The Fundamentals of Leadership Coaching

The days of top-down leadership are outdated, as leaders realise that simply barking down orders isn’t effective. It’s less about being the boss and more about being the coach, the mentor, the guide – which is where leadership coaching comes in.?

So what is leadership coaching? It’s about becoming the leader who empowers the team rather than merely giving them directions. If everyone on your team is engaged and motivated, so much can be achieved. The worst performing teams tend to struggle with motivation, which directly impacts their results. A leadership coach helps you recognise your own potential while guiding you to identify and nurture the potential within your team.

Another objective of leadership coaching is to dismantle barriers by enhancing skills and self awareness in leaders. The question often arises: how does coaching contribute to leadership development? The answer is its ability to create renewed momentum in your role and open you up to more innovative and effective approaches to leadership.??

The Role of Leadership Coaches?

In Agile work environments, where change is part and parcel of how we work, leadership coaching is essential for helping leaders become more adaptable through greater self-awareness. Good leadership coaches tailor their support to each individual helping them to evolve and sharpen their skills in a way that suits them.?

Leadership coaches aren’t there to give you all the answers. Instead, they help you find the answers by asking tough questions that force you out of your comfort zone, build confidence, and challenge you to think differently. When it comes to how coaching advances leadership development, it’s about receiving the guidance needed to make purposeful, confident decisions that drive you and your team feel perform at their best.?

The Importance of Self-Awareness and Adaptability

Self-awareness is the foundation of great leadership because it is the only way to know your strengths and weaknesses and understand how your actions affect your team. Leaders are often so busy they often lack the time to reflect on their leadership style. Yet, this reflection is crucial so as not to miss development opportunities or overlook problems that require attention.?

Leadership coaching is important because it helps you become more flexible and more responsive to changes in the team and external changes impacting your organisation. When you have this more Agile mindset, you can pivot when necessary. Coaching supports leadership development by equipping leaders with strategies to adapt, stay focused, and effectively approach problems.

Agile Practices in Leadership Coaching

Agile practices like Kanban boards and retrospectives are useful ways to track your progress so you can see how you’re improving and effectively monitor your leadership development in real time. The satisfaction of seeing your progress displayed as a journey on Kanban boards helps motivate you, and retrospectives encourage you to reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and how you can do better next time.?

At each interval, you could focus on a specific leadership-orientated topic, such as improving listening skills. A leader open to growth must be open to feedback. By listening to colleagues, understanding their challenges and observing how they respond to feedback, you can gain valuable insights about yourself as a leader. This awareness allows you to adjust your style based on the situation and individual.

The Impact of Your Leadership Approach

Leadership coaches act as business mentors, willing you to be at the top of your game. As a leader, your decisions and actions impact not only your team but also the entire organisation. Consider the interdependencies, connections and potential obstacles to ensure you develop the best plan.?

The Wider Impact

Why is leadership coaching important in decision-making? Because it focuses on encouraging leaders to think broadly and consider the wider impact of their decisions. For example, how will a decision regarding the IT department impact marketing, customer services, sales and others? The focus should be on your team, but you can never be blind to ramifications beyond it. That’s why one of the top questions in your mind should be ‘what if?’ Running through these hypothetical situations might feel like a nightmare, but it will help you prepare for potential problems and give you perspective on whether to follow through based on how the effects tie back to your overall business goals.

Stability Through Change

Change projects aren’t always warmly welcomed, so when it comes to communication around this, aim to make the process feel less overwhelming. Break it down into smaller steps to ease the transition and help reduce resistance. People are naturally wired to resist change, so your leadership strategy needs to work around that. Therefore, a key part is being open to regular communication and feedback. If there are any issues, it’s best for teams to be transparent so they can be caught and addressed early.?

Make The Change

Leadership today isn’t just about getting instant results, it’s about about making a lasting impact and leading the way, inspiring others to be their best. In the words of Bill Gates, Co-Founder of Microsoft, `As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.’

Are you that type of leader? If not yet, maybe you would benefit from leadership coaching.

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Want to chat?

Jay is co-founder of?Fractal Systems?Consulting, an agile consultancy run by a group of Professional Scrum Trainers, change agents and agile delivery coaches who have deep experience and know-how in creating behavioural change.

If you’re interested in learning in a fun, application-rich environment that focuses on real-world applied approaches, register for one of our training courses.