Courageous Coaching Isn’t Easy, but It’s Your Job

Managers often give one of four reasons for not coaching their direct reports.

Last month, I got a phone call from my niece. She's a bright, talented, upbeat, and hardworking person, but she sounded deflated, angry, upset, and frustrated.

"My manager never spends time coaching me," she said. "He says as long as he's not giving me negative feedback, then I'm doing OK. I don't want to do just OK. I want to know that he cares, for him to help me get better at my job.