ARE YOU COACHING CORRECTLY AS A LEADER?

In HASC's LEAD class on Foundational Leadership, our facilitators spend a lot of time focusing on Leadership Styles. 

COACHING involves a great deal of "hands-on" involvement in an employee's work process. As a rule, a coaching approach works best when the employee shows weaknesses that need improvement. For coaching to be effective, the employee must acknowledge those weaknesses and indicate a desire to improve. 

Employees who need a Leader to be a Coach display the following:

• Have a desire for clear goals
• Need perspective
• Frequently want feedback
• Look for praise for progress
• Need assurance that mistakes are okay

Keep in mind that all employees move through a life-cycle of
competence and commitment.

Competence – knowledge & skills gained from education training
and experience.

Commitment – a combination of confidence and motivation.

 Employees who need greater coaching have SOME competence and LOW commitment.

COACHING embraces collaboration and pushing employees to set and reach their potential while contributing to the team’s greater goals, creating a harmony of personalized goal-setting and career mapping. 

If you are COACHING an employee, you should be sure to:

• Involve the employee in identifying problems and in setting goals
• Provide support, reassurance, and praise
• Listen and offer the employee an opportunity to discuss concerns and share ideas
• Involve the employee in problem-solving and decision making
• Make final decisions about action plans after listening to the employee's ideas and feelings
• Provide direction and coaching to continue building and refining skills
• Explain why a particular approach is being taken
• Provide perspective about how long things should take and feedback about whether development and performance are on track
• Define what a good job will look like and how performance will be tracked with the employee
• Continue to provide frequent follow-up and feedback

Leadership Styles

 As a part of my classes I get to work not just on Adult Learning but also Leadership. I commonly have to work on material dealing with Leadership. Here's the most reason info sheet that I worked on for our Leadership classes.

HAS YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE EVOLVED OR STAYED THE SAME?

In the class I teach on Foundational Leadership we spend a lot of time focusing on Leadership Styles. We ask the class to segment themselves out into the type of leadership style. I wonder if anyone reading this has changed their style of leadership since taking our class.

DIRECTING type managers usually establish clear goals and objectives for work and staff, although staff members usually have some flexibility on how to meet the goals. Directing style managers usually provide:

• Clear timelines and priorities
• Tells what the job should look like

COACHING involves a great deal of "hands-on" involvement in employee's work process. As a rule, a coaching approach works best when the employee shows weaknesses that need improvement. For coaching to be effective, the employee must acknowledge those weaknesses and indicate a desire to improve. Managers who use Coaching usually provide: 

• Perspective and feedback
• Assurance that mistakes are okay

SUPPORTING leaders play more of a motivational role. The main function is to attempt to instill confidence in employees so they eventually become more self-sufficient and productive. This style typically involves the assigning of tasks by the manager while providing support as needed. Supporting leaders provide:

• An approachable mentor
• A sounding board for problems

DELEGATING leaders place responsibility on the shoulders of their employees. They provide guidance, but only when needed or requested by the employees, and serves in more of a consultant capacity. This style is most effective with an experienced staff. Delegating leaders usually provide: 

• Variety and challenge
• Trust

EVOLVING LEADERSHIP

In general leaders should track their employees along the path shown in the figure below. Employees should move from needing high directive (Directing Style) up to high supporting needs (Coaching Style) to needing low direction (Supporting Style) to being highly competent (Delegating Style). The pathway to success for your teams and your employees is along that route.