Managers take a hands-off approach,delivering positive feedback and putting employees in charge of their own development. They are available and supportive, but they aren’t as proactive as the other types of managers when it comes to developing employees’ skills.

     “支持型”管理者采取放手态度，常给员工正面反馈，并让他们负责自己的成长。这类管理者会在员工需要时出现并提供支持，但不像其他类型的管理者那样主动。

     The first surprise: Whether a manager spends 36% or 9% of her time on employee development doesn’t seem to matter. “There is very little correlation between time spent coaching and employee performance,” says Jaime Roca, one of Gartner’s practice leaders for human resources. “It’s less about the quantity and more about the quality.”

     第一项意外发现：管理者拿出36%还是9%的时间指导下属，对员工绩效的影响并不大。“管理者的指导时长与员工绩效之间相关度极低，”Gartner人力资源业务负责人之一哈伊梅·罗卡(Jaime Roca)说，“质量比数量更重要。”

     The second surprise: Those hyper-vigilant Always-on Managers are doing more harm than good.In fact, employees coached by Always-on Managers performed worse than those coached by the other types—and were the only category whose performance diminished as a result of coaching.

     第二项意外发现是，极其敏感的全天候型管理者弊大于利。实际上，在所有类型中，全天候型管理者指导的员工绩效最差，而全天候型指导也是唯一产生负面影响的指导方式。

     There searchers identified three main reasons for Always-on Managers’ negative effect on performance. First, although these managers believe that more coaching is better, the continual stream of feedback they offer can be overwhelming and detrimental. (The Gartner team compares them to so-called helicopter parents, whose close oversight hampers children’s ability to develop independence.)

     研究者发现，全天候型管理者损害员工表现，主要有三个原因。第一，这些管理者认为指导越多越好，但不间断的反馈可能带来压力和伤害。这有点像“直升机父母”——他们的密切监控不利于孩子的独立。

     Second, because they spend less time assessing what skills employees need to upgrade, they tend to coach on topics that are less relevant to employees’ real needs.

     第二，全天候型管理者未能充分了解下属需要提升的技能，因此提供的指导偏离员工的实际需求。

     Third, they are so focused on personally coaching their employees that they often fail to recognize the limits of their own expertise, so they may try to teach skills they haven’t sufficiently mastered themselves. “That last one is a killer—the manager doesn’t actually know the solution to whatever the problem is, and he’s essentially winging it and providing misguided information,” Roca says.

     第三，这些管理者一心想亲自指导下属，常常认识不到自身专业上的局限，结果自己还没学好就去教别人。“最后一点最致命。管理者没弄清楚问题的答案，只能靠蒙，结果提供错误信息。”罗卡说。

     When the researchers dove deep into the connection between coaching style and employee performance, they found a clear winner: Connectors. The employees of these managers are three times as likely as subordinates of the other types tobe high performers.

     通过深入分析指导风格和员工绩效的相关性，研究人员找到了最有效的类型：牵线型管理者。这类管理者的下属成为高绩效员工的几率，是其他人的三倍。

     Tounderstand how Connectors work, consider this analogy from the world of sports:A professional tennis player’s coach may be the most important voice guiding the player’s development, but she may bring in other experts—for strength training, nutrition, and specialized skills such as serves, lobs, and backhands—instead of trying to teach everything herself. Despite this outsourcing, the coach remains deeply involved, identifying expertise, facilitating introductions, and monitoring progress.

     形象地说，牵线型管理者有点像职业网球手的教练。教练的指导对球手的进步最重要，但他不会事事亲自传授，而会引入力量、营养、具体技术(如发球、吊球、反拍击球)等方面的其他专家。尽管将部分工作外包，教练仍保持深度参与，负责寻找和聘用专业人士并监督整体训练情况。

     关于本研究 Gartner：《牵线：最佳管理者如何培养员工》(“Coaching vs.Connecting: What the Best Managers Do to Develop Their Employees Today”，白皮书)

     王晨 | 译 蒋荟蓉 | 校 万艳| 编辑

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