Coaching has become a fundamental and essential tool for leaders who want to be more complete in their influence and in the development of their teams, in order to reach elevated levels of high performance.
The Coach Who Questions Rather Than Answers
A coach, at the most basic level, must ask questions far more than offer direction or provide ready-made solutions. The role is to be a catalyst, prompting the person being led to search within themselves, drawing on the competencies they already possess, to find answers to their questions and challenges.
Team members who are committed and passionate about what they do feel genuinely stimulated when led by professionals who can perform both the role of leader and the role of coach. To do this effectively, the leader must learn how it is done, building these competencies and evolving into the kind of manager the future demands.
Leader and Coach: Two Complementary Roles
When a leader integrates the coaching mindset into their leadership, they can get closer to each person and explore their potential more fully, through a non-directive approach. While the leader orients, teaches, and steers a group toward a shared goal, the coach questions, provokes, and encourages the group to find answers within themselves to the challenges they face. Coaching, without question, is one of the central competencies of contemporary leadership, and researchers and seasoned executives around the world affirm this consistently.
When the leader adopts a coaching posture, he or she stops delivering answers. Their greatest skill becomes asking questions. As a result, people feel like genuine participants in projects, conflicts, and solutions. It is also a way of demonstrating trust and credibility, of sharing, of getting to know the mental models and capabilities of each team member, which are often hidden.
What the Team Gains
It also encourages people to reflect and recognize that they already carry treasures within themselves. The result of this style of leadership is a group with a stronger capacity to take responsibility, to think independently, and to put themselves forward with increasing confidence.
The leader, in turn, gains more time, more energy, can become more strategic, and gains a vantage point from which to observe the broader flow of the organization with greater clarity.