A regional manager answers nearly every question with a question, and their region improves faster quarter over quarter than any other in the company.
Direction tells people what to do, where coaching builds people who know how to decide.
The difference between directing and coaching is architectural. The directing leader builds a team whose ceiling is the leader’s own knowledge. Coach instead, and the team’s judgment keeps rising until it passes yours.
In multifamily operations, that coaching leader gets a different category of result. Property managers who solve problems before they escalate. Leasing teams who adjust mid-tour based on what they see. Maintenance techs who catch the pattern before it becomes a capital event. Those come from better-developed judgment.
Sir John Whitmore’s GROW model gives you a frame for it: Goal, Reality, Options, Will. What are you trying to achieve, what is the current reality, what options exist, what will you commit to next. It works in a ten-minute site-visit debrief as well as a formal review.
The regional answered every question with a question. Their region improved faster than any other because the team carried better judgment, and they built that judgment by asking instead of answering.
Coach more and direct less.
Coach your team well enough and they need you less every quarter. That is the compounding you are after. – Mike Brewer
Discussion Prompt: In your last five performance conversations, what percentage of the talking did you do versus the team member? What would change about the development outcome if you reversed the ratio?