Visualize this: you and your team meet all your goals for the quarter and when the final numbers are announced, you get drenched with a cooler of Gatorade and then lifted on to the shoulders of your best team members to the roaring cheers of your adoring fans. While that scenario is not likely to happen in a convenience store environment, you can still aspire to the greatness of a winning coach.
Traits of an Effective Coach
It’s not one thing you do that makes you a coach instead of a boss, it’s the collective relationship you have with your team. Here are some traits of an effective coach contrasted with related characteristics of an ineffective boss.
- Coaches are committed to a productive work environment, while bosses expect commitment even in a toxic workplace.
- Coaches listen more than they speak; bosses give orders and ignore feedback.
- Coaches show how it’s done, while bosses only know how it’s done.
- Coaches work to productively and proactively resolve conflict; bosses avoid conflict until it becomes a crisis.
- Coaches implement change, while bosses resist change (unless the change was their idea in the first place).
- Coaches bring people together toward a common goal; bosses move others toward only their own self-serving goals.
- Coaches invest time and money in training; bosses think the only important time is game time.
- Coaches work to uncover weaknesses within a team, while bosses only deal with surface symptoms caused by teamwork challenges.
- Coaches depend on trust and accountability; bosses depend on fear and authority.
Manager Training to Turn a Boss into a Coach
Our convenience store manager training delivers valuable training topics, such as Coaching, Leading and Inspiring Store Managers, and the Importance of Being a Role Model that are tailored specifically to your assistant managers, store managers, and district managers. Click here for more information.
