Tips to Take a Coach Approach
What is your capacity for coaching others to greater growth and discovery?
“When you build a coaching habit, you can more easily break out of three vicious circles that plague our workplaces: creating overdependence, getting overwhelmed and becoming disconnected.”
I distinctly remember one of my first supervisors in my career … she was a manager who was known for being great to work for. So, how did this greatness play out day to day?
She asked thoughtful, intentional questions that pushed me to think more strategically.
She took time to ask my opinions on important topics.
She empowered me to make choices and take initiative, while letting me know she was always in my corner.
Thoughtful questioning, intentional listening, and a clear commitment to my growth and potential were some of the distinct differentiators of her style.
As a result of her informal coaching, I enjoyed coming to work, grew in confidence, contributed new ideas, took on meaningful projects, gained more responsibility, AND was quickly promoted.
Her investment in me went far beyond my performance in that first job … the generous space she created for me to grow and develop influenced me deeply.
Her impact was transformative.
What’s the Value in a Coach Approach?
Maybe you are in a leadership role and know your current style isn’t working. Or maybe you want to help your team grow and develop more strategically. Perhaps you feel your team is disengaged and can’t figure out how to provide a different kind of support.
According to recent research conducted by Google, employees desire managers who can skillfully coach them— and this desire ranks as a top rated (no. 1) manager behavior.
Coaching takes time and intentionality, and it isn’t very often modeled, taught, or encouraged in organizations. Coaching isn’t as efficient as advice-giving, and it isn’t always the appropriate leadership style or intervention to apply.
However, research shows us that those who are coached experience many benefits, including greater capability, clarity, confidence, among a range of other benefits (read more on the research-based benefits here). Leadership scholars Milner and McCarthy have even demonstrated how coaching has significant similarities to a transformational leadership style.
What’s Your Current Approach?
So, how exactly do you embrace a coaching mindset as a manager or leader? As a friend or colleague? As a partner or parent?
Deciding whether or not to integrate a coach approach into your role is something that requires wisdom and discernment. The first important step is to consider what your current approach is, and determine how it’s working for you.
Pick a specific context, and decide where you most frequently land on this coaching continuum —>
Are you an expert advice-giver or a committed question-asker?
Do you listen to respond or listen to understand?
Do you default to making immediate suggestions, or have you built a habit of supporting others to solve their own problems?
With your current strategies, what impact are you having? Is it the impact that you want to have?
Take a recent situation in which you took a directive approach, and reframe it to see how your impact might be different by taking a coach approach.
Six Strategies to Apply a Coach Approach
You don’t have to be a professional coach to benefit from developing your coaching skills. In whatever role you serve, you have a unique opportunity to apply coaching strategies to enhance your relationships and transform your conversations.
Strategy 1: Clarify Coaching Goals
For what purposes can applying coaching skills be most valuable?
What relationships in your life would benefit most from a coach approach?
What specific coaching skills do you most need to refine?
If you are mentoring or supervising someone, what are their specific goals for growth and development? How can you support them through coaching?
Strategy 2: Identify ‘Coachable’ Moments
When is it most valuable to take more of a facilitating, non-directive coach approach? In which situations?
What situations represent optimal coaching moments?
Outside of the workplace, when would it be meaningful to try a coach approach? With family? Friends? Your kids?
Strategy 3: Develop Deeper Listening
What is your current capacity to listen deeply, to take the time to hear, understand, reflect, and observe?
What are your most frequent barriers to listening more effectively?
Strategy 4: Ask Powerful Questions
What types of questions do you typically ask? What do those questions help you accomplish?
How would you rate your ability to ask questions that help others see new perspective or solve problems more creatively?
Strategy 5: Encourage Awareness & Action
What strategies do you use to help others gain new insight?
In what ways do you hold others accountable to developing their potential and reaching their goals?
Strategy 6: Leverage Your Strengths
What unique strengths do you possess that can help you leverage a coaching mindset more effectively?
Download 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
References
Chaudhary, R. (2021). Coaching: The Secret Code to Uncommon Leadership. Penguin Random House India Private Limited.
Google’s Guide “Identify what makes a good manager.” https://rework.withgoogle.com/guides/managers-identify-what-makes-a-great-manager/steps/learn-about-googles-manager-research/
Karlsen, J. T., & Berg, M. E. (2020). Coaching leadership style: A learning process. International Journal of Knowledge and Learning, 13(4), 356-368.
Milner, J., & McCarthy, G. (2016). Managerial coaching: A practical way to apply leadership theory?. Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive). 821.
