How Leaders Who Coach Can Change the Game

At the heart of every great leader is a great coach. Leaders who understand how to effectively coach their teams see greater employee engagement, retention, and business results – and employees reap the benefits too.

In a study by BPI group’s Institute for Leadership, we asked CEOs to describe the best leader they’d worked with in their careers. Their response: the number one characteristic of a great leader was one who “coached, mentored, and developed me.” A recent Future of Workforce survey also found that 98% of millennials value coaching and strong mentors as part of training and development. From CEOs to junior staff, employees respond to leaders that coach.

Bringing coaching into the workplace requires leaders to evolve – to become leader-coaches – and, often, for organizations to rethink the way they’re structured. In the past, the leader-employee relationship was hierarchical and controlling in nature. Today, organizations and leaders increasingly recognize the value of two-way conversation between employees and leaders. The future is a different model – one of greater equality between employees and leader-coaches who forge relationships based on influence, respect, trust, openness and partnership. Organizations that develop coaching skills in their leaders today, will have an edge in the market tomorrow.

What is leader-coaching?

Coaching is not about telling people what to do, nor just about fixing problems. It is about creating what we call “shared success,” by collaboratively working toward solutions that align and balance the needs and offer of the individual and the organization. Coaching should be an ongoing series of meaningful conversations that focus on translating employee career and development goals into action steps, with performance course corrections along the way.

There are three common types of coaching conversations:

1. Performance conversations. These short-term, manager-led conversations focus on improving job performance while minimizing detracting behaviors. For example, you might have a performance conversation to deliver ongoing feedback or to address an interpersonal conflict.
 

2. Development conversations. Focusing on skills enhancement to build capabilities for the mid-and long-term, development conversations might teach new skills or be part of a performance management and appraisal conversation.
 

3. Career conversations. Employee-led, these conversations offer a sounding board and longer-term view on career advancement and success.
 

Many leaders say they’re so busy running the business that they don’t have time to coach. When they do, they focus 70-80 percent of their coaching on shorter-term performance issues, neglecting the longer-term development areas that actually have greater impact on engaging and retaining key employees, building the leadership pipeline for the future, and driving business results.

It’s the leader-coach’s responsibility to recognize the various “coaching moments” where s/he can step in and provide the feedback, guidance, and support that employees need from their managers. To be effective, leaders must take the initiative to get to know their people’s wants, needs, and capabilities beyond the mid-year and annual performance review discussions.

Getting into the coaching mindset

Who you are while coaching is just as important as how you do it. The leader-coach’s mindset is an important factor in creating a successful outcome for both the coach and coachee. The “right to coach” begins with a relationship of mutual trust. Trust requires an investment of time to build and maintain, and is enhanced by demonstrations of generosity, vulnerability, and credibility.
 

The leader-coach must believe in the coachee’s potential to improve and be successful, or the coaching will have limited impact and meaning. There must also be an authentic interest in and commitment to creating shared success, where the needs of the individual and company are aligned, and the win is clear to both parties.

Summing it up

Becoming a leader-coach takes dedication – from both leaders and their organizations – but the evolution is worth the effort. Coaching can impact everything from employee retention to revenue. By leading through coaching, managers can change the game for the entire organization. Join us for our next HCI webcast on April 16, 2014, to learn how to become a leader-coach.

Robyn Clark is the Managing Director of the Talent Solutions practice of BPI group, a global management and HR consulting firm. Robyn brings more than 20 years of talent management, strategic HR and organizational consulting, business development, and coaching experience to her role.