Have you ever played organized sports? If you have, did you have an encouraging coach who celebrated players' unique skills, encouraged camaraderie, and wanted the best for his team? Or was your coach someone who yelled at you constantly, bashing your skills and work ethic in front of everyone?
Employing a coaching mindset can boost leaders’ success in all sorts of applications—if you adopt the right aspects of a positive coaching experience.
Coaching your team to success involves:
equipping team members with foundational skills
embracing teachable moments and providing insights into why a change needs to happen and how to navigate it
practicing real-world situations and testing various angles in a low-stakes environment first
embracing "learning by doing" so your team members can be as hands-on as possible
empowering each person’s unique strengths and helping each person get a little better than he was the day before
celebrating collaboration and looking for ways for team members to complement each other, fill each other’s gaps, and combine efforts so that they are better together than they would have been alone
uniting the team on a higher vision and shared goal that everyone feels dedicated to and motivated to work toward
encouraging problem-solving and resourcefulness among the team members before they turn to you with a proposed solution
cheering your team on from the wings and providing guidance while your team goes out there and performs (or executes), stepping back to give them space or stepping in when necessary
discussing experiences together afterward—reflecting on what went well (and why) and exploring ways to do better in the future
putting in hard work, preparing, strategizing, planning, and reflecting, so that the actions are as successful as possible—knowing that you win or lose in the preparation, but at some point you have to get out there and *do* what you’ve been talking about and practicing for
and not forgetting to have fun!
Read that list while thinking about a sports team…
…then read it again while thinking about your team at work.
It works both ways.
Leaders that take a coaching approach care about guiding their team members toward individual growth while guiding their teams toward success (at a shared goal). They explain why something needs to happen, give examples, and run through multiple scenarios in “practice” (or meetings!), because they know that their explanations aren’t just affecting the singular project at hand—they know that these insights will help team members effectively navigate all sorts of projects in the future. They help team members sharpen the skills that matter most to both them and the team, because they know that those skills will help them be successful in a variety of ways—not just in one instance.
For example, if you play softball and attend a batting practice one night, your coach is not just training you to beat the one team you’re playing that upcoming weekend—they’re helping you a) improve the fundamental skill of hitting the ball, which will be useful in all upcoming games—not just the one you’ll be playing this weekend; b) practice hitting various types of pitches to widen your scope of experiences, which will help you be more versatile and more prepared for whatever may come your way when you step up to the plate; and c) realize that you might do just fine if you skipped practice and just showed up at the game, but that you are building your work ethic, enhancing your mechanics, improving your form, growing more confident, building muscle memory, and both mentally and physically expanding your limits.
It’s the same in other applications of leadership, too.
Leaders who take a coaching approach don’t just tell their team members “do this” or “change x to y” or “this is what has to happen now” without a reason, they don’t hover over their team members unnecessarily, and they don’t only involve them for simple execution in short bursts only when needed.
Instead, coach-like leaders provide context when giving feedback so that team members understand why the change had to happen and what options they have for performing more effectively in the future; this allows team members to apply these learnings so they can perform better on their own and hopefully won’t need to hear that piece of feedback as much in the future!
These leaders tell their team members about strategic updates and the direction of a project and the goals and expectations they have for the team or program, rather than just assigning simple tasks of execution without having conversations about the big picture; talking about strategy and goals and vision helps team members understand their purpose, feel motivated to contribute to a shared goal, see what their work impacts on a grander scale, and even problem-solve or ideate more freely and creatively when applicable.
Coach-like leaders prepare their team members for a variety of situations and help build transferable skills, and then they empower their teams to go out and perform on their own, building confidence as they gain independence, and always knowing they can come back to their coach whenever they need guidance.
They celebrate individuals' strengths and help them cultivate success in those areas in which they are most passionate about. Then they help each person recognize his place in the overall team's success, and they rally the group together as one entity, working in harmony to reach a shared goal.
These leaders unite their team members with a sense of camaraderie and figure out creative ways for them to work together and build a rapport amongst themselves so that when the leader steps back and watches the work getting done, the team members feel they can perform independently but they can also go to their colleagues for assistance, ideation, collaboration, trouble-shooting, and even moments of fun relaxation between work.
Questions for reflection:
Have you ever played a sport and had an effective coach? What were they like? What did you appreciate about their coaching style?
Have you ever led a team with a coaching approach? What did you find challenging? What did you do that was successful?
Which techniques from this article will you employ tomorrow?
