The One-Minute Coach
There are 6 leadership styles from which we choose at any given moment. The key is not to choose a style that matches your temperament, but rather one that best addresses the demands of the situation. The best leaders have the flexibility to switch between several styles as the circumstances dictate. The 6 Leadership styles are: Commanding, Authoritative, Pace-setting, Democratic, Affiliative, and Coaching. The good news is that research indicates the flexibility to switch between styles can be learned. Here is a way to flex your Coaching Leadership Style.
Coaching works best when you have a genuine interest in your employee’s career goals. The responsibilities of a coach-leader are: co-create goals; keep employee/client accountable for action items; provide feedback and support; guide employee learning /development; actively listen; and ask powerful questions. The responsibilities of the employee are: co-create goals; take action; be prepared to listen with an open mind; and take responsibility for your own learning and development.
The One-Minute Coach Approach focuses on providing coaching as the opportunity arises. It should be focused on a specific behavior, with the intent of improving the situation for the employee. It can be an opportunity for improvement or for career development. A coach-able moment can include situations where an employee seeks feedback, is experiencing a poor job fit, or is searching for development.
Once you recognize the moment has arrived, coaching takes place in three steps:
- Situation: Leader uses artful questioning to open up new ways of seeing a situation for the employee – from the perspective of possibility. Aspects include external forces, employee contributions (behavior), and internal forces (underlying assumptions).
- Outcome: With a new perspective, the leader invites the employee to distinguish between the situation and the potential, between current state and desired future, between several behaviors or qualities of experience. The questions posed here provide the basis of self-observation and ultimately energize change.
- Action: Build on the insights gained, generate employee commitment to take action toward new behaviors – action with purpose
There is an art to flexing your coaching style and asking questions that results in the other person both discovering the answers and, even more importantly being more committed to the results because it was their discovery. This is why coaching is such a powerful tool.
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This article is an overview of a coaching workshop available from Azione-Scopo, LLC. If you want to learn more about the workshop, please contact us.
