Coaching is an often hidden but powerful leadership strength.
You too can be a coach.
Chances are, in fact, that you already are. Did you know that coaching is one of the most effective leadership styles for getting results? For anywhere workers who wear many hats, you do this all the time: when you’re asking questions to determine what your client needs, for example.
What is coaching style?
Coaching is a state of mind and I’m not trying to be zen here, it really is about entering a conversation with intention, a specific intention to help the other person find the answer instead of giving them the answer or telling them what to do. Linda used coaching style to determine what was most important to me when crafting an announcement for an upcoming workshop. As an Anywhere Worker, you probably have the opportunity to do the same thing, on a regular basis.
As an Executive Coach, I see the power of coaching play out on a regular basis as my clients discover they’re capable of more change than they previously thought possible. Research shows that the coaching style IS one of the most effective leadership styles for getting results, from both the person being ‘coached’ and the person utilizing the coaching style.
Anywhere Workers and Coaching Style
As an Anywhere Worker, you can use the coaching style to get results yourself, and since Anywhere Workers wear many hats, you probably have plenty of opportunities to do this. When you’re managing a team remotely, for example, and you create the kind of virtual meeting space that sparks open contributions from members of the team, you ask the kinds of questions that get your team talking, sharing ideas and provide supporting feedback to keep that energy going. Anywhere Workers who are working with just one client or colleague use coaching style when they help the other person identify what is most important to them, identify the one key message for example – as the folks at PresentationYOU did with me to create the workshop online flyer.
Coaching Style Is Everywhere
Parents use the coaching style to help their kids with homework. Friends use it to help theirs explore ideas about jobs, relationships, life. Designers use the coaching style to discover what kind of look and feel their clients want, Programmers use the coaching style to determine requirements for an application, and Marketers use it to identify what the people want. Bloggers use coaching style to challenge their readers and help them discover their own powerful results; it’s why we follow them, it’s why I’ve been on Linda’s list for this blog from day one.
Challenge: As an Anywhere Worker, we know you are many things to many people. What does the next week have in store for you? Where are the opportunities for you to use a coaching style to get results?
Deb Denis is an Executive Coach and Organizational Consultant who wears many hats: she maintains a private practice, is Partner and Co-Founder of the Athena Project and Founder of Coaches Without Borders, an international volunteer organization that pairs U.S.-trained Executive Coaches with leaders of aid organizations in Africa. Deb brings her passion for facilitating, teaching and speaking to important topics related to coaching, communications, leadership and diversity; she has been a featured speaker at industry, academic, federal and NGO conferences. Deb loves to experience the world and has travelled, hiked and eaten on six of seven continents; in 2011 she scrambled the peaks in Patagonia, South America and completed a solo summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa.
