The days for a leader to just order and direct are in the past. Zoomers or Gen Z the emerging leaders of tomorrow find such leaders like the dinosaurs of yester years. Neither do they respect such leaders nor do they follow them. Especially in professional services where there is continuous client work and interventions whenever we do not deliver. Today’s youth and teams, especially in PR look forward to having leaders with The Coach Mindset who enable as well as work together and add value. When you develop coaching as a habit it brings you dividends you cannot even imagine. After all its team work which makes the dream work. With a coaching mindset you don’t give them fish for one meal, but teach them how to fish to eat for a lifetime.
“Being coached is a tangible way to unlock, uplift, and catapult a person to their fullest potential” according to Charlena Ortiz.
Here are some elementary steps to evolve into The Coach Mindset
Enhance personal growth through self-coaching
A Coach Mindset owner has a natural passion for learning and relearning. Life is a University, you learn from your daily experiences, provided you are wired in that way. Learning through self-coaching becomes a futile exercise if you do not put your learning into practice, because it leads to your personal growth. Self-coaching develops you in your profession as well as in your personal side. When you self-learn in your areas of personal choice or your hobbies, you enjoy yourself more and take hobbies to a different level. As you know, they say in aircraft announcements, before you help others when the oxygen masks are down during an emergency, make sure that your own mask is on. Before you coach others, ensure that you have self-coached yourself.
Become more curious and encourage curiosity
Curiosity they say, killed the cat!
But curiosity really is a prime catalyst for you to develop into The Coach Mindset. Don’t just mindlessly follow theory or what others have done before you. Question the purpose and realign. Is this the right strategy? How can I make it work better? How do I add a higher perspective? What are others doing in this domain?
However do not learn on the job or delivery deadlines can get negatively impacted. As a first step, get into the way it has been done and keep doing it and keep making notes. But put away atleast two timeslots every week to analyse, plan how to do it better, discuss with your superior your reframing recommendation and then implement with perfection. Do you know that discussing with your senior and resetting positive strategic execution is called upward coaching?
Listen actively- Leading with empathy
At a recent ‘Communications & Key Messaging Refresh’ workshop one of my questions to the 88 participants made them really sit up and think and wonder. I asked “Do you listen to reply or do you listen to understand”? Most of them did listen to reply. Therefore passive listening is a complete impediment in developing The Coach Mindset. You need to lead with empathy where your team connects with you deeply, simply because they know you understand them and therefore bring out the best in them. When you lead with empathy you encourage co creation for solutions and recommendations. Gallap’s research ‘clearly shows that engaged employees are more productive and have lower absenteeism as compared to employee who are disengaged’.
Both listening and leading with empathy add immensely to behaving in the correct framework of The Coach Mindset.
In conclusion, leaders are successful when their teams are productive and The Coach Mindset is indeed the prime catalyst of this positive change. Treat your team members as your real assets and develop their potential. Develop them by asking them questions rather than giving them answers. Listen to them actively and most of all make them feel that they really matter!
“To lead well…coach better” TJessica Stegenga
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