Coaching managers through change
A leader supports the managers who report to them through their teams' transitions (growth, reorganisation, loss) with coaching questions in place of answers, and with sponsorship in place of protection.
Evidence grade: practice A widely adopted practitioner model with clear provenance.
Use it when
Whenever a manager who reports to you faces a situation they have not met before.
Where it stops working
The whole difficulty is the line between coaching and rescuing. The leader crosses it the moment they take the decision themselves instead of developing the manager's.
Where the standard uses it
- PL-6Leading through leadersSelecting, developing, and holding accountable the managers who report to you.
Sources
- Lara Hogan. Resilient Management. A Book Apart, 2019. In the bibliography
Used alongside it
- Managing managers practice
- Readiness practice
- Sizing teams and spans practice
- Task-relevant maturity practice
- The one-on-one as the report's meeting practice
- What good managers do research
Cite this model
Chicago, BibTeX and licence →Engineering Management Academy. (2026). Coaching managers through change. In Engineering Management Academy Body of Knowledge (Version 3.1, TEC.coaching-managers-through-change). https://www.engineeringmanagement.academy/body-of-knowledge/techniques/coaching-managers-through-change