Too often leaders find it easier to provide solutions to their employees rather than invest time in coaching them to develop their own solution. So I have found that when working work with many leaders having them develop their coaching skills can lead to greater success for them as well as their employees.
So what are the benefits that coaching can bring to a leader that makes the time invested worth it?
Here are the top reasons that coaching can lead you as a manager to greater heights and more fulfillment as a leader.
1. Create stronger employees who can take more and more of your responsibilities, which will allow you to take on more value added and strategic initiatives.
2. Build a pipeline of talent and a potential successor for you.
3. Open the eyes to employees’ potential and provide then with a fresh vision for the future. One that will enhance their value to the company.
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4. Drive change and increase performance through those you lead.
5. Build new and enhance existing relationships to increase their professional and personal success.
6. Challenge them with goals that will stretch them as well as help the company be successful.
If you haven’t added coaching to your set of leadership skills, there is no time like the present. Leaders who do excel at what they do.
Let us know if you have had the opportunity to be coached in the past of other benefits that can be added to this list.
What should you do to prepare yourself to coach others?
1. The first easiest step is reading. I recommend the following books for leaders who want to learn more about the coaching process:
- The Coaching Manager by Hunt and Weintraub
- Coaching for Performance by John Whitmore
- The CCL Handbook by Sharon Ting and Peter Scisco
- Executive Coaching for Results: The Definitive Guide to Developing Organizational Leaders by Brian Underhill, Kimcee McAnally and John Koriath
2. Network with others who have implemented coaching in their organizations
3. Hire a coach to strengthen personal leadership, communication skills and coaching techniques.
4. Enlist a team within the organization who also wants to implement coaching and learn from each other as well as create a coaching organization.
5. Practice constructive communication and good questioning skills.
6. Support others who constructively challenge the organization’s status quo.
7. Announce to others how you are shifting your leadership style; this is intriguing and stimulates curiosity. Be prepared to answer the question “why”.
