Blog

This year we had the opportunity to facilitate a bespoke Leadership Learning Journey for one of our clients. After first establishing what learnings would be most beneficial to this group of upcoming leaders, by holding a listening and learning circle discovery session with the upcoming leaders themselves, our journey together began. The journey involved multiple sessions, covered a range of topics, included some challenging and thought-provoking homework, some entertaining and eye-opening discussion and, of course, growth. During our time together, we were struck, specifically, by the palpable buzz in the room when working through the fundamentals of coach leadership. When providing training, in any form, it is most fulfilling when you can see bright eyes in the room and feel the excited energy of people who are invested in the topic at hand. This was 100% the case when we began our training on coach leadership. This overwhelmingly positive response gave us food for thought: this approach to leadership is an important and inspiring one. The idea of growing people and leading in a way that allows people to flourish is an effective and desirable approach. Desirable for leaders and equally desirable for their team members. Today, employees seek opportunities for personal growth and aim higher in their personal development journeys. This makes it essential for leaders to shift focus from mere hard skill development to supportive growth that sparks behaviour change and creates sustained performance improvement. Empowering your team through a coach leadership style means that they feel respected and empowered and are better able to navigate the inevitable challenges that will arise, with confidence. Coach leaders will benefit from team members with higher morale, greater team and business outcomes, effective team collaboration, increased creativity and, importantly, retention of their top talent. The benefits of a coach leadership style are clear, but it is not always easy to be a coach leader. Looking back on our training, during the practical exercises, we heard laughter and saw many aha moments, as people realised that they thought they were being coach leaders, when in fact they weren’t. One of the biggest learnings from these sessions was that some leaders have an innate sense that when an employee comes with a problem it is their responsibility to solve the problem. This comes from many places, perhaps from their previous experience with leaders, perhaps from the leaders in their families or perhaps from a natural human tendency to help. But this is not coach leadership. Coach leaders create the space and empower their team member to solve their own problems, with the fundamental belief that their team members are powerful and capable of doing so. We too, get that buzz when we work as executive coaches and when we use coaching techniques in our learning journeys. And it always makes us happy when we feel that buzz in the training room. That sense of palpable learning, of minds shifting and people growing, that’s what coach leadership is. If you are a leader, or if you want to be a leader, we implore you to find out more and get that buzz, not only for yourself but for all those you lead.