Global work trends are changing workplace dynamics in accelerated ways. The World Economic Forum shares that five specific trends are shaping the new world of work. They include organizational efficiency, skill development, talent retention and mobility, the rise of work opportunities, and digitization. Meanwhile the Microsoft work trend index finds that only 12% of leaders have confidence that employees are productive although 87% of employees report they are productive at work. The report also found that hybrid work has created social disconnections amongst individuals and teams and that organizations need to focus on rebuilding capital. Finally, 76% of employees say they would stay at their company longer if they could benefit more from learning and development support. Leaders who learn and practice essential coaching skills that develop individuals and guide the understanding of needs, values and drivers of behaviors can positively address the trends facing organizations currently.
Development Based Upon Needs and Values
It is clear from the trends that employees want a deeper relationship with leaders and peers, to be trusted to be productive, and to be supported for development and reaching full potential. Kelly in “The Dream Manager” shares that the destinies of organization and individual potential are interwoven. He threads the concept of “best version of self” throughout his message which is inclusive of both the organization best version and individual best version. This requires that both the individual and organization deeply explore what is valued, understand the meaning made from those values and align action with the values. When is the last time you engaged your team to reflect upon and then discuss how the organizational values align with individual values?
The exploration of what matters most becomes transformational to both the organization and employee. Transformational coaching empowers others, is congruent with a core set of values, focuses on continuous development, and inspires a shared vision through translating dreams into reality. Blanchard, in Morgan, Harkins, Goldsmith’s “Profiles in Coaching” believes that leadership and coaching go “hand-in-hand” and that coaching is a form of leadership requiring leaders to discover their own direction, purpose and mission. Coaching and leadership involve guiding the direct’s focus and action on what is important both personally and organizationally through identification of strategies for actions that lead to outcomes. Blanchard ties this process back into a model for servant leadership by suggesting that through the coaching process, the leadership pyramid turns upside down and the leader becomes a critical thinking partner for the self-directed achievement of directs.
Anderson and Adams also consider exploration of values to be important to leadership and coaching behaviors. In “Scaling Leadership” the authors share that development of others starts with the development of self as leader. Self-awareness is an essential ingredient in the coaching process. A self-understanding about meaning making, decision making, emotional intelligence and beliefs and assumptions guide the leader in developing skills to address the complexities of leading and coaching. When these skills grow within the individual leader, they begin to cascade down through direct reports which then creates the “scale” necessary for coaching and developing leaders at all levels. The competencies of the highly creative leadership behaviors identified by the authors are very much aligned with great coaching.
Strengthening Relationships
Once values and needs have been surfaced, Boyatzis and McKee in “Resonant Leadership” add another component to “Leader as Coach; Coach as Leader”. Focusing on the benefits of emotional connection, the authors position the relationship as key to successful coaching which has been proven time and time again in research. The resonant leader/coach not only creates resonance with followers but also creates this resonance with self through the process of renewal. In demonstrating the process of self-renewal by addressing one’s personal and emotional needs, the direct has a blueprint for doing the same for self. Boyatzis and McKee encourage the development of a renewal process that delivers increased energy and engages the mind, body, and heart in shifting to positivity which creates healthier relationships with direct reports and others. Kouzes and Posner while researching and writing about leadership in “Encouraging the Heart” share this thinking with Boyatzis and McKee. They contend that effective leader coaches have relationships which demonstrate genuine caring for the direct.
Organizational Efficiency
As the values and needs are surfaced and relationships deepen, support becomes an essential component of the thinking coaching partnership. Elliot, Subramanian, and Kupp in “How the Future Works”, share guardrails that can ensure organizational efficiency through the coaching process. The guardrails include leading by example, showing vulnerability, creating shared space for teamwork, keeping a level playing field, intentional rationale for meetings, and utilization of brainwriting versus brainstorming. These guardrails engage the leader and direct reports in gaining clarity about goals, accountability for agreed upon actions and celebrating with directs and teams when goals are met. These guardrails also provide opportunities for emergent and meaningful conversations. The leader coach sees himself or herself as a barometer of where his/her directs are with regards to their own thought processes. Questions are asked to draw out deeper, more thoughtful, meaningful, conversations and take the directs into thinking about future possibilities. Questions such as “what will success look like for this project?” and “what might create challenges for the project?” encourage directs to think both in terms of best-case scenarios while also preparing to overcome challenges. Chip and Dan Heath in “Decisive” use this exercise as a “pre-parade and post-mortem” discussion.
An organization’s ability to be effective and adapt its environment to the post-pandemic VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) world while remaining abreast of emerging trends requires sustainable, effective leadership and coaching that cascades through the organization. Among other things, organizations need leaders for inspiration, enthusiasm, focus, and to strategically guide their vision, mission and culture. Strong leadership aligned with effective coaching is often viewed as one of the most important factors in organizational health and growth yet, many organizations struggle with the development and scaling of coaching and leadership behaviors. Providing essential coaching skills to all leaders can serve to address this struggle.
If you or your organization is interested in learning more about “Essential Coaching Skills for Leaders”, please join us for a webinar on “Does Your Organization Need You to Lead and Coach?” on Wednesday December 7 at 11 AM EST via Zoom