This is a really hot topic with my clients right now, both new and experienced leaders and managers. Literally, just talked about it with a leader today as part of their development plan: how do you acquire those coaching competencies so that you can help others develop?
Quick note: this isn’t just a nice thing to do. There are real tangible benefits for all. Develop others = high-performance teams. And you want them to do their jobs better, get better results, and be happier while doing it.
But developing others can feel like a massive task. I mean, there are whole programs dedicated to this in the workplace. What can you do?
Today I’m sharing the simplest and most effective thing you can do to become a Leader As Coach.
I’ll use an actual challenge my clients have: “When I have the experience and know what they should do, how do I stop myself telling them what to do (step by step)?”
Simple. Ask questions. But ask powerful questions. (check this post for a quick guide on powerful questions)
With this client today, we came up with some powerful questions so that they could grow their team member AND get the results.
Here are some of them:
- What do you need most right now?
- How does it look to you?
- What support do you need to accomplish it?
- What are you options? and what’s great about the option you’re picking
- What’s stopping you?
They left the call with a new framework to level up their coaching skills as a leader.
Yes! I love it when goes from “how do I…? to “yes, I’ve got this”. Happy dance.
I know this to be true: as leaders we don’t want to interfere, micromanage, or be the know it all.
But we have our eye on the OKRs and on their growth. By asking powerful questions, we can achieve both.
Where do you need to be asking more questions (and telling less)?
Real-life stories series
This series is about sharing the challenges and successes of real leaders (not just me), in real-life situations. You know, social proof and all that.
Ready to take the next steps in leadership? Book a free exploration session with me.