Creating the right conditions to get the most out of your colleagues and employees within your organisation is one of the key goals of leaders in today’s rapidly changing climate. The traditional model of command-and-control leadership is no longer viable. Instead, those organisations whose leaders bring people together and provide opportunities to learn from, and with, each other, are more likely to succeed in the digital age of disruption.
This sounds good in theory, but, how can this be achieved in practice? Dr. Irina Nikolova is an Assistant Professor in Organisational Behaviour & Human Resource Management in the School of Business and Economics at Maastricht University and she says that adopting a coaching leadership approach can provide the right framework needed for people to feel connected, competent and autonomous in their job and in their relationships at work. A coaching leadership style promotes growth and development of the people in the organisation and Nikolova’s research demonstrates that coaching leadership offers a pathway for organisations and managers to develop and unleash people’s creativity and energy, resulting in increased motivation, innovation and productivity.
During one of the recent MaastrichtMBA sessions on Entrepreneurship and New Business Development, Dr. Irina Nikolova shared some of her research insights into how coaching leadership can be transformative in organisations. This particular leadership style contains a specific (and learnable) set of competences: establishing trust & intimacy, coaching presence, deep & active listening and asking powerful questions. During the session, the participants practised these skills and explored what coaching leadership is, what it is not and when, and how (not) to use it.
Integral to learning and innovation
Every organisation that sets employee personal and professional development as a priority can benefit from managers who can coach their subordinates. This kind of leadership generates value through fostering individual and organisational learning. Given learning and innovation are at the heart of every successful business, Nikolova firmly believes that coaching leadership should be deeply embedded in the organisational culture and strategy and deliberately promoted and modelled by senior management.
Triggering creativity in your employees
There are some misconceptions about what coaching leadership is and what it looks like. It is often assumed that a coaching manager is about mentoring or advising and offering more inexperienced employees guidance and solutions derived from the manager’s greater on-the-job experience and expertise. Even though mentoring is valuable, coaching leadership is about something else. Coaching leadership is about partnering with employees and engaging in a process that enables them to generate insights and triggers their creativity. It is about unlocking the individual’s potential to maximise his or her personal and professional growth and in turn to optimise performance.
What does an organisation that implements coaching leadership look like?
Companies that implement coaching leadership view employees, and in particular the development of their potential, as key. They understand that strong and highly motivated performers are those who are supported to function independently, instead of being micro-managed, and who are encouraged to continuously develop and utilise their competences. In other words, a company that derives value from optimising employees’ potential, rather than relying on formal hierarchy and heavy-handed manager approaches.
Another sign of an organisation that implements coaching leadership is that it has a strong, independent workforce that sees the managers as partners, facilitators and individuals who are there to support the employees’ work-related needs and development. These organisations will be characterised by a workforce that feels psychologically safe, enjoys greater well-being and engagement.
These positive psychological states are known to boost organisational outcomes such as innovation, creativity, and performance. And the healthy, happy, and creative mindset that a climate of coaching leadership can foster for example, when employees collectively feel that their managers practise coaching leadership, is likely to have a positive spill-over effect on the customers. Ultimately, this also means more satisfied and happier customers. The positive effect may be carried over further in the organisation given an employee who is being led by the example of a coaching leader, can model the positive interactions with others, becoming, to an extent, a coaching leader for other individuals.
Coaching leadership challenges the traditional notion of effective leadership
In Nikolova’s experience, most managers see the value of coaching leadership and are excited to adopt it as an approach. However, a common concern is that other managers or employees might see them as ‘too soft’ and might feel that being coached resembles a ‘quick visit to the therapist’. But these concerns have much more to do with the long-held idea that a leader is someone who can establish his or her presence through dominance, who is able to make snap decisions and offer others ready-made solutions. And even though being decisive and a problem solver is needed sometimes, an effective leader should also be able to coach employees, by actively listening and asking powerful questions.
A shift in our understanding of what drives effective leadership is needed. Because of the rapid and impactful changes companies are faced with, and the increasing reliance on teams of experts with different expertise, it has become very difficult or even impossible for leaders who hang on to the old ways of leading through command-and-control practices to sustain this leadership style. The workforce itself is another major drive for change in some of the old leadership approaches, with the millennials demanding more autonomy, flexibility, expecting more from their employer than just a formal top-down exchange relationship (where the employee delivers work and is being paid for it), leaders need to become more flexible and approach employees differently.
Putting coaching leadership into practice
Nikolova shared some key takeaways with the MaastrichtMBA group and for anyone planning on implementing coaching leadership within their organisation:
- Try to practice what you’ve learned even if it feels challenging at the beginning.
- Make a reminder for yourself. One doesn’t become a coaching leader in a day.
- Build on the habit of listening with empathy and asking powerful questions.
In time, you will feel more comfortable and confident with the coaching leader role, you will master the skills you need, and notice the positive effect on your team.
Coaching leadership is ultimately about empowering employees in a deep and sustainable way by building their ability to become problem solvers and helping them to develop their personal and professional potential. This is something worth investing effort in and the persistence will be worth it!
