Coach-leadership vs conventional (command-and-control) leadership

What is coach-leadership?

Coach-leadership is a leadership style that brings 3 potent practices together:

1. the principles of coaching mastery
2. infused with the latest scientific and industry knowledge about human behaviour, for example motivation and productivity, and
3. progressive leadership practices, like servant leadership or transformational leadership

What makes this combination so powerful is that it builds and protects a culture that is supportive, collaborative and unlocks the individual’s own desire to grow, excel and contribute in ways that prove to be collectively beneficial for the team and the organisation.

What is conventional leadership?

Under conventional leadership I have grouped a whole range of leadership styles including untrained, made-up, copied, transactional, highly directive and command-and-control.

Conventional leadership vs coach-leadership

Where conventional leadership approaches emphasise directive and control-based methods, coach-leadership is all about empowering your team members — direct reports, peers, customers, and even your boss —?empowering them to design their own approaches, as appropriate to the situation.

So, instead of being prescriptive about how to do something as in conventional leadership styles, a coach-leader would ask,?

“How do you think we should tackle this?”

For Coach-Leaders, the best outcome is when team members design their own approach to a task or project they are given because it means they more fully own ALL the aspects that come up — designing their approach, solving issues, improving processes to avoid obstacles in the future, and growing from their personal learning curve.?

Directive and control-based leadership is disempowering

Directive and control-based leadership (command-and-control) often means leaders will step in and fix stuff — something I see most leaders doing — which, while it might feel like the only option when things go wrong, is massively disempowering of our people, as well as poor use of leadership time.?

As well as creating bottlenecks (which are a risk), they are basically saying to their team member,?

“I don’t trust you to do this work.”?

It can result in the team member experiencing a complete loss of confidence and for sure a detachment from the work and its outcomes and results.?

Once trust is breached, it’s a hard place to come back from.?

And, when these limiting behaviours happen repeatedly, it can have serious consequences, like team dysfunction and people leaving.

Coach-leadership reinforces and supports ownership

By comparison, Coach-Leaders stand alongside the person who owns the approach (their direct report for example) and supports them through enquiry, deep listening for things they say and don’t say, the person’s choice of words, their body language and energy, etc. and by stress-testing ideas collaboratively, to work out how the person is going to resolve a problem.?

Coach-Leaders ask these types of questions:

“What have you thought about doing to resolve this?”

“What are the risks/limitations of taking that approach?”

“What do you need from me to clear the path?”

“How can I best support you to do that?”

That’s how Coach-Leaders place the person at the centre of the solution. These questions signal and reinforce to the person that the coach-leader trusts them to come up with the best approach.?

Don’t Coach-Leaders also need to be directive??

Yes, of course they do.

But they replace control-based approaches with coaching techniques to amplify the team member’s motivation, ownership and personal gain.

Sometimes, it’s better if you don’t have the answers

For Coach-Leaders, this is about doing LESS heavy lifting. You don’t always have to have the answers. Sometimes, it’s better if you don’t.

I’ve had many leaders come and back and report that when they’ve taken this approach, they’ve been blown away. Their direct report came up with solutions they never would have thought of.

That’s innovation.

That’s ownership.

That contributes to growing the capability of your team.

The more your direct report is spending time exploring — in a safe, supportive space — exploring their different ideas, the stronger the solution and the greater their emotional attachment towards the best outcome.

BINGO!

This is how accountability comes about.

Sehaam Cyrene PCC — The COACH/LEAD? Coach

I teach leaders and leadership teams to use powerful coaching skills from one conversation to the next.?

COACH/LEAD? is my liberating leadership style that best equips leaders for today's challenges and a healthier working world.

My CPD Certified Programme, Leaders Who Coach? is 5-Star Rated with 10/10 NPS by graduating leaders at Accenture, Amplience, bol.com, Buffer, Cancer Research UK, Claranet, elastic, ESB Networks, JP Morgan Chase, Moo, Publicis Sapient, Recycleye, Sainsbury's, Thales, Vortexa and more. "Transformational!" "Game-changer!" "Secret sauce to high-performing businesses."

My Better Conversations Rulebook: Questions & Phrases Practised Daily by Leaders Who Coach? is an Amazon #1 Best Seller.

Need my help? Book your Discovery Call .