How managers lead their teams to achieve a common goal has a direct and distinct impact on performance.
Research has revealed that weak and untrained managers create scores of unnecessary, unproductive workloads for workers, leading to stress. Effective leaders need to look for better ways to motivate, inspire, and lead their teams to success. One of the best, if not the best, concepts for developing a top-performing team is leadership style coaching.
Adopting a leadership style of coaching is an excellent strategy to assist teams in achieving their objectives and generating successful outcomes. However, it is useful to study what a coaching leadership style entails and analyse why it always works. It is also important to know how you can use it to raise the bar for your team’s performance.
There are several leadership concepts successfully applied by managers, and each of them has diverse approaches to application. Most often, successful managers adapt several styles together, depending on the situation they are in, to manage teams. For example, a manager who believes in a democratic or charismatic leadership style may apply an autocratic leadership approach in a situation that needs firm control.
In coaching leadership, as the name suggests, the leaders take on the role of coach and mentor. The key intention of this type of leadership application is to develop the team members individually and lead them to form a strong team. A proper and conscious application can enhance the performance of the individual and that of the entire team.
You might be asking what the distinction is between a manager and a coach. To be clear, I presume that every manager has the capacity to conduct coaching. However, in contrast to management, which has traditionally been about supervising personnel, assigning tasks, and promoting a particular economic goal, coaching is a talent that must be learned. It is a skill that must be built based on mutual trust.
Coaching leadership is becoming more popular in the modern workplace because rigid management styles do not correspond with the aims of companies. With information freely available, the workers have become more knowledgeable and demanding. Hence, inflexible management styles no longer provide results.
Long-term improvements
Therefore, a coaching-led leadership approach prioritises long-term improvements, encouraging the learning process, and developing people. More importantly, employees are much more responsive to coaching and mentoring than to strong-arm tactics. Companies are investing more in educating executives to be coaches as they see the value of this strategy.
Coaching starts with creating a plan to coach your team in a way that solves problems and teaches the right procedures after first gaining a thorough grasp of their present work habits and productivity.
Before you can begin coaching, you must first understand the areas on which you should concentrate. Allocate adequate time to speak with your staff and ask them open-ended questions to get the specifics of problems they confront at work and even in their personal lives if they are related to work. When you understand the genuine grievances of the team members, you may develop a sense of trust by responding empathetically.
Speaking with them directly allows you to better understand their perspectives and cognitive processes.For example, some individuals approach their profession with distinct attitudes and objectives. With coaching, you can adjust such attitudes and objectives to suit the culture of your organisation. Your technique will be more effective if you have a thorough understanding of distinct personalities.
As a coach, it is crucial to give constructive criticism so that staff members understand how to improve and what they should keep doing. Positive discussion starters help ease the topics into constructive criticism. In the meantime, you must make sure that such criticism is empathetic and mild. You should communicate in a way that comes across as sincere while giving feedback. As some people do not appreciate being in the spotlight while others thrive on public adulation, find out how they wish to be recognised.
Research
When you have understood the general pattern, make your best effort to do a bit of research. It takes effort and research to become a great mentor. If you are committed to the cause, you should learn whatever you can to refine your coaching abilities. Professional workshops, business books, online tutorials, and other resources can help you learn about the latest trends and practices.
Also, consulting experts for their hands-on experience can be immensely useful. Successful leaders discover their lessons through trial and error, and they probably have some insider secrets you might use.
Spend some time at the end of the day reviewing your coaching efforts. Analyse the entire procedure and assess the responses you have received. Make notes of audience responses and learn how to give better solutions the next time around. It is important to find out how your staff members feel about your coaching leadership. Therefore, an anonymous poll can be truly beneficial to learn the team’s perspective on your presentation.
Coaching needs a high level of trust and understanding. The employees should feel that the coach respects them. If not, they may tend to ignore your advice rather than follow it. The coach must establish a rock-hard connection with the team members throughout the work period. You must therefore engage them with positive interactions and keep your coaching style professional and supportive.
Follow-up meetings
Following up and getting them accountable for what you have taught is critical. Regular follow-up meetings can further improve the knowledge they have gained. Also, these meetings can help with information exchange in real-life situations. Follow-up meetings can also be breeding grounds to uncover new ideas related to the business.
Coaching, like all other leadership styles, has advantages and disadvantages for both management and employees.
Coaching leadership can result in a more trusting and stronger relationship between leaders and staff. Naturally, a good coach becomes a charismatic figure, drawing respect from the subordinates. The bond created through the leader’s consultative approach makes a team always stand together, resulting in long-term success with enhanced performance.
Coaching equips leaders to perform at a high level. Coaches create a beneficial interaction that reveals a leader’s hidden strengths and weaknesses. Goals can be established so that leaders may identify their areas of weakness and monitor their own development. Reflective coaching sessions enable a leader to fully appreciate their accomplishments and recognise their improvements.
Coaching improves two-way communication tremendously. The experiences of the coach with various personality types and their behavior related to work can be important material for team members. A coach who can help team members speak effectively can raise their credibility and enhance their overall leadership skills.
Coaching leadership can provide team members with new perspectives and thought patterns. Together, the coach and the team can discover new insights.
While allowing better self-awareness, coaching promotes resilience, team spirit, increased collaboration, and even work-life balance.