In today’s quickly shifting business landscape, leaders and employees are facing global economic challenges, rapid advancements in artificial intelligence and frequent corporate restructuring. The speed of change is overwhelming for many leaders and employees. Choices aren’t clear-cut and the future is unpredictable, thus leaders and employees need more than directives, targets and traditional performance reviews.
In addition to the development of technical skills to help companies adopt the latest technology, we need skills throughout organizations that can help people to adapt to change and maximize their growth—coaching skills.
Coaching skills have proven to be a highly effective toolset to support stages of change, share frequent feedback, identify opportunities, develop talent, drive results and build organizational capability. Leaders who effectively implement a coaching approach are able to save time because they can offer their support and keep their finger on the pulse without becoming the situation “expert.” Using this approach, leaders can help team members identify new solutions to challenges that originate from the team member instead of the leader. This elevates the sense of trust and ownership, strengthening relationships between leaders and employees, as well as generating diversity of thought which can drive innovation across the whole organization.
What exactly is coaching?
Coaching is an exploratory process that helps to define the current goals and challenges using thought-provoking questions and relies on curiosity and creativity to explore new perspectives and possibilities that haven’t been considered yet. The intention of coaching is to encourage employees to discover creative solutions so they can maximize their personal and professional potential.
Imagine a scenario where an employee is struggling to adapt to a new AI-driven workflow. A leader with coaching skills may ask questions like, “What are you finding challenging with the new system? What can you try? What resources or support do you need?” These questions encourage critical thinking and empower the employee or leader to find a way that works for them, creating a stronger sense of accountability.
During leadership workshops aimed at developing coaching skills at a global bank, it was evident that while most leaders were familiar with mentoring, the majority of participants were not yet familiar with coaching as a leadership tool. One participant came forward and said he wished he’d learned coaching skills when he first became a manager—38 years ago!
The difference between coaching and mentoring
Mentoring is also an important component of leadership, however, it relies on prior knowledge and experience, which may not always be applicable to the current business landscape.
It is valuable to differentiate between the two approaches because mentoring taps into the existing knowledge and capacity of the mentor, whereas coaching taps into the knowledge base and creativity of the person being coached. When an organization has a coaching culture, this invites greater diversity of thought to come forward within organizations leading to innovation.
Activating latent talent to drive results
Every individual, team and organization has untapped potential. Talent and potential are frequently wasted due to a lack of engagement and development opportunities. Organizations can turn talent into results using a coaching approach.
By creating a work environment and coaching culture, where employees feel valued, heard and encouraged to think independently, leaders unlock a reservoir of untapped potential. This, in turn, leads to increased productivity, improved morale and a more resilient organization.
Many leaders who have implemented a coaching approach have found that they have built stronger, more trusting relationships and a loyal team.
In 2017, I had the opportunity to coach Peter Voon, who at the time was the head of sales for Asia Pacific at LinkedIn. Peter shared that he found the coaching process empowering and wanted to learn how to coach his own team. We spent time reviewing coaching skills and he started to implement them at work. His team repeatedly achieved sales results which were more than double his quarterly targets. Later on, Peter moved to Salesforce and won their Asia Pacific Manager of the Year award.
Since working with Peter, I have witnessed hundreds of leaders around the world implement coaching skills and successfully strengthen relationships, build team capability and achieve stronger results in various functions including engineering, human resources, finance, product management, marketing and sales. It became clear to me that this is a helpful skill set for all leaders to develop, especially regional and global leaders with remote teams, because a coaching and mentoring approach is much more effective than traditional management methods.
Enhancing collaboration
Coaching skills aren’t limited to one-on-one interactions. They can also transform team dynamics. In an era where cross-functional collaboration is increasingly crucial, coaching can break down silos and bring people together with a shared purpose.
Using a coaching approach, leaders can facilitate team discussions that encourage open communication and collective problem-solving. They create a safe environment where team members feel comfortable sharing their ideas, concerns and feedback. This not only leads to more innovative solutions, it also builds stronger teams.
Driving organizational success
Coaching skills aren’t just about individual or team development. They have a profound impact on the success of the entire organization. When employees are empowered, motivated and engaged, they go the extra mile to do their best work.
Instead of clinging to old ways of doing things, coaching skills help everyone embrace flexibility and agility. Leaders literally feel the weight lift off their shoulders because they are better equipped to lead their teams through restructuring, technological advancements and market disruptions.
Building internal coaching capacity
To establish a coaching culture, executive leaders need to drive the effort and be role models so that managers can experience coaching.
Senior leaders need coaching skills to effectively lead their executive teams. Mid-level leaders are often left feeling stagnant and unsupported in their roles because senior-level leaders are often too busy or don’t want to micromanage them. This often leads to a feeling of stagnation and search for growth opportunities elsewhere. If senior leaders adopted a coaching approach, they would be better equipped to hold effective career conversations and support mid-level leaders in their careers.
There’s a big benefit for managers to have better conversations with their team members as this builds loyal and committed teams. For this approach to work, managers need to invest in building trust so that team members are able to express themselves transparently without fear of judgment and repercussions to their careers. They need to show they care and ensure that they offer psychological safety.
Implementation can take four to eight months and support is valuable during the learning phase, as obstacles may derail the effort. A combination of training then coaching is recommended to discuss specific situations. Common questions encountered during implementation are, “am I doing it right,” or objections “I’m too busy.” Experiencing coaching is the best way to understand the benefits of a coaching approach.
While some organizations have created a pool of internal coaches who serve across the organization, often, it is not large enough for the effect of coaching to be evident.
When everyone has a coach, the entire organization will benefit.
Conclusion: Coaching skills are core skills in an unpredictable world
In a world of uncertainty, coaching skills have emerged as a powerful skillset. This is the moment to establish these core skills and create a workplace where curiosity drives innovation, collaboration and organizational success. The future of your organization depends on your collective creativity.
