7 Ways Using a Coach Approach Transforms Your Leadership
Coaching is transformational. When you combine being coached with learning the fundamentals of coaching and applying them to your own leadership skills, it will transform your world completely.
Learning the fundamentals of coaching and incorporating a coach approach in your work, relationships, leadership style and health can transform your life.
I was a teacher for the first seventeen years of my career, and I didn’t know it at the time, but I had more of a coach approach to teaching.
My first job was as an English language teacher in Italy. I was 22 years old, and wasn’t practiced yet at making lesson plans, so sometimes I would ask the students what they wanted me to teach them in English. Those were their favorite lessons, and soon my students were becoming fluent in English because of our conversation-based lessons.
Later, when I became an elementary teacher, I created a daily agenda based on giving my students plenty of time to follow their own curiosity. I made sure to start the day with journaling, had a block of time for independent reading after lunch where students could explore the books that they were interested in, without structure from me. They seemed to flourish, and they loved learning and reading and tapping into their own creativity and curiosity.
I thought I wasn’t being structured enough when it came to the actual teaching part, or that maybe I didn’t know some big secret that other teachers knew about the right way to teach.
How could they plan their lessons with such detail and stay on track? I always got sidetracked and would let the students’ questions guide our projects. I felt like a bit of a fraud at times when it came to the actual teaching, but my students always learned how to learn, and they always learned how to think. And when they wanted to find out about something, they knew how to figure it out.
I learned to relax a bit when it came to curriculum. I learned that any time I tried to force someone to learn something based on my agenda, it didn’t go as well as when I empowered someone to learn based on a co-created agenda. I didn’t realize it at the time, but my approach was a coach approach.
A coach approach is based on the fundamentals of: 1. Trust within a Co-Created Relationship 2. Deep Listening & Curiosity 3. Powerful Questions 4. Honesty & Self-Reflection 5. Acknowledging 6. Strategizing: Goals, Next Steps and Accountability.
1. Trust within a Co-Created Relationship
A coaching relationship requires at least two participants: a coach and a coachee.
The coach can be a leader, teacher, or anyone who assumes the coach role in the relationship.
The coachee is the person who is learning, growing and developing as they are on the path to growth. This could be any person who’s learning and growing in a role)
Together, the coach and coachee create a coaching relationship agreement.
When there is a clear coaching relationship, together you create agreements based on the desired outcomes of the coachee.
The basis of this co-created relationship agreement is that the person being coached is the expert on their life, learning and growth. The coachee has answers inside of them and their intuition will guide them to where they need to go.
It is the coach’s job (or the person who is the leader and taking a coach approach) to help the coachee to know that they have the answers inside of them and help them tap into their intuition.
Together the coach and coachee create a space to focus on the desired results.
2. Deep Listening & Curiosity
Have you heard that most people listen to respond rather than truly listen?
Listening is a skill that can be learned. You will know when you encounter a person who is truly listening to you and paying attention.
You will also know when you encounter someone who is half-listening to you. Their minds are busy and ready to move on.
When you take on a coach approach, you learn to truly listen for everything that is being said as well as everything that may be unsaid below the surface.
3. Powerful Questions
The coach’s job is to use their curiosity and intuition to ask the coachee powerful questions. These questions help the coachee explore deeper into their motivations, mindset, beliefs, and perceived limitations so that they can unlock their internal power.
4. Honesty & Self-Reflection
Coaching is all about honesty and developing deeper self-awareness. The coach must be honest and developing self-awareness, and the coachee must also want this.
A coach approach naturally requires more honesty, transparency and self-awareness.
5. Acknowledging
When you take a coach approach, you learn to acknowledge others for their way of being and their efforts. This bridges a communication gap that is often found in traditional “boss/employee” relationships, and helps the coachee feel seen, heard and respected.
6. Strategizing: Goals, Next Steps and Accountability.
Coaching and taking a coach approach naturally focuses on a longer-term vision. It’s about creating the future and breaking down the strategy and steps to make it simpler, focused and doable.
How Can Taking a Coach Approach Transform Your Leadership?
1. You’ll create relationships based on mutual trust and respect
2. You’ll understand the “why” behind the why.
3. You’ll naturally open yourself up to what’s going on beyond the surface, and you’ll start to see everything in this deeper way.
4. You’ll become a better communicator.
5. People will tell you the truth more often. They will know that you prefer the truth and it is safe.
6. You’ll learn what it takes to empower others and help them empower themselves.
7. You’ll become more intuitive, and your life will open up in unexpected ways.
With a coach approach, the coach helps the client explore the coachee’s mindset and inner world vs. a one-size fits all approach.
Every person is different, and every person learns differently and is motivated by different things, so a coach approach can be a great tool to add to any professional or personal relationship.
Inside organizations, using a coach approach can uplift and empower your employees to take ownership over their growth. It’s a way of tapping into a person’s internal motivation rather than focusing solely on external motivations.
I personally find that taking a coach approach allows me to interact with curiosity and empathy. It creates a space that empowers and uplifts every member of the team.
If you’d like to add a coach approach to your life, book a consultation to get started.