Leadership: Teaching Vs. Coaching

The reason I chose to do this topic is that Learning and applying leadership skills is something that I am passionate about [plus an assignment is due on the same ;)], It was last month that a good team leader who was reporting to me for the previous 8 years had left for better prospects (I was content with his performance & his decisions to move on), trying to find a person to fit into his role/experience/attitude has been a challenge and it had me considering what kind of a leader was needed to fulfill the requirements of a senior research role; a Teacher or a Coach?

The 'Teacher' would be someone who would be an expert in his/her subject, who would give their team all the answers to their questions. They would be prominent and somebody at the forefront of matters. Teachers are always required, they are not replaceable and their efforts take much time, patience, perseverance, and focus would take a lot of effort and time for a commercial organization hence they tend to thrive better in an academic environment. Their focus would be on the subject, the career growth in any academic set-up would always be on the exponential phase of the learning curve adding new and advanced information and being at the top of the game

But that isn't what I was going for...I needed a '?oach', who would definitely have expertise in their field but at the same time also spend considerable time understanding their junior staff and training them on how to think, what questions must be asked, not giving the answers because that kills innovation and growth, especially in an R&D environment. They need to be able to add value even in their absence, the coaches never enter the field the play/make sure of the performance from the outside. They should blend into the team and not stand out all the time putting the focus on the team and the organization. Coaches don't need to be genius, but they should be able to identify and produce wins or showcase excellent performance.

I think Teachers would make good functional heads and large teams (picture classrooms with 36 students) due to their ability to learn and adopt new and advanced techniques but it is the Coaches who would make excellent People Leaders as they can address the weakness and strengths of the individuals and smaller teams (picture Sports Clubs/Associations).

Teachers have always been regarded in high esteem (and rightly so), but the future I dare to say belongs to the Coaches.

..What do you think of your Leadership style? Which one do you think suits your situation and function? Let us know in the comments...

A shout-out to our school Coach Mr. Christopher Doss (not sure if he is on LinkedIn) who lead our physical education requirements 1995-97 at #theindianhighschooldubai