Just back from the International Leadership Association conference in Ottawa (fab city, lovely people, gorgeous autumn colours) and trying to reflect upon and absorb my key take-aways.
One quote struck me particularly, in a conversation between Professor Henry Mintzberg and the Rt. Hon. David Johnston:
"No one should be led by someone who doesn't manage, or managed by someone who doesn't lead."
The argument goes that we don't need arbitrary distinctions between 'leadership' and 'management' skills because we need both these skill-sets. This got me thinking - we need something more - coaching skills.
"No one should be led by someone who doesn't manage, or managed by someone who doesn't lead."
I've been training leaders and managers to develop their coaching skills for 15 years now and just this year even Gallup have been saying "don't hire managers, hire coaches".See their book* "It's the manager" by Jim Clifton and Jim Harter at Gallup.
Our leader-coach and manager as coach programmes are accredited by the International Coach Federation and we've run them internationally for 15+ years now.
However, I see it more as a 3-legged stool, we need people to have:
- Management skills: the cognitive and planning skill-set
- Leadership skills: the behavioural and emotionally-intelligent skill-set, AND
- Coaching skills: the everyday-conversational skill-set
Now, I know that people will read this and think something along the lines of "what, you want more from me?!" Let's explore how coaching skills can make a manager or leader's life easier.
1. Coaching makes project performance easier
Whether it's working 1 to 1, or coaching a team, using the coaching skill of asking powerful questions will help work out what's in scope and what's out, where the pinch points are and where there's slack.
Coaching skills are a great way to improve your effectiveness and performance, particularly when you lead and manage others.
In their book* "The New Leaders" Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee identified the 'coaching style of leadership' as one of four 'resonant' (that is, emotionally-intelligent) leadership styles.
Coaching makes delegation easier
Won't working smarter make your life easier? If we focus our time and effort on our highest level, highest-value work, chances are we'll be more engaged and fulfilled. Our employers, or our businesses, will get the best from us.
Yet delegation takes trust. Self-awareness and self-trust - to know what it is we do best. Together with awareness and trust in others.
The coaching skill of 'active listening' is key here: it helps us discover the strengths in others; it helps understand where they excel and where they may need support. Listening makes it easier to extend trust and to delegate more.
Coaching makes for successful employee engagement
Listening and using a more open-questioning approach is automatically more engaging. You're walking the talk of engagement by showing people you take them seriously.
Add the coaching skill of 'supporting people' to the mix and be prepared to benefit the bottom-line and improve staff morale. It's simple to do, yet people find it challenging to celebrate success, acknowledge effort and thank people, in sincere and genuine ways.
The most common reason for not taking these steps that I hear from managers is "but nobody acknowledges me". Yes, we need role models - those people who thank us and champion our good work. And, if we don't have that in our lives, we need to break the cycle and be the person to start the trend.
Conclusion
To be most effective, you need to extend and demonstrate trust to others by asking the best questions to improve goal-setting, prioritisation and delivery, by showing them you're listening and by acknowledging their effort and celebrating their success. Coaching by leaders and managers is an effective performance tool, it's a recognised and valuable leadership style, it improves employee engagement, and it builds better, more effective teams. What's not to love? Find out more, here.
