You are the executive CEO of a successful owner operated enterprise in South Dakota, your business generates over $500K EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes), you feel like there is potential for more and you intend to take your company to the next level? If this is you schedule a call with one of our executive coaches to estimate the ROI of executive coaching for your business.
Coaching your team to higher performance and responsibility
Great leaders implicitly have internalized the transferability of emotions. This process is also known as emotional contagion (Hatfield, Cacioppo, & Rapson, 1993). Great coaching managers are careful with their reactions in times of crisis or emergencies. They wait for better opportunities to generate empowerment, inspiration and excitement when a new momentum is needed within the team and become proactive in avoiding fires they have become used to put out themselves. Ongoing crisis management cannot be an effective leadership style. A better approach to work is to delegate authority using cooperative leadership style and put trust into the team and let the team members learn to handle complicated situations themselves.
Coaching skills all managers need
As a coach, it is crucial not to assume you should have a solution to any issue. Instead, collaborating with the employee to find the best solution. The managing coach should empower team members to solve their problems, showing that the managing coach appreciates their abilities and trust their judgment. The managing coach should show confidence in the team-member's ability and willingness to solve the issue. Also he / she should ask the employee for assistance in solving the issue or enhancing their performance. The managing coach may join in with the employee with the objective of increasing the employees' effectiveness as a contributor to the entire organization. Good managing coaches should feel comfortable delegating challenging work to team-members. According to Beattie, 2002, by doing so it has the positive effect of communicating trust in the employee's capabilities, while also facilitating their learning. Every leader should do some effort to improve his / her coaching skills, and there are leaders in or outside the workplace. Active listening, empowerment, motivation, communication, building trust and purpose, relationships, and accountability are all important skills for any leader that will benefit every side.
What are the top leadership skills to improve?
One of the best ways to improve a manager's nondirective coaching skill is to try conversing using the GROW model, devised in the 1980s by Sir John Whitmore and others. The GROW model seems easy to conceptualize, but it’s harder to execute than some managers might imagine, because it requires training to think outside the box about what the manager's role and value as a leader are. The foundation of nondirective coaching is listening, questioning, and withholding judgment. Coaching managers contribute to draw wisdom, insight, and trigger creativity out of their subordinates they’re coaching, with the intent and objective of guiding them learn to resolve problems and cope with complicated situations on their own. It is an approach that can be highly inspiring and empowering for those being coached, but it does not feel natural to most managers, who tend to be more comfortable with just their authoritative “telling” leadership style.
Leadership effectiveness within the team and with clients
Excellent coaching skills can come in handy in times of conflict. Suppose there is a conflict between two team members. The effective coaching skills of active, equal listening and emotional intelligence are deployed to reduce stress, anger, confrontation and ineffective, destructive communication. Allowing space for each side in times of conflict and to also co-create solutions helps to unify the team. Professional coaching involves partnering with team members and clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their real potential. Methods of objective assessment, active listening, asking the right questions in terms of reflective questioning encourage self-discovery of all parties.
When using coaching as a leadership development tool
Coaching managers should perceive coaching as something broader than just the efforts of exterior coaches who are hired to help executives build their personal and professional skills. That work is important and sometimes vital, but it’s temporary and executed by outsiders. The kind of coaching managers should implement is the one that establishes a real learning organization with ongoing coaching that is executed by people inside the organization. It is an activity that all managers should participate in with all their subordinates on an ongoing basis, in such a manner that helps define the organization’s culture and its mission. An effective coaching manager as a leader asks questions instead of providing answers, supports team members instead of judging them, facilitates their growth and leadership instead of dictating what has to be done, asks for ideas from all team members on how to solve the situation instead of just relying on own attempts to solve it individually. A coaching manager with cooperative leadership style can approach any obstacle with a calm, objective and clear focus. A deeper understanding of issues and solution-focused fact finding creates the blueprints for resolutions.
The fine line between situational leadership and executive coaching
Situational coaching represents the otimum zone to be in in the context of a manager as a coach. All managers should pursue to become expert at situational coaching. Situational coaching involves balancing between authoritive and cooperative leadership style depending on what the current situation requires. Managers as coaches should first focus on and become really good at non-directive coaching, until it becomes almost an instinct, and only then start to mix that newly strengthened capability with the implementation of management by objectives and directive coaching.
Why developping strategic leadership skills is important
Managers should seek ongoing training. If the leader wants his team members to engage in constant ongoing improvement of skills, then the manager is going to have to lead by example and educate him- / herself first. The manager should consider seeking out training to improve his / her leadership skills, whether it’s one class, a leadership certification program, or completing a more formal executive education or coaching program. Nowadays the manager has various options to get higher education be it through an online or a presential program or a combination of both. Getting more educated leads to better qualification and once these fresh new skills are implemented and shared with the team the effects will be noticed.
