Understanding and Employing the Coaching Leadership Style

All too often in the modern business world, we focus on immediate results and taking quick, decisive action. We want results now, which keeps us focused almost entirely on the present moment. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it ignores the benefits that can be experienced by developing people for the future, even if that future isn’t clear right now.

The workplace climate is critical when it comes to developing and maintaining employee engagement and excellence, and there is a lot to be said for a leader’s ability to help individual team members excel on a personal level. This type of leader is rare, but they can do more than other types of leaders to cultivate and nurture a winning environment in the workplace.

The type of leader we’re talking about here is a Coaching Leader. This coaching style emphasizes ongoing feedback and motivation, and it recognizes that there’s more to success in business than the bottom-line results that show up on reports. Coaching Leaders understand that people are the core of any organization, and by developing those people, leaders can build teams that continually strive for excellence.

The problem is that this style doesn’t come easily to a lot of people who are charged with leading in the modern business world. And for many organizations, the emphasis on what can be done right now leaves little room for exploring the possibilities for team members months or even years down ahead.

However, those organizations that value the Coaching style — and understand how it should be integrated — experience better bottom-line results over time, even if the efforts of Coaching Leaders don’t bear immediate tangible results.

If the Coaching style resonates with you, you might be wondering how you can implement it more fully and effectively within your organization. Your ability to coach your team can be a real difference maker!

If it doesn’t feel natural to you, it’s important to understand that it can bring enormous benefits if you’re willing to learn how to employ it when the time is right.

What Coaching Leaders Bring to the Table

Some of the key benefits of the coaching leadership style include:

• A positive, measurable — if not immediate — impact on overall performance
• An ability to delegate effectively
• Uncovering the hidden talents and abilities possessed by team members
• An understanding of the true potential of team members
• The ability to build trust and engagement among employees
• Employees of Coaching Leaders are known for “rising to the challenge”

For a number of reasons, this style isn’t used as often as other leadership styles even though the proven benefits are highly impactful. That doesn’t mean that adopting the style will have an absolute, positive impact on the organization and in some cases, coaching leaders can be highly ineffective as their style may not match the needs of the individual or team in question.

For example, when employees are content with their current situations and they have little to no interest in personal development, the Coaching style will be challenged to meet the needs of that employee.

Coaching Leadership — What Does it Look Like?

In an ideal scenario, the Coaching Leadership style might look something like this:

Riley has a strong vision for the Marketing Research team that he leads. He understands the “big picture,” and he can see how the development of his team will improve performance not only in his division, but for the company as a whole. He knows his team members well as individuals, too, and can picture each one of them realizing his or her ultimate potential.

Riley’s focused on getting results and making things happen on a day-to-day basis; he wouldn’t be in charge of his team if that weren’t the case. But he also knows that the success of his team is largely tied to the potential that they have yet to realize. So he coaches them and offers ongoing feedback so they can deliver results and achieve their personal, professional goals.

One specific employee, Catherine, is upset by budget cuts that prevent the team from employing as many research resources as needed. Catherine clearly wants the best for the company, but also has the desire to achieve personal satisfaction in ensuring the initiative is a success. Riley notices that Catherine is upset and needs to deal with this situation head on.

So what does Riley do?

He approaches Catherine not as a boss, but as a coach who understands the scenario and feels the frustration she is experiencing and shows empathy and understanding. Riley also knows that the real issue with his employee is that she isn’t being challenged enough in her current role so perhaps it’s time for her to go after that promotion and take on greater responsibility.

Even though it doesn’t help his division directly, Riley understands that engaged employees who are working up to their potential are the engine of the organization, so he coaches Catherine on ways she can secure the promotion and develop herself within the company.

This is the essence of Coaching Leadership!

6 Tips for Leveraging the Coaching Leadership Style

1. Recognize when employees are ready for coaching, and when they are better left to their own devices
2. Understand that Coaching Leadership is ineffective when employees are unwilling to learn or develop
3. Examine how individual employees fit into your big-picture vision — what can you do to guide them to their potential?
4. Develop a habit of giving offering ongoing feedback and coaching to people through learning opportunities and experiences vs. punishing them
5. Honestly assess your own expertise — are you coaching your people from a place of real authority and knowledge?
6. Make sure your people know that your leadership represents an investment in them as individuals — you truly believe in them!

Awareness of your own tendencies as a leader is critical. Check in with yourself from time to time and be sure you’re keeping an eye on long and short-term objectives so you can ensure that you’re employing the Coaching Leadership style when it is most likely to be effective.

Coaching a Team of Achievers

Whether the style comes naturally to you or not, Coaching Leadership is essential to a successful, well-balanced organization. The style is extraordinary at helping leaders get results and move closer to their ultimate vision and achieving bottom line results.

What are your thoughts? Do you employ this style? Have you been afraid to use this style because of its lack of emphasis on immediate results? I’d love to hear what you think!

Stay tuned — next time we’ll be tackling the Coercive Leadership style. You don’t want to miss it!

‍