Cultivating Coach-LIke Leaders with Lisa Mitchell

" ‘Cultivate’ and ‘culture’ come from the same root. So, cultivating coach-like leaders is about nurturing a culture that values coaching.” - Lisa Mitchell

For today’s episode, I’m flying solo!   Sharing with you what I know to be true when it comes to cultivating coach-like leaders.

So many organizations are trying to help their leadership teams become more coach-like in their approach.  Some are succeeding, some are failing.   

I chose this topic because I frequently hear Talent leaders saying this is what they want, and yet there is often frustration over how to really make coach-like behaviours take root;  so let’s dig into what works and what does not.

In this episode of Talent Management Truths, you’ll discover:

• Why Cultivating Coach-Like Leaders Goes Beyond Training
• The importance of Modeling and Communication 
• How Skill Development is a Continuous Process

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Transcript

LM Ep 127

 [00:00:00] For today's episode, I'm flying solo. I'm sharing with you what I know to be true when it comes to cultivating coach-like leaders. So many organizations are trying to help their leadership teams become more coach-like in their approach. Some [00:01:00] are succeeding and some are failing. I chose this topic because I frequently hear talent leaders saying this is what they want, and yet there's often frustration over to how to really make coach-like behaviors take root.

So let's dig into what works and what does not. I'd like to start by defining what we mean by Coach-like leadership. For me, it's really all about being curious, empathetic, clear, and kind, and involving others in their growth. Basically, it's the opposite of telling people what to do, being autocratic or fluffy for that matter.

So how do we actually make this work? Well, you know, it's not just about a training program. We need to actually weave coaching principles and behaviors into the fabric of our organizations. So I speak with a lot of HR, organizational development, learning and development leaders all the time, and I recently asked some of them about it in one of my talent talks.

Here's [00:02:00] what they said is important when it comes to cultivating coach-like leadership. Before any training, it's important that you enroll leaders into a coaching culture and show them the benefits, get them talking about it and visualizing first. They also shared that a coaching culture needs to be part of everything in the employee experience.

Every part of that journey. From recruitment to day-to-day operations and ongoing development. Additionally, they shared that leaders need clear coaching competencies, or at least that coaching skills should be embedded in leadership competencies for an organization. This doesn't mean that leaders are expected to be certified coaches like me and go through, you know, years of training but rather that they are able and willing to demonstrate core coaching skills.

Another piece that was shared is that working with a coach, so either one-on-one or group training or group coaching rather can really reinforce these skills, right? When you [00:03:00] feel the power of, of coaching and how, how it can help you move, move you forward, then you wanna do it for your team. These comments really align with my own experience in organizations. I remember getting certified in the program Coaching Essentials by the Blanchard company many, many years ago, and you may be familiar with it. Lyndon Miller wrote the book of the same name and she actually trained me. She was great.

Now the reason I went through this certification was so that then I could go on to certify leaders in sales and operations and so on to be coach like leaders. And you know what? I am gonna go on record and say you can't cultivate a culture of coach-like leaders or a culture of coaching with just some training.

It, it's simply not enough because I will tell you a bit tongue in cheek, but actually I'm, it's true. I'm a fantastic facilitator. I'm a great trainer. I've been doing it for years and, and I know that when I'm. In front of a group and working with a group that I'm good. And even with that, I know [00:04:00] that, you know, there were other things at play in the environment that didn't allow this coach-like leadership to truly take root and to grow and thrive over time.

Right. So training was great. And didn't necessarily translate to on the job because we needed to create an environment that supported the practice of coaching and long-term sustainment of those skills. We actually needed to figure out how do we embed and thread this throughout and create an ecosystem around it.

So here's an interesting, you know, tidbit. It's interesting to me 'cause I'm a world gal, word gal. But cultivate in culture come from the same route in Latin. So cultivating coach-like leaders is really about nurturing a culture that values coaching. A coaching culture requires that the concepts, the expectations and supports of leaders are embedded throughout the employee experience, like I was saying earlier.[00:05:00] 

So here are some quick tips that I've kind of. Listed here for cultivating coach-like leaders in your organization. First one, focus on culture. Create a culture that supports coaching at all levels, up, down, sideways, and through all programs. Identify expected benefits and get involvement from people around these benefits so that you can measure impact.

Another tip is modeling and communication. So leaders need to walk the talk and communicate clearly about what coach like leadership looks like and why it matters and they need to model it. You know, language precedes behavior, and in my experience, I can't overemphasize that it's people need to be using the same words and be interpreting them the same way.

So there needs to be work around this as well when it comes to communication. The other thing is have leaders experience coaching to the degree that you can, so they, they can experience the impact of it and see what's [00:06:00] possible. The next tip is around skills development. So provide opportunities for leaders to for sure, go to training you know, hopefully more than just a, a one off, one hour workshop, but give them opportunities to, to be trained and then to develop the coaching skills and integrate them on the job.

So some of these skills that I'm talking about, I mentioned a few earlier, but you know, it's deep listening, listening to understand, facilitating reflection, to build awareness. That's how growth happens for people. You know, the skills include asking great questions. So great questions are ones that are not typically closed questions, yes or no questions.

And they're not leading questions. They're really, help people you know, use their own brains. Other skills include, you know, demonstrating curiosity, awareness, the ability to reframe and help others, reframe versus awfulize. That's a core skill. It's also around being open, having a, a growth [00:07:00] mindset, operating above the line, you know, whatever the languages that you use you could adapt that here.

So being open. You know, really noticing for assumptions and judgment. It's also about communicating and teaching employees what to expect from Coach-like leaders. They need to know what to ask for. It kind of makes me think of situational self-leadership. Another Blanchard program actually, that, that really, you know, there's situational leadership for leaders and then the situational self-leadership helps people on the receiving end, you know, of, of situational leadership know how to ask for and align with their leader in terms of what they need.

The other piece that I think is really important is, you know, taking those skills and building them into the, your competency set, your, your framework, and also to have a forward looking performance enablement system. So not, not a, a performance system that's. Looking backwards, but one that helps people move forwards moves, move forward rather.

[00:08:00] Finally, the, this is my last thing. I think it's really, really important. This, this goes to both skills and communication really to ensure that regular, frequent one-on-ones are part of the culture that leaders. Are leading. You know, it's not about hallway updates, so create that expectation so that there is that nurturing along the way of Coach-like skills and behaviors.

So to sum it up, I, I would say that cultivating coach-like leaders takes effort, but it's worth it. By focusing on culture modeling and skill development and communication, you can create a workplace where engagement and productivity tick up and turnover and conflict tick down. I hope you enjoyed this short solo episode today.

Feel free to send me your comments and your examples. You can drop me a line at lisa@greenappleconsulting.ca and yes, it's really me reading those emails. I'd love to hear from you. Thank you for [00:09:00] listening.