As we move swiftly into 2023, it is important to reflect and re-evaluate our leadership strategies. How is your leadership looking? Are you implementing coaching leadership within your organisation, daily relationships, and mentorships? The Henka Institute in Luxembourg boast incredibly high standards of coaching leadership and can be used as an example.
According to Numly (2022), coaching leadership refers to a style of leadership whereby leaders use and develop their teams’ strengths to create an environment that boasts ongoing learning, collaboration, and communication. A leader that is a coach makes time and energy investments in each and every one of their team members in order to help them grow and develop. Coaching leadership involves the recognition of the team member’s strengths, motivations, and weaknesses in attempts to help everyone improve and hence the team will improve too. According to Torch (2020), coaching leaders are focused on bringing out the best in their teams by providing them with guidance through obstacles and towards goals. A coaching leadership style creates an atmosphere and culture of high performance. A coaching leadership culture is characterised by collaboration, empowerment, and fulfilment. Coaching mindsets and behaviours should be integrated and synthesized in order to create the most effective leadership. Successful coach leaders unlock and enable potential from their team.
How does a coaching leadership style differ from a traditional management style?
Traditional leadership is based on top-down decision-making. Traditional leadership involves synthesising the strategy, goals, mission, and vision for the future. Coaching involves handling the daily interactions and stimulating motivation and support among your team. A traditional manager usually uses a ‘command and control’ approach, whereby the leader is said to know best. Conversely, within coaching leadership, the leader and team members work together.
The benefits of coaching leadership:
• Empowerment – Goals and objectives will be created to enable teams and coach leaders to track their progress.
• Team motivation – Team members feel valued and part of a unified group.
• Clear expectations – These create skilled, productive individuals who can then use these acquired skills to coach others.
• Reinforcement of a positive company culture – Coaching assists companies in the establishment and reinforcement of positive behaviours that support this culture.
• Feedback– coaching helps leaders develop teams boasting higher emotional intelligence with greater self-awareness, empathy, and self-control.
How you can implement coaching leadership going forward in 2023:
According to the Indeed career guide (2021), some ways that coaching leadership can be implemented include:
1.) Balance praise and criticism: It is essential to provide strategic, constructive, and useful feedback to the team so that the team members are aware of areas that need improvement. Begin by describing what was done well, and then move onto downfalls in a constructive way.
2.) Follow up on tasks that have been designated: Hold your team accountable for their tasks. Schedule follow-up sessions regularly so that everyone has timelines and is held accountable.
3.) Coach at the moment: Life throws several teaching moments at you when least expected. Taking the time and making the effort to enlighten and teach your team something empowers them to do it themselves, by providing them with valuable knowledge and skills.
How are you going to lead in 2023? It is crucial and beneficial to implement coaching leadership as much as possible.