Treating Your Employees as Adults

Hiring someone is just the start. How you develop them determines whether they grow into a high-performing team member or just another person clocking in for a paycheck. Here’s where small business owners often get stuck: they think they’re “training” their people, but what they’re actually doing is babysitting them.

The Difference

Training is about teaching a specific skill or process – it’s a one-way street. “Here’s how we do it, step by step. Follow this.” You need training when someone is new to a role, a process has changed, or a technical skill is missing.

Coaching, on the other hand, is about helping someone think, solve problems, and make decisions independently. It’s less “do this” and more “how would you approach this?”. It builds ownership.

The trap many owners fall into is assuming more training will fix every performance gap. But often, the problem isn’t that people don’t know what to do – it’s that they’re not taking responsibility for doing it. That’s why coaching is important.

Treating Employees Like Adults Matters

Micromanaging, constant hand-holding, and spoon-feeding decisions might feel safe in the short term, but they kill initiative. When employees feel trusted, they rise to the challenge. When they feel controlled, they do the minimum to avoid getting in trouble.

There’s also psychology at play here: self-determination theory shows that people are more motivated when they have autonomy, mastery, and purpose in their work. Coaching taps into all three.

A Real-World Example

A café owner had a team member, Jess, who was constantly asking what to do next. The owner assumed Jess just needed more training, so they went over the coffee-making, cleaning, and closing procedures again. No change.

When we switched to a coaching approach, the owner started asking: “If you were me, what would you do next to get ready for the lunch rush?”.

At first, Jess hesitated. But after a few weeks, she was anticipating tasks, prioritising them, and even suggesting menu tweaks to speed up service. She didn’t just know what to do; she owned it.  

How to Blend Training and Coaching in Your Business

·       Start with training to set the baseline – the what and how.

·       Shift to coaching as soon as possible - the why and what next.

·       Give feedback like you’d want it yourself – direct, respectful, and aimed at improvement, not ego.

·       Measure success not by how little they need you, but by how confidently they can act without you.

When you stop treating employees like children who need constant oversight and start treating them like capable adults, you get more capable adults. It’s that simple. And the bonus? You free yourself from the day-to-day grind because you’ve built a team that can think for itself.