“I don’t have enough time for this.”
This is the most common complaint from leaders and managers who are buried under a mountain of emails, back-to-back meetings, and a constant stream of “quick questions” from their team.
But what if the lack of time isn’t the problem? What if the way your leaders and managers are “helping” is actually the very thing stealing their time?
The Problem: Being Helpful
It sounds counterintuitive, but the more a manager helps by providing answers and solving problems for their team, the less time they have for their own tasks.
When a team member comes to a manager with a dilemma, the instinctive response is to provide the solution. It’s fast, it shows expertise, and it keeps the wheels turning—or so it seems.
In reality, this creates a dependency loop. The manager becomes the “bottleneck” for every decision. The “Chief Problem Solver”. By providing the answer, the manager has unintentionally signalled that the team member doesn’t need to think deeply, they just need to ask.
As the team grows or the work becomes more complex, the volume of “quick questions” scales until the manager is doing the thinking for ten people. This is how 60-hour workweeks are born, often followed by burnout.
The Solution: Operational Coaching®
To break this cycle, managers must shift from being the “Chief Problem Solver” to the “Chief Enabler”.
The key insight is simple: Managers must stop telling and start asking. They need to not only delegate the tasks but also the ownership of the solution. They need to use the power of their questions to help their team to do their own thinking, creating insights, confidence and engagement.
But how do you do this when you’re already so busy?
The solution is to develop an Operational Coaching® style of management by becoming a Certified STAR® Manager.
This has nothing to do with formal coaching or delivering ‘sit-down coaching conversations’ that you may have come across in the past – as busy leaders and managers, you probably don’t have time for that!
Instead, it’s a style of management that happens in the flow of work—during a 30-second chat in the hallway, a quick Teams message, or a brief update during a project meeting.
Instead of saying, “Here is how you should fix that,” a Manager utilising Operational Coaching® asks, “What have you considered so far?” or “What’s the biggest obstacle in this specific part of the project?”
The Data: 20% More Time Found
Operational Coaching® is no “soft” management theory; it’s the only scientifically proven approach to management. It’s backed by rigorous data. Research conducted by the London School of Economics (LSE) evaluated managers across 62 organisations and 14 sectors who had access to the STAR® Manager programme and had been able to implement an Operational Coaching® style of management.
The findings were staggering: Managers who adopted Operational Coaching® behaviours spent 70% more time coaching than their peers.
The most fascinating part?
By simply changing how they spoke to their team, using powerful questions and an enquiry-led approach during routine interactions, they effectively offloaded the cognitive burden of problem-solving back onto their team members and won 20% of their time back to complete higher value work.
Why This Wins Back Time
When a manager uses Operational Coaching®, three things happen that give them time back:
- Reduced Interruptions: Once team members realise they will be asked to think through a solution rather than just receive one, they begin to self-solve before even approaching their manager.
- Increased Capability and Confidence: The team’s “problem-solving muscles” get stronger every day. Tasks that used to require manager oversight are quickly handled independently.
- Speed of Execution: Decisions no longer wait in the manager’s inbox. Because the thinking has been delegated, the team is empowered to move forward.
Conclusion
If you want your managers to develop higher-performing teams, increase productivity, and generate better results, don’t tell them to “find the time.” Instead, give them the tools to stop being the bottleneck. By shifting to an Operational Coaching® style, they won’t just be better leaders—they’ll finally have a calendar that belongs to them again, with the capacity to deliver higher-value work, leading a highly engaged team.
Next Steps
About Operational Coaching®
Operational Coaching® is the scientifically proven advance to coaching in the workplace that increases engagement, productivity, retention and sales.