Six Strategies to Cultivate a Coaching Mindset
Being coached is a tangible way to unlock, uplift, and catapult a person into their fullest potential.
-CHARLENA ORTIZ
Download my free EBook, Coaching for Change: A Guide to Facilitating Change for Leaders, Coaches, & Personal Growth Enthusiasts
What is a coaching mindset?
Coaching is a collaborative, relational process that encourages new ways of thinking, seeing, and acting in order to reach specific goals. Professional coaching has important distinctions from mentoring, therapy, and consulting (read more about how to explain what coaching is). The many benefits of coaching in the workplace are impressive: coaching supports greater clarity, confidence, workplace performance and wellbeing, and increased engagement, among other positive outcomes.
Coaching is a powerful vehicle for discovery, growth, and change. In fact, we can trace the use of the word "coach" in connection with growth and development back to the early 1800s — it was first used at Oxford University as a slang term for a tutor who "carried" or supported a student through a test. With this metaphor in mind, think of coaching as a collaborative, empowering process whereby you are guided from where you currently are to where you want to be in the future.
A coaching mindset, embodied by a skilled coach or leader, is the context that encourages this journey of growth and change to take place.
A coaching mindset is a fusion of intentional, mindful practices that contribute clarity and creative thinking to an individual or collaborative growth process.
-DR. BETHANY PETERS
So if you’re not a professional coach, how can a coaching mindset be beneficial for you?
Shonna Waters and Brodie Gregory Riordan, in their recent book The Coaching Shift, demonstrate how a coaching mindset can positively shape your own journey of growth and development as well as your approach to influencing others. Diane Rindlisbacher, a healthcare leader who specializes in executive coaching, explained a coaching mindset as a powerful contributor to developing psychological safety, effective leadership, and a healthy organizational culture.
A coaching mindset can be applied to:
enhance personal growth when applied as self-coaching
inspire growth in others through coachable moments with clients, colleagues, or loved ones
Six Strategies to Cultivate a Coaching Mindset
1. FACILITATE AWARENESS.
Awareness is the greatest agent for change.
-ECKHART TOLLE
Build a strong foundation for coaching yourself and others through deepening your self-awareness as well as encouraging greater awareness in others.
When you have higher self-awareness, you can more readily activate a coaching mindset by:
Staying present and observing patterns
Making habit changes to support growth
Switching perspectives to put yourself in someone else’s shoes
Read more about the benefits of self-awareness and steps to increase your self-awareness.
2. REALIZE THE POTENTIAL.
Our potential lies between what is and what could be.
-KIM BUTLER
Seeing and believing in the potential of yourself and others is fundamental to embracing a coaching mindset. Growth deepens and flourishes with a readiness to recognize and pursue the potential.
Depending on what stage of a growth process you are in, actively developing someone’s potential (or your own) could look like:
Encouraging one’s gifts and talents
Evaluating needs and goals
Exploring possibilities and options
Envisioning a different future
Executing a plan to support growth
3. ACTIVATE YOUR CURIOSITY.
Replace judgment with curiosity.
-LYNN NOTTAGE
Curiosity inspires growth, learning, and discovery — through either self-coaching or when coaching someone else.
Curiosity boosts creative problem-solving and helps us to come up with new and exciting ideas. Curiosity also helps us to be more adaptive and less critical or defensive towards others. When curiosity is high, there is also a greater chance to develop stronger trust and collaboration in our relationships.
Simple ways to nurture your curiosity include:
Admit what you don’t know or aren’t sure about.
Read, watch, and listen to a variety of perspectives.
Learn about the interests of your friends, family, and colleagues.
Check your assumptions regularly, which can limit or inhibit curiosity.
4. MOVE INTO DEEPER LISTENING.
Listen with the will to learn.
-UNARINE RAMARU
Our mindset can make all the difference in how we approach listening.
