An organisation is only considered good when it’s directed by trained and skilled leaders. Leadership is the strongest factor in every organisation, which is necessary for its growth, expansion, and longevity.
However, many of the organisations pay attention to the fact that they need new leaders and heads every now and then to maintain harmony and growth, because although the leaders are running the company well in the present, the preparation for a better future must be done beforehand.
When such a situation arises, it is the duty of leaders who are already leading the organisation to step forward and take charge of coaching and preparing a new leader for a better tomorrow for the organisation.
Why Should Leaders Become Coaches?
In some organisations where leaders take up the role of coaches to create more leaders in the room, the workforce inevitably becomes more independent, and they learn about being more accountable. It also helps to mitigate discrimination and hierarchical barriers between superiors and subordinates, making the workplace stress-free and even more harmonious.
Under certain circumstances, some organisations tend to partner with booking agents for speakers with whom certain training sessions are conducted to get a better understanding of coaching being a crucial skill of leadership.
Leadership is definitely not confined to being concentrated at higher levels only; rather, it must be delegated to enhance the teamwork of the company.
Aligning Coaching with Management
Many leaders have usually mistaken the term coaching with management. However, these two are opposites, but with the right skills, a blend of these two can be highly beneficial to the organization.
Management is somewhat more rigorous, which solely focuses on getting the work done before the deadline. When a leader solely focuses on management, they unintentionally create a team that is fully dependent on their leader for every task.
To mitigate such issues, coaching is necessary along with management in every organization. While coaching and managing, a leader usually asks their team to incorporate their ideas instead of giving them directions for everything. This creates a room for their creativity as well, and they feel a sense of responsibility. A leader who involves coaching not only focuses on results but also fosters learning while doing every task.
Must-Have Skills for Coaches to Train Leaders
Every leader who thinks of coaching their team must possess a few essential skills that not only foster personal growth but also help in preparing a well-trained team. Firstly, every leader must be a good listener, meaning that they must leave some space for their subordinates’ ideas and let them present their own point of view without any judgment. This inevitably makes them feel included.
Secondly, a leader must know how to question their subordinates. While asking some crucial questions regarding their work, a leader induces skills like responsibility, accountability, and critical thinking among their team.
Lastly, empathy is a very critical skill when giving any kind of criticism to workers because if a leader thinks through their spectrum, then they’ll be able to give positive feedback.
A Practical Coaching Framework for Leaders
If a leader desires to coach their workers more effectively and efficiently, then they must choose a practical, logistical, and structured framework. Such a framework is necessary for the execution of their idea in a very systematic manner.
One of the most effective frameworks is the GROW model, which stands for goal, reality, options, and way forward. In this model, the leader instructs their team to set a clear goal and analyse the current scenario. They later assess possible options to achieve their stated goal and move to the next step. This deal is said to be very simple and basic, which keeps the team focused and productive.
Moreover, the CLEAR model is also a very effective model, which helps in coaching, which stands for contracting, listening, exploring, action, and review. This model is adapted to create accountability among the staff. It is quite similar to the GROW model, as under this, the team decides their goal and assesses all the challenges that they might face while achieving it. They also keep a check on the progress.
These frames are not making the caching process stagnant or rigid; instead, they help the leader to become more comfortable and bring flexibility while completing any task.
Importance of Feedback While Coaching
As per a survey conducted by Harvard Business Review, 72% of employees claim that their performance can improve substantially if proper feedback is given to them by their leaders. This underscores the importance of feedback in any organization. However, many leaders often think that giving feedback might cause conflict in the organization.
Leaders must know that feedback is not about judging their team; instead, it is about giving them some sort of clarity regarding their work. While giving feedback, they must ensure that it is timely and regular so that the worker can improve themselves right away.
Also, the choice of words is very important while giving feedback, because if the leader is sensible while giving feedback, there is a high chance that the subordinate would be more likely to consider it.
A Few Challenges That a Leader Must Overcome While Coaching
Having some challenges while doing anything is inevitable in every organization. Coaching is also such a process where both leaders and workers have to face several challenges. Lack of time for coaching is certainly one of them. Many leaders think that coaching takes up too much of their time, and they might be unable to achieve their tasks if they are focusing on coaching. However, if it is incorporated into everyday tasks, then they can easily perform these two simultaneously.
Another major setback is certainly a lack of confidence, as many leaders often feel that they are underqualified for coaching. To mitigate such issues, organizations must train their leaders through regular training and practice sessions. Also, leaders may develop confidence over time once they see some desired results.
Conclusion
To summarise, we can clearly see how important it is for leaders sot coach other team members for a holistic development of leaders, subordinates, and organisation. Coaching is definitely something that one adapts while working can guarantee a promising success fr the organisation. If every organization took this step, it could become unstoppable in this era of cut-throat competition.
