Leader as coach
Is your organization thriving amid organized chaos? Or are you buckling under the lack of process and interpersonal tantrums? Are you having adult conversations about where you want to go together as a team?
Meet Evan, start-up CEO and SCP client
As a high level, multi-sport collegiate athlete, Evan was always results oriented, but through coaching, he’s learned to appreciate the process as well. It was after two and a half years of building his business and feeling stuck that, on the advice of a mentor, Evan discovered first-hand how coaching could help transform his team and his results. Leading as a coach has helped Evan to offload responsibility to his team, empowering them to deliver meaningful results for their growing startup. With attention paid to how he shows up, giving greater clarity to his expectations and to the destination they're trying to reach, he's discovered that as a team, they are increasingly rowing in the right direction. Through his own mindfulness, the team has become attuned to the culture and values of the organization too. Everyone on the team is better able to offer productive feedback so that there is learning from mistakes, as opposed to unresolved anger or frustration. And a year into their revitalized work culture, Evan’s start-up secured another round of funding to expand and continue growing.
Leader as coach
Facing unprecedented change and competing priorities at work today, leaders are tasked more than ever to rethink how they lead and manage their teams. How do we drive performance, let alone high performance, when we can’t see the road ahead and when we don’t have answers to the challenges we face individually and collectively? When uncertainty abounds, how do we find certainty for our teams so that they can deliver their best? Maybe the certainty of command and control leadership isn’t the answer. Maybe a flexible framework that enables leaders to facilitate commitment and teamwork on the way to high performance is the solution that leaders seek. The coaching style of leadership takes time, energy and commitment, yet the investment consistently yields dividends for leaders, teams and individuals. A flexible framework enables situational leadership to flourish. Leaders as coaches hone their vision and ability to effectively assess the needs of their team and current situation so that they can offer guidance that facilitates both execution and development. Leaders as coaches practice empowering their teams so that they can build competence and confidence. Leaders as coaches cultivate a learning culture that encourages commitment and perseverance so that their teams enjoy results and personal achievement.
Get inspired by The Leader as Coach: How to unleash innovation, energy, and commitment, written by Herminia Ibarra and Anne Scoular in the Harvard Business Review magazine.
At SCP, we focus on execution and movement. Through our community of practice, we work with all sorts of leaders seeking to drive better performance through their people; to achieve business results and inspire personal growth from themselves too. When we work with leaders, we help you with clarity so that you can better see the challenge at hand, and where you’re headed. We support you with evidence-based interventions to hone habits that stick. And we help you and your team build resilience to recover confidently when change gets hard.
What type of leader are you? Do you lead for proficiency or lead for creativity? Are you the lighthouse giving a clear vision for the team to strive for? Or are you the engineer who sets some guardrails and facilitates discovery? Are you a mentor who tells your team what to do and when to do it? Or are you a hands-off guide who listens and inspires with probing questions that help to unlock solutions?
Maybe you’re a bit of them all, but do you know when’s best to be one or the other?
Working with a coach to improve your leadership may serve you well.
“I think that in any group activity—whether it be business, sports or family—there has to be leadership or it won’t be successful.”