A coaching style of leadership immediately starts to address some of the core issues that undermine wellness and caters to our innate needs as humans.
This leadership style allows leaders to help employees in the short term, develop employees in the long term and have strong, meaningful relationships with employees to support them in the workplace, thus improving their wellness.
Although many leaders have not had a chance to develop appropriate skills, lack confidence or struggle to make time for coaching, it can be incredibly impactful in helping people feel less stressed and distracted, more secure, more able to speak up and share their ideas, it builds a strong sense of Autonomy by making them feel well supported, and creates greater individual value and team cohesion.
The Coaching Leadership style is one of three which comprise the Transformational Leadership approach — one of the most highly researched and regarded approaches to leadership — recognised across countries, industries and organisations.
The Coaching Leadership style shows correlations with positive organisational performance as leaders move away from traditional and destructive styles which can counteract wellness and psychological safety and towards these democratic and charismatic styles which foster Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness.
In an interview with Harvard Business Review, business school professor David Garvin explained that Google had difficulty convincing its engineers that management matters. To solve this problem, they hired a group of statisticians to evaluate the differences between the highest and lowest rated managers.
Data was collected using past performance appraisals, engagement surveys, interviews and other sources of people feedback. Using this information they came up with a list of the eight competencies their managers must have, the top rated competency being “a good coach.”
This need for a good coach was backed by a Trinet survey in which 85% of respondents agreed they would feel more confident if they had more frequent conversations with their leaders.
Watch this short video to hear from Justin Petrie, a participant in the pilot program run with McConnell Dowell-DECMIL Mordialloc Freeway Extension project, on their experience applying Coaching Leadership in the workplace.
According to Interpersonal Solutions and Around Leadership (2014) (1), Coaching is the preferred leadership style of workers, as leaders “pay attention to and spend time with employees.”
Bringing this leadership approach to your organisation means equipping leaders to cater to underlying innate needs we all share (SCARF) and directly starts to address some of the core issues that currently impact wellness:
Helping employees now and developing them for the long term speaks to Autonomy and addresses the core issues of Pressure, Influence and Promotion and Role
Involving them in the work and giving them a chance to take initiative once again leans to Autonomy and this time addresses Relationships and Influence
Making time for employees to talk about their job and development aligns with Status and Relatedness and addresses Promotion and Relationships
Mediating conflict situations strongly links to Status and Fairness, and addresses Relationships
And being open to the ideas of others enhances relationships both from a SCARF and core issues perspective.
Call To Action
The value of having regular coaching conversations with each team member, both through in person one-on-ones and continuous developmental feedback is profound.
Taking time to show you care about a person’s individual concerns, ideas, and wellbeing in the workplace helps to build trustful relationships.
By listening, empathising and providing advice when needed, you can gain a better understanding of each individual’s strengths, areas for improvement and aspirations.
Based on these exchanges, you are then poised to give more targeted feedback to help each person achieve mastery in their role and support them move towards their desired career path.
Coaching conversations play a big role in addressing the six core issues (pressure, influence, promotion, relationships, role and change).
These conversations allow you to help your people find practical ways to improve their performance, engagement and wellness to discover the true, the good, and the possible.
They do this in ways that fuel their confidence, energy and commitment, to create lasting changes in the way they think, feel and act, that enable them to consistently flourish despite the highs and lows we all experience.
Despite the value of this leadership style, it is often underdeveloped as a capability within organisations. Providing formal Coaching Conversations development for leaders is a key element of The Integrated Approach.
To know what is needed in your organisation, start by checking how often your leaders are facilitating development coaching sessions with their people.
Help to build some structure around this by visiting the Performance Development and Performance Management tools.
Where to Now?
Sources
Interpersonalsolutionsgroup.com. 2021. CLS360 - The New Edge in Leadership. https://interpersonalsolutionsgroup.com/