Remember that time when your boss gave you that piece of advice?
Your boss thought the advice was great.
You did not!
You were thinking, “He/she doesn’t really understand my problem!”
Remember your friends telling you about how their bosses gave them bad advice?
It happens to everyone right?
What about when you are the boss?
How often do you give advice to your team members?
How do they really take it?
Do they always act upon your advice?
How often have you wished your people would…
- Take more initiative?
- Solve their own problems?
- Get the job done without coming to you?
But how?
Coaching to the Rescue!
Coaching is the most effective leadership development tool available today.
GE, Southwest Airlines, Coca-Cola, IBM as well as thousands of companies of all sizes across industries are training their leaders to become coaches.
In a coaching conversation, rather than tell people what to do, you ask the right questions.
The first time I heard about coaching, I had wondered, “Asking questions? How does that help?”
Today everyone knows coaching works brilliantly! After all, so many Fortune 500 CEOs have people coaching them!
Many leaders usually overlook how powerful this simple act of asking the correct questions can be.
In the Leadership through Coaching training workshops that I deliver, one of the first questions participants ask is – How does it work so well?
Here are 7 Reasons why Coaching works brilliantly in Leadership Development
1. Clarity of thought:
“So that’s what the real problem is!”
Remember that time when your friend faced a grim problem.
He/she was thinking about the problem day and night.
But was He/she really analysing – rather than just thinking or feeling?
Don’t too many thoughts and emotions keep us from analysing the problem clearly?
That’s where your manager as a coach helps!
Your manager (coach) will take you through a structured process of questions.
This process helps you to think very clearly about the problem. You logically analyse the different causes, obstacles and implications of the problem
2. Creativity:
“I didn’t think of that before!”
Analytical thinking is often insufficient to generate brilliant solutions.
Creativity is about thinking out of the box. It’s about coming up with a solution which is not obvious. It’s about a new and different solution which no one thought of.
Your manager as a coach can help you become creative in ways you have not imagined.
3. Ownership:
“It’s my baby!”
Do you enjoy being told what to do?
Or would you rather take your own decisions?
Coaching is not mentoring. A coach will ask you questions which will help you to find solutions by yourself.
You know what is best for you. You have a perspective about your situation which is very different from your manager.
When you come up with the solution, it becomes your baby!
And you take full ownership for implementing the solution!
4. Action:
“This is what I have to do!”
Wouldn’t it feel so relaxing if your team knew exactly what they had to do…and how?
Coaching is action driven. When you coach your team, you support them to come up with specific action points.
Your people will become clear, focused and motivated.
5. Alignment:
“Let’s do this together!”
You have heard the catch-phrase too many times – “Alignment of individual goals with team and organizational goals!”
But how often do you and your subordinates think alike?
Alignment takes communication, trust and great relationships.
If you coach your team, you get all three.
6. Accountability:
“How did that go?”
Coaching works because it’s execution driven. Yes, through coaching you do hold your subordinate accountable – contrary to a misconception held by many!
Accountability can sometime be a painful word!
But with coaching, ‘accountability’ isn’t uncomfortable, it can even be fun.
The easiest part is that people also hold themselves accountable. That’s the cornerstone of an execution driven culture!
7. Confidentiality:
“This is between the two of us.”
Think of a factor in a problem that you are not comfortable sharing with anyone.
What if you had someone in the company who you could share it with? Someone who would keep it private.
Your coach can be that person, and work with you to solve the problem.
Wouldn’t it be really helpful to have someone like that at work?
That’s it! Your seven reasons why coaching works so well!
In my Leadership through Coaching Training, I say…
“Don’t tell, Just Coach
And watch what happens!”
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[…] If you are skeptical, you just need to try it out. We have used this process in our Sales Coaching Training programs with a good amount of success. After all Coaching is probably the most powerful Leadership Tool available today and it works brilliantly. […]