How and why do managers use coaching skills?

While the evidence base for coaching has been increasing rapidly in the past decade, relatively little is known about how managers coach, what approaches they use, the purposes for which they use coaching and the benefits they experience. This paper provides a brief overview of the coaching literature in relation to the managerial context, outlines the method used in the research reported here, summarises the findings of a survey conducted among Australian managers in March 2012 to explore the above questions, draws conclusions and makes recommendations for further research. Whilst a coaching approach might be initially challenging and time-consuming to adapt, the range of reported benefits suggests that it results in positive outcomes for managers, employees and their organisations.