Why the best leaders are also great coaches (and the happiest too).

Coaching has been used in the workplace for more than twenty years and is widely recognised as a valuable tool for employee development, retention, productivity, goal achievement and leadership effectiveness. 

According to the 2020 ICF Global Coaching Study (22,457 respondents from 162 countries and territories) 55% of Managers and Leaders now use coaching skills to improve their team performance by developing individuals.

The purpose of workplace coaching is to facilitate learning, self awareness, empowered action taking and personal growth that results in performance enhancement.   

In my experience having worked with many organisations who use coaching for performance enhancement, I’ve seen the good, the bad and the downright ugly.  

At its best, it can be the single most effective performance enhancement activity that any leader does and the clear difference between high and low performing teams.  

At its worst, it can be a one-sided, fluffy, unstructured, inconsistent or high level discussion that goes nowhere and wastes everyone’s time with very few tangible outcomes to show for the investment other than a nice chat.

Here’s my take on how the best leaders embrace coaching in their roles to drive results, build engagement and develop talent:    

1.        They know coaching is not like duct tape – it doesn’t fix everything!  They recognise the different “hats” they must wear as a leader and use coaching for the right reasons.

There are different hats that a leader must wear to be effective, and coaching is just one of them.    Great leaders understand when they need to wear each of their hats and use coaching appropriately for performance enhancement conversations.   

Some of these include:

·       Managing:  directing, driving results, setting expectations, protecting from risk, task focus, taking control, creating order, getting stuff done and getting it right, performance management

·       Systems:  driving efficiency, transparency, consistency, productivity and continual improvement

·       Leading:  sharing the vision, establishing future direction, creating a strong WHY, influencing others to build an emotional connection to the organisation, communicating with clarity around strategic priorities, inspiring others to achieve

·       Training: skill building, sharing knowledge, developing capability, setting people up for success

·       Coaching: co-creating, empowering, results focused, goal achievement, supporting to implement actions, fostering independent thinking, accountability and outcome focus

2.       They use powerful questions (20%) and practice active listening (80%)

Great leaders know that it is not about how much YOU know but how much you can help the other person to know through fostering independent thought with powerful questions.  Even if you may already know the answers, it’s about leaning back and helping them to come to this point – encouraging them to do most of the talking.   This way you are teaching them to fish, rather than giving them the fish. 

Powerful questions may include:

·       Open questions

·       Probing questions

·       Closed questions

·       Reflective questions

·       Leading questions

·       Hypothetical questions

The questions are then followed up with active listening skills to demonstrate understanding:

·       Clarifying

·       Paraphrasing

·       Reflecting feelings

·       Summarising

3.       They have strong emotional intelligence, create psychological safety and bring out the best in others

Great leaders understand their people’s personality styles, drivers, motivators and stressors, strengths and challenges.   No matter what business we are in, we are all in the people business and the best coaches are the ones who understand their people first by investing in emotional intelligence.

Some of the popular tools or frameworks that support leaders in this area are:

·       DISC Workplace Personality Styles

·       DISC Leadership Personality Styles

·       Skill Will Matrix (capability vs behavioural)

·       Learning styles

·       Locus of control

·       70:20:10 learning model

·       4 Stages of competence

·       Comfort zone vs Growth Zone

·       Conflict styles

·       5 Behaviours of High Performing Teams

4.       They have a good BS radar to move through resistance

Great leaders know that when we begin focusing on stretching people to achieve new levels of success, resistance can come up in the form of excuses, reasons why it won’t work or reluctance to change.  This may stem from an underlying lack of confidence, fear of the unknown, misaligned values or beliefs, fear of failure or some other reasons that they may not readily share.

When we can recognise resistance for what it is, explore what is really sitting below the surface and then support our people through this stage into successful actions and ultimately successful habits – we create high performing individuals who achieve more than they ever realised they could.

This starts with understanding other’s BS – Belief Systems and providing a safe place to work through fears or resistance.

5.        They actually LOVE helping others to succeed

Great leaders bring a genuine positive intention to their coaching where they really want to help the other person to succeed.   They know that while we can feel a certain level of satisfaction from our own personal achievements, knowing that we have played a role in helping others to succeed brings a whole new level of satisfaction.   

You can’t fake a positive intention and wanting to help another person succeed – it’s either there or it isn’t, and it is palpable in a coaching conversation.   

6.       They use a structured coaching approach

Great leaders don’t just have a nice chat and hope for the best.   They research, learn and discover the best way to coach that will provide ongoing positive outcomes that can be measured.  

In my experience, the most effective and powerful coaching model is GROWTH.

 7.       They continue their coaching until habits are embedded

Great leaders know that the purpose of coaching is to support an individual to step into a higher level of performance to achieve results that matter.   This is not created through a one off or irregular conversations, but through consistent focus on actions, accountability and outcomes until it becomes business as usual – just who we are and what we do.  

Often when you’re sick of saying it, they’re just starting to get it – so repetition and consistency is key.

This is when you know that your coaching is successful as it will continue to create ongoing results.   

8.       They build a culture of high performing individuals who help each other to grow

Great leaders know that the best way to disengage high performers is to not address low performance, so they set the bar high and then empower their team to support individuals who can contribute at that level.   This is done through coaching high performers to mentor, buddy up or support others as a way of continual improvement and teamwork as part of their total coaching process.   As a result, the team takes a greater level of responsibility and ownership for delivering the results required.

9.       They get the monkey off their back and focus on higher value priorities

Great leaders know that when they can create a high performing team who can operate without them, they can free up some time to focus on higher value priorities or perhaps look to develop their own skills to a new level of expertise by taking time out to sharpen the saw.   

While coaching others takes a little more time and focus initially, the clear result of successful coaching is that you’ll have a lot of time begin to free up because of your self-supporting and sustainable high performing team.  

Instead of putting out bushfires and focusing on lower-level activities, this is the time that leaders have the opportunity to move to the next level by focusing on the truly important tasks that will continue to move the business forward.   

10.    They go home at the end of the day feeling happy, proud of their achievements and energised

Great leaders go home with a spring in their step because everything just seems to flow more easily and gracefully.   The struggles don’t seem as hard anymore because they’ve created positive momentum through empowered individuals who form high performing teams together.   

They know that this has begun with a coaching culture with clear goals, best practice actions, accountability and results focus.

They are proud of the fact that the rewards of their structured, focused approach to coaching is now being noticed through the continual improvements and stellar outcomes.   

Better still, they know that new doors are opening for them as they have created a legacy of successful individuals who can continue to do the work that they’ve begun.  

The better it gets, the better it gets….

At Shine Executive, we love working with high performing teams and supporting leaders to create a high performance culture.

One of our favourite programs is our One Day GROWTH Coaching for Leaders program. In this highly interactive and fast paced program, all participants leave with a certificate of achievement and a strong foundation of both the theory and practical application of great coaching.

If you'd like to discuss how GROWTH Coaching for Leaders could work in your business, why not Book your free 30 minute call now.

Naomi Oyston has more than twenty years leadership experience within the Corporate, Financial and SME Business sectors.  She has had extensive executive level success, with direct responsibility for leading the implementation and performance assessment of Customer Service Excellence, Sales Performance, Performance Coaching, Organisational Culture, Productivity and Leadership training within multiple major corporations.

Passionate, engaging and insightful, Naomi specialises in helping business leaders to create High Performing teams through a combination of mindset, toolkits and skillsets that are street proven to deliver results that matter.