Unlocking Excellence: The Power of Coaching Leadership in Performance
Everyone, regardless of their role or tenure, has opportunities to grow and contribute more to their team and organisation. Coaching for performance has been proven to enhance sales, profit, customer experience, and employee engagement. It also allows leaders to consistently measure and improve employee performance, fostering regular discussions that adapt to the evolving needs of organisations and industries.
Coaching leadership style is defined by the leader’s ability to see the strengths and weaknesses of individual team members so that the leader can help each individual grow and succeed. It involves leaders taking on the role of coaches, dedicating time to develop individual team members, providing continuous feedback, setting goal-oriented objectives, and offering mentorship. This approach focuses on long-term growth, professional development, and aligning individual contributions with broader team strategies for overall organizational success.
Characteristics of a coaching leadership style
Creating mentor-mentee relationships
Coaching-style leaders are great at creating mentor-mentee relationships with their team members, giving each individual a unique path to thrive truly. A good mentor possesses credibility in the mentee’s field and leadership skills so that they can tailor guidance to individual needs, assess progress, and adjust teaching methods. A genuine desire to help the mentee reach their potential and strong communication skills are key for successful mentorship, fostering open discussions about the mentee's development and goals.
Understanding your people
Coaching-style leaders excel in the art of giving constructive feedback tailored to enhance the specific talents of individuals. This focused guidance is instrumental in goal achievement and instils the confidence needed to tackle new projects or address complex problems. The emphasis is not only on pointing out areas for improvement but also on recognizing and nurturing strengths, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and achievement within the team.
Clear goal setting
Focusing on short and long-term goal setting helps mentees and team members feel the fulfilment of short-term wins while building the skill sets needed to gain traction on long-term goals personally and professionally. To keep your eye on both kinds of “prizes,” you should work with your fellow leaders on identifying just what those long-term goals will be.
Personality and characteristics
Some characteristics of a coaching leadership style include:
● Compassion: Showing empathy and understanding towards team members' challenges and aspirations.
● Self-awareness: Leaders recognise and understand their strengths, weaknesses, and impact on others.
● Collaboration: Fostering teamwork and involving team members in decision-making processes for collective success.
● Encouragement: Motivating and uplifting team members to boost morale and performance.
● Communication: Clear and effective exchange of information to facilitate understanding and alignment within the team.
Coaching in Performance Improvement
Role of coaching in enhancing individual and team performance
Coaching-style leaders boosts team and individual performance by improving self-awareness, understanding others, refining communication, and enabling effective coaching. Leaders gain insights into their roles, comprehend team perspectives, and drive overall success through coaching, making it a key factor for exceptional leadership and improved performance.
How coaching differs from traditional performance management approaches:
Leadership coaching, distinct from traditional management, emphasises nurturing identified individuals' innate leadership potential. It focuses on developing soft skills such as interpersonal communication and delegation, fostering the ability to inspire and lead teams.
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In contrast, traditional management, within a performance management system, aims at improving job-related skills and providing general training for overall job performance enhancement. It is a more generalised approach whereas a coaching style of leadership is more personalised and fosters more positivity among employees both toward work and interpersonal relationships.
What coaching can help performance improvement?
Three important factors be recognised when coaching for performance improvement:
●????? Identifying Performance Gaps Through Coaching: this gap cannot be recognised through a general management approach and is hence easier to close.
●????? Customizing Coaching for Performance Goals: tailored goals can give you better results overall.
●????? Actions between coaching sessions: through regular check-ins, any issues can be helped and resolved to get individuals closer to their goals.
Case study highlighting successful coaching interventions in performance improvement
In one of my recent coaching sessions, I came across a situation where my mentee, Tom, did not realize the nature of his assignment was to make a change quicker. He had a longer-term horizon in his mind than the stakeholders. This was reflected when he did not adopt a progressive approach to fixing the business problems. Through coaching, he identified the gap between the expectations of the stakeholders and his understanding of the same. This eventually helped him be in alignment with stakeholders.
Thus, to my understanding, a leadership coaching style is not only useful for a bad performer. It is equally beneficial for someone who performs well and aims to thrive. Performance is not black & white, it is a spectrum. And as leaders, it is our responsibility to ensure that we’re helping push each individual towards their goals.
Call-for-actions
In conclusion, a coaching leadership style is integral for fostering individual and team performance by focusing on personalized development, effective communication, and continuous improvement. ?As you approach year-end conversations with your team, consider applying coaching principles to enhance engagement and goal achievement. I invite readers to share their coaching experiences and insights in the comments, fostering a collaborative space for learning and leadership development.
List of Sources:
https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/the-six-principles-of-leadership-coaching/
Head of Finance - Middle East, Turkey & Africa for Unilever Out of Home
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