The top barriers to coaching and mentoring are a lack of time, holding difficult conversations and low skill levels of those doing coaching.
Insufficient Time
Seventy-six percent of respondents indicate that there is not enough time to coach or mentor due to other priorities. On a related note, 41% report that coaching and mentoring sessions occur too infrequently.
Factors such as increasing spans of control, restrained resources and changing business priorities can all contribute to a leader prioritizing other tasks over coaching or mentoring. On the other hand, we believe that coaching and mentoring are critical portions of a manager’s job. If coaching and mentoring enhances employee performance and builds workforce competence, it should free up a leader’s time over the longterm.
Avoiding Difficult Conversations
Fifty-eight percent of respondents say their managers avoid difficult conversations, the second most widely-cited barrier. While these types of open and truthful conversations are never easy, it is worse to not have them at all. If the difficult conversation is around a performance issue, not resolving it can have a negative impact on all team members. But when done well, it can strengthen relationships, improve performance and even lead to positive life changes.
Lack of Skills Among Managers
Forty-three percent cite low skill levels of managers as a barrier to effective coaching. This may affect other areas. For example, managers may be avoiding difficult conversations because they do not know how to best approach these conversations.
By Organizational Size
Do larger, mid-sized and smaller organizations differ in any of these areas? Yes, there are a few areas of considerable difference. Respondents from larger organizations are more likely than those from small ones to report concerns about managers avoiding difficult conversations (67% vs. 57%), a lack of rewards and/or recognitions for those who excel at coaching/mentoring (49% vs 23%), and sessions that are too infrequent (50% vs. 39%).