Although we listen to others every day — in countless interactions — active and deep listening is fairly rare. According to various research studies, most people overestimate their listening skills, and in any given conversation, many of us are likely to be distracted, make assumptions, or focus on the next thing to say.
In more active, deep listening, the listener attends not only to what is being said, but also the emotions, the tone, and other nonverbal cues throughout the conversation. This level of listening has many benefits including building trust, reducing tension, and supporting greater productivity.
Devote yourself to mindful, intentional listening by:
Knowing your distractions — and eliminating them.
Preparing yourself to listen well with a few moments of quiet focus before a conversation.
5. EXERCISE QUESTION THINKING.
The best way to solve a problem is to first come up with better questions.
-MARILEE ADAMS
Powerful questions are one of the key indicators of a coaching mindset at work.
Beyond the buzz of daily life, we are constantly asking (and answering) questions on an ongoing basis. The types of questions we ask — to ourselves and to others — are very influential in shaping our values, behaviors, and relationships.
What types of questions do you ask most often? Do your questions demonstrate a fixed or a growth mindset? How do your questions influence you and others?
Open-ended questions that begin with what or how help us to accelerate learning and growth, and build deeper connections.
6. SHIFT YOUR PERSPECTIVE.
We reinvent ourselves by changing our perspective.
-ROBERT QUINN
Reframing is a powerful strategy that helps us actively practice a coaching mindset. Reframing can be most helpful when you or someone you are coaching feels stuck, overwhelmed, or discouraged. Like shifting the lens on a camera, reframing empowers you to see a different angle or a new perspective on a complex or challenging situation.
Reframing can help you to recognize your biases and assumptions, consider different interpretations, and recognize the opportunities presented by difficulties:
What if there is a different way to look at this?
What would be another way to interpret this?
What is another possible explanation?
What else could be happening here?
A Comprehensive Guide to Becoming a Coaching Manager
Cultivating a coaching mindset is a fundamental shift that empowers managers to develop their teams and foster a culture of growth. However, translating this understanding into consistent action often requires practical guidance. Many leaders find themselves wondering about the most effective ways to initiate coaching conversations, how to navigate specific performance challenges through a coaching lens, or simply what questions will truly unlock insight and drive ownership within their team members. To directly address these practical needs, I've created a comprehensive Manager’s Coaching Toolkit.
This resource is designed as a comprehensive guide to not only deepen your understanding of coaching principles and frameworks but also to provide you with immediately applicable tools. Inside, you'll find actionable templates to structure your coaching sessions, a coachability assessment to tailor your approach, and a carefully curated collection of 100 targeted coaching questions organized across ten essential leadership categories. Consider it your practical companion for moving beyond the theory of coaching and confidently implementing impactful coaching conversations that lead to tangible results for both yourself and your team.
The desire and intention to coach employees is often present, but the confidence in how to effectively apply coaching skills for managers can be a hurdle. Knowing where to begin, what to focus on for leadership development, and how to guide individuals towards their own solutions requires a structured approach and a readily accessible set of resources. This isn't about adding more to your already busy schedule; it's about integrating a more impactful way of leading that ultimately saves time and fosters greater employee development and autonomy within your team. Think of it as equipping yourself with the essential instruments for a different style of management, one that empowers, develops, and drives sustainable growth in areas like performance management and team building.
Get my Free EBook, Coaching for Change
Maybe you have many exciting ambitions, aspirations, and plans for growth. You want to see change. But you’re not quite making the progress that you want to.
Or maybe you’re a coach or a leader who helps to encourage change in others. And you’re tired of seeing your clients and colleagues stuck, not quite reaching their full potential.
Drawing from my expertise in coaching and the science of personal change, I have created a free EBook to help you see your own personal change realized — or help others make progress in their growth process. Coaching for Change: A Guide to Facilitating Change for Leaders, Coaches, & Personal Growth Enthusiasts is designed for:
individuals seeking a fresh approach to personal change
coaches looking for resources to support a change process
leaders who need ready-to-go tips & questions to support growth in their direct reports and colleagues
