When leaders coach, they commonly make the mistake of down-playing their role as the employee's boss. This creates confusion in the employee and unproductive coaching on the part of the boss. An executive who wants to coach his employees must keep these roles clear. An executive has to be clear about the hat he wears at any given time, as a way to manage the complexity created by this dual role.

There are common pitfalls when people act as both a boss and a coach. One extreme is the boss who soft-pedals his bottom line expectations because as a coach he wants to develop his employees. A boss may try to "coach" an employee into compliance (replace the word, "coach," with "nag," "cajole," or "plead"). This faulty thinking goes something like this, "Maybe if I coach them, they'll do what I want." Coaching is not a substitute for performance management. Yet another extreme is a boss who thinks coaching means being directive and telling an employee the details of how to accomplish expectations.

Therefore, there are separate and sequential tasks a boss needs to do with any employee:

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