COACHING SKILLS - THE TROJAN HORSE EFFECT

One of the first questions we ask any organisation thinking about investing in coaching skills is - why? Occasionally the answer is focused and tactical, something around helping leaders to have better career conversations or to manage performance more effectively. Often the answer is more strategic. For example, program objectives may include breaking down siloes between functions to help the organisation be more effective. Or it may be about elevating the capacity of whole levels of leadership in order to improve staff engagement. Or it may be about preparing leaders for senior executive roles.

We get excited by these strategic imperatives. Some people think of coaching very specifically, as specific types of conversations, to have in quite specific circumstances. Coaching, through this lens is a narrow subset of leadership. We don't think of coaching in this way. We think great coaches know how to engage in great dialogue and that this capacity to engage in dialogue sits at the heart of leadership.

What do we mean by dialogue? Dialogue, as defined by William Isaacs, is a particular type of conversation. When we engage in dialogue we suspend our dearly held beliefs, preconceptions, and prejudices, enabling us to see the world through another's eyes. This is far from easy, because we can only suspend our dearly held beliefs, preconceptions, and prejudices if we know what they are. To engage in dialogue requires a shift in mindset and super-high levels of self-awareness. When we engage in dialogue we don't just ask questions. We also share what is going on for us, we provide feedback. We provide feedback without judgment. To successfully navigate judgment again requires that we understand how we operate, that we are again super-self aware. Anyone who is great at dialogue will be a great coach. Yes, we share models like GROW and CLEAR etc ... not as skills, but as simple structures that are sometimes useful in helping us navigate a conversation.

If to be a great coach is to be great at dialogue, then to be a great coach is to be a great leader. The principal role of a leader is to influence change through relationship. Traditional models of change suggest we can make change happen by issuing instructions, by being super charismatic and persuasive. The leader is brilliant and smart, works out what needs to happen and sells their beliefs into the organisation as a whole.

Contemporary theories of change recognise that this model doesn't work when the world is complex and fast moving. The world is too complex for one smart person to figure it all out. And people are not compliant, they make their own minds up about what is going on. So the new leader is happy knowing that they can't come up with solutions by themselves, and happy they don't get to control change. They know that great solutions emerge when people share perspectives and listen to each other. They know that they can - and do - influence outcomes. They achieve this through being great at dialogue and thinking 'systemically' - working out who needs to be engaged in conversation with who.

So when we help our leaders to become better coaches, we help them to become better at dialogue, thereby helping them to get better at the very essentials of leadership. Boom! Isn't that exciting?

If you'd like to discuss more - drop us a line at [email protected].