The major benefits of coaching to an organisation
Studies have shown that non-directive leadership and coaching skills improve the coachees’ confidence, engagement, communication, and teamwork. Those skills facilitate a faster induction to the organization and - according to Hamlin et al., 2006 - and help reduce reported feelings of stress. Managers should encourage and expect their direct reports to engage and participate, not only because it will become easier for the manager to focus more on the big picture, but also because it’s a best practice and an essential skill that motivates everyone on the team to identify and troubleshoot issues as they arise.
The right questions indicate best leadership quality
Managers need the space and time to actually manage. Managing people is tough, really, really tough. Employees ask for the managers' trust and compassion, so managers need to be able take the time to establish trust, starting conversations off with questions like, “How are things going?” and, “How can I help?” Such open questions potentially trigger a diverse and remarkable dialogue on various subjects, including but not limited to progress, improvement engagement, culture, productivity and performance. And, probably most important, they help identify the fires before we’re at high emergency alarm status.”. Reality-focused questions to ask are for example “What are the key things we need to know?”. The leaders should hone into what their team members have as a reply. Are the leaders missing something important? Are the managers talking about operational problems but missing out on the human side of things? Or the other way round? When coaching managers get their subordinates to slow down and think this way, they often lose themselves in contemplation and then an idea comes along, and off they go, engaging with the issue on their own with new inspiration, fresh energy and a new perspective. This step is crucial, because it stops team members from overlooking pertinent moving parts and leaping to conclusions. The manager's job at this point is just to ask the right questions and then get out of the way.
Getting the best from a coaching oriented leadership style
What makes the difference between an effective, inspired team and a desperate one? What are the issues teams are confronted with within a business? How is it possible to turn the tables and reverse the situation? What is your company’s vision? How clearly is it communicated with its employees? How well is it recognized and shared across all levels of management and staff? Coaching by objectives and bt visions can assist the managing leader and his / her team comprehend the significance of shared and individual values. Which values and rules is the company's culture built on and made of and what is their potential of making the business grow and thrive? What is needed to build an effective team where each subject is energized and inspired to contribute the best of him- or herself? Cooperative leadership coaching style is the tool for a manager to effectively resolve issues within a team, increase their performance and significantly improve the quality of the communication and experience of the team members. As a result the bottom line increases as well for the company.
How Managers Can Become Effective Coaches Of Employees
Managers who want to be effective in coaching will most likely have to let go of some assumptions about themselves and their employees, be willing to learn and practice a more cooperative leadership style that will initially feel unnatural and awkward. On the other hand, the rewards will be well worth the effort. They cannot just push a button and be an effective coach. Those managers wanting to become coaches need to have a framework, and it takes time, effort and practice. Many coaches deploy the GROW model as their framework. They like it because it is easy to implement and provides a roadmap for just about any coaching situation and conversation.
When using coaching as a leadership development tool
Coaching managers should perceive coaching as something broader than just the efforts of exterior coaches who are hired to help executives build their personal and professional skills. That work is important and sometimes vital, but it’s temporary and executed by outsiders. The kind of coaching managers should implement is the one that establishes a real learning organization with ongoing coaching that is executed by people inside the organization. It is an activity that all managers should participate in with all their subordinates on an ongoing basis, in such a manner that helps define the organization’s culture and its mission. An effective coaching manager as a leader asks questions instead of providing answers, supports team members instead of judging them, facilitates their growth and leadership instead of dictating what has to be done, asks for ideas from all team members on how to solve the situation instead of just relying on own attempts to solve it individually. A coaching manager with cooperative leadership style can approach any obstacle with a calm, objective and clear focus. A deeper understanding of issues and solution-focused fact finding creates the blueprints for resolutions.
What is coaching in leadership?
Effective coaching skills serve every level of employment and there are two sides to the meaning of leadership coaching: The first meaning refers to working with the leaders of a company to assist them maximize their abilities and lead their team members well. The second meaning refers to a leadership style that executives use when working with their teams. Increasing empathy and compassion in every position reduces friction, stress and replaces it with human growth potential. Tough situations and difficult conversations become easier to maneuver when coaching skills are well deployed and executed. There are many variations of managerial coaching, which entail different types of skills. Those variations relevant to a consideration of leaders and managers include team coaching and hierarchical coaching.
The major benefits of coaching to an organisation
Studies have shown that non-directive leadership and coaching skills improve the coachees’ confidence, engagement, communication, and teamwork. Those skills facilitate a faster induction to the organization and - according to Hamlin et al., 2006 - and help reduce reported feelings of stress. Managers should encourage and expect their direct reports to engage and participate, not only because it will become easier for the manager to focus more on the big picture, but also because it’s a best practice and an essential skill that motivates everyone on the team to identify and troubleshoot issues as they arise.
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