As a leadership coach, I definitely believe in the power of coaching. I also know that a coaching approach is one of the key tools in the modern leader’s toolkit.
Most contemporary organizations have at least some focus on innovation and creativity at every level. This requires a learning approach, but that can be difficult to foster and maintain in the classic top-down corporate structure that still plays a major part in the architecture of American companies.
The solution? I believe that at least one option good is to use a coaching method.
What Is Coaching as a Leader?
Coaching in the context of a leadership role is different from leadership coaching. As a coach, you have to enable the success of others. The way you do that is based on a number of different factors, such as your personal skill set, the challenge you face, and the individuals on your team.
In other words, coaching comes with a lot of the same challenges and requirements as other leadership skills. You have to be perceptive, versatile, and able to make good decisions based on the situation at hand.
How Coaching Differs from Direction
Coaching is different than just showing people the right way to do things. It’s about empowering them and guiding them to perform at the level at which you know they’re capable. In other words, if you’re showing someone how to do something, you’re probably not coaching that person.
The goal of coaching is to unlock potential. The goal is to motivate the other person (or people) to act in their own way to pursue your organization’s overall vision of success. Most of the energy is coming from the team, not from the coach.
In a direction setting, you are often going to find yourself telling people what to do and how to do it. This might be acceptable every once in a while, but it takes a lot of effort for you to direct people regularly.
Coaching frees up more time for you to advance your organization’s vision in the way only you can as the leader. It’s also usually more effective as a course-correct — helping people solve their own problems equips them better to handle similar challenges in the future.
What Coaches Contribute to Their Organizations
When you exercise your coaching skills as a leader, you can expect to contribute at least two things. The first is an increase in the engagement of your team, and the second is an increase in overall skill level.
Engagement is your primary contribution. As a coach, you’re getting people engaged in tackling their own issues with their own power. Skills come as a byproduct of that. People independently develop the skills they need — sometimes without even knowing it.
Coaching is for more than just executives and managers during professional development sessions. Are you ready to introduce this interactive, adaptable leadership tool into your practice?