Topic 5.4: Benefits of leading and managing through coaching
John Zenger and Kathleen Stinnett (2010)[1] have written about the power of taking a coaching approach in leadership. They have identified the following benefits:
- enhanced meaning and purpose
- more fully engaged employees
- higher productivity
- strengthened bonds between supervisors and employees
- healthier individuals
- enhanced resilience
- greater creativity
- greater preparedness to explore and experiment
- development of an ownership mindset.
Required Activity
5 min
So, how do we get these benefits? As we’ve already looked at, there are some practical skills to coaching and none of these are “giving people your advice”! In this short (5 min) video two leading coaches, Marshall Goldsmith and Michael Bungay-Stanier discuss one the great mistakes of leaders: giving too much advice. It’s a good foundational principle for developing coaching skills.
So, you may ask, if I’m not giving advice what am I doing?!
Two things are key:
- Asking questions
- Listening.
These two practices, within the contexts we’ve already seen (e.g., “above the line” growth mindset, exemplary practices, a strengths perspective, and a commitment to ongoing development), will serve both you and the person being coached well.
Required Activity
20 min
Look for an opportunity to have a ‘coaching conversation’ with someone in your work group. (You may even want to offer someone a coaching conversation – let them know you’re learning about coaching and ask if they’d mind if you tried to help them by using some approaches you’ve been learning about.)
Try to use some of the techniques outlined in the readings here, but also in Module 3 – e.g., listening and questioning.
Afterwards, reflect on how the conversation went, how you felt about it and the outcome for your coachee.
Be on the lookout for other coaching opportunities and practice the techniques as often as you can – you may be surprised how often opportunities for intentional, strengths- and solution-focused conversations arise.
- Zenger, J. H., & Stinnett, K. (2010). The extraordinary coach : how the best leaders help others grow (1st edition). McGraw-Hill. ↵