Of course coaches need technical qualifications! In fact, a key factor in cementing a bond of respect between you and your employees is deeply rooted in your competence. There is this curious opinion held by some misinformed souls that coaches are placed in managerial positions by rote. That is, they are somehow interchangeable and solely on the job to inspire their staff to perform and to achieve at the highest levels possible. These misguided minions see coaches as merely inspirational talking heads put in positions of authority to deliver motivational speeches and offer “you can do it” encouragement to employees.

Ah, but the truth is, coaches need to know all the ABCs of the department they're managing — and then some. This is common sense and applies to managers of all stripes, including those dinosaurs. For a moment, imagine laboring in the engineering department of a company supervised by a manager whose educational expertise lies in social work.

Suffice it to say, there's not going to be a whole lot of respect and trust for this particular person emanating from a staff of trained engineers. How could they possibly admire and follow the lead of a manager who tells them what to do and grades their performances, but doesn't know beans about the technical intricacies of engineering?

Because coaching utilizes performance plans and regular measurement of performance, it's more than imperative that coaches display technical competence in the areas they manage. In fact, they should exhibit more than mere competence, but a great deal of expertise. They should have the intellectual and educational capacities to fully comprehend all that's going on around them and all that characterizes the various performance results of their employees.

The coach should have know-how that she can pass on to her employees. She should be able to detect mistakes. She should be ready to alter course at a moment's notice based on her vast knowledge of what needs to be accomplished and how best to get there.