Let's talk about a "Leader As a Coach"

With the world of working changes taking place expectations from leaders are changing. The old days of directing a team , issuing instructions and waiting for work to be done are long gone. There is a growing need for leaders to lead their teams differently. One of the growing expectation is for leaders to adopt a coaching approach.

The rational for this shift is that as a manager you can't have all the answers, because of the rapid changing nature of the world of work. So your role has changed to that of supporting and guiding as compared to that of command and control.

With this, more and more companies are investing in training their leaders as coaches. So what is the expectation from you as a coach? In essence it means as a leader you don't provide answers, instead you ask questions. You provide support to your team members instead of judging and evaluating them, and you facilitate their development instead of telling them what to do.

This is a complete shift from what has been a norm in leading. The only problem is that an unrealistic expectation is created that leaders must be always be coaches and that all situations and team members will benefit from coaching. Not all employees or situations require coaching.

As a leader you need to know what situations require coaching and adjust your style accordingly.

Imagine a new team member recently graduated and working for the first time and working on a project they have never worked on before. What are the chances that your coaching questions will help that team member? NONE. It is more likely that your well-meaning coaching questions might frustrate this team member.

Now picture a team member, who has been with a company for long has demonstrated competence in assigned projects before. This employee might receive your coaching questions well and thrive from them.

The above two examples indicate that your decision on whether to coach or not to coach is dependent on two things: the needs of the individual team member you are dealing with and the situation they are dealing with.

Depending on these two elements you then decide on the leadership style to match to the situation you are dealing with. That ladies and gentleman is what we call being a situational leader or coach.

This approach helps you not to over-supervise or under-supervise. You provide the level of support that your team member needs. You are directive when the team member and the situation needs that and you are supportive when the team member and the situation needs that.

Most coaching training does not address this critical element. The training equip leaders with great coaching skills and processes and leaves out the practical element of how and when the skillset can be used. It's like buying a hammer and learning to use the hammer without learning when do you use it (not a great analogy, but you know what I mean). The result is we have a lot of leaders trained as coaches but with little coaching happening. So how do we get you to be comfortable to coach your team and meet their needs?.

Here is an easy guide, team members with low competence and and highly engaged and committed will benefit more from your directive leadership approach, that means being clear what needs to be done, how it must be done and the timelines required. On the other side of the continuum is where you coach. Team members that are highly experienced and that can benefit from coaching.

What coaching conversations can you have?

There are multiple coaching conversations you can have with your team members, here is an example of common coaching that happens in the workplace:

1. Coaching for Breakthrough - This is conversations where you support your team members to achieve a breakthrough toward their goal
2. Coaching for alignment - The intention of this coaching is to gain alignment and agreement for your goals
3. Coaching for checkin and feedback - The intention is this conversation is conversations is to assess progress and provide feedback.

So today I have tried to help you make your role as a coach easier. I have shared with you how you can determine situations that require you to coach and shared with you common coaching conversations you can have with your team members. You are welcome !

Key message for leaders, it great to have coaching skills, however you need to know when to coach, not all situations require coaching. Please share your experience on your journey as a coach. What tips can you share?

I am a Leadership Development and Career Coach. All the models and approaches I share with you, I have used and sometimes I am currently using in my practice. Feel free to reach-out should you need support in your journey towards becoming a great a great coach to your team.