The Difference Between Manager and Coach

Dispute resolution requires an individual to be more of a coach than a manager because managers believe they should control others to make a specific decision while coaches facilitate others to make their own decisions. This implies that managers are better in conflict management rather than in resolving them (Lumsden, Lumsden, & Wiethoff, 2010). Therefore, the managers are trained on how to make decisions and solve problems while coaches undergo training of peer mediation, which helps them to facilitate others to make their choices. Hence, the managers will push or drive people in an organization to ensure that the set goals are achieved by giving directions and orders. However, the coaches support individuals and listen to them.

Utilizing the 12 cues provided in “coach or manager” by Crane, the assessment of my previous superior would be that he was more of a coach than a manager. Having gained his promotion after working in the same department for several years, he believed that a team is only as good as its leader. As a result, he offered conciliatory forums to address internal disputes and focused more on the future prevention of unnecessary disputes or resolution of those that are likely to arise. Therefore, as a coach, he worked on several things, which included individuals’ specific issues concerning the conflict, as well as behaviors that hindered collaborative solving of the problem and relations.

With my previous being my mentor, I have followed in his footsteps in effective conflict management. As a manager, my training is geared towards facilitating conflict management and not only resolving disputes (Rahim, 2017). Thus, my assessment with the 12 cues indicates that I am a coach since I believe that the best method of managing conflict is to support others to make the right decision and that resolution of disputes facilitates the management.

References

Lumsden, G., Lumsden, D., & Wiethoff, C. (2010). Communicating in groups and teams: Sharing leadership (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Rahim, M. A. (2017). Managing conflict in organizations.

Routledge.