Manager as Coach Assessment
Evaluate your coaching capability as a manager across the five dimensions that determine whether you develop, engage, and retain your team.
Purpose: Research shows that the manager-as-coach model produces significantly better outcomes than the manager-as-director model: teams coached rather than managed report higher engagement, lower turnover, and faster capability development (Gallup, 2025; DDI, 2025). This assessment helps managers identify where their coaching is already effective and where specific development will produce the biggest improvement.
Instructions: Rate each statement from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree) based on your actual behaviour in conversations with your team — not your intention or aspiration. The most useful results come from honest self-assessment.
1.Coaching Mindset
Coaching starts with a belief: that your team members have the capacity to find their own answers, and that your job is to develop that capacity rather than provide solutions.
I genuinely believe that my team members can solve most of their own problems, and I hold back from providing answers even when I have them
I approach 1-to-1 conversations with genuine curiosity about what the other person needs, rather than a pre-set agenda or solution
I give team members space to learn from difficulty and setback rather than rescuing them or fixing problems on their behalf
I consider developing others to be a core and essential part of my leadership role — not an optional extra when I have time
2.Active Listening
Coaching conversations require a quality of attention that most managers have not been trained to develop — listening to understand, not to respond.
In coaching conversations, I listen significantly more than I speak — I do not dominate the conversation
I resist the urge to finish sentences, complete thoughts, or redirect the conversation while the other person is still processing
I notice and respond to the emotional undercurrent of a conversation — not just the facts being shared
After coaching conversations, the people I have coached typically say they feel genuinely heard and understood
3.Powerful Questioning
A powerful question opens up thinking rather than closes it down. It creates insight rather than confirming what the coach already believes.
I ask questions that make the other person genuinely think, rather than questions with an obvious right answer
I use open, exploratory questions — beginning with 'What', 'How', or 'What if' — rather than leading or yes/no questions
My questions help people access their own knowledge and perspective, rather than signalling what I think they should do
I am comfortable sitting with silence after asking a question, rather than filling the space with another question or my own answer
4.Feedback & Feed-Forward
Effective coaching feedback is specific, behavioural, honest, and forward-looking. It develops capability rather than just evaluating performance.
I give specific, behavioural feedback tied to observable actions — not vague impressions or character judgements
I give honest, constructive feedback even when it is uncomfortable or the other person may not want to hear it
I actively seek feedback on my own leadership and coaching effectiveness — I do not only give feedback, I also receive it
I balance backward-looking feedback with forward-looking conversations about development and growth opportunities
5.Goal-Setting & Accountability
Coaching produces change when it results in clear, committed actions and a structure for following through. Without accountability, insight rarely becomes behaviour change.
I help team members set specific, meaningful development goals rather than accepting vague aspirations
I follow up on goals and commitments in a way that feels supportive and developmental rather than policing
I co-create action plans with my team members rather than prescribing steps for them to follow
At the end of every coaching conversation, there is a clear, committed next step that both of us are aware of