Five Ways You Can Develop a Coaching Mindset, Today!
Building skills and knowledge in coaching practices is critical to developing in your role as a leader. But even before you begin developing these skills, here are five things you can try today to enrich your conversations with your team members.
Sincere Motivation
Having an authentic belief that everyone has the potential and the desire to do more, give more and be more. A mindset that not only sees value in what people are today, but what they can be in the future. Going into your conversations with a genuine belief in their potential flips the script.
Tip #1: Check-in with yourself before the discussion to consider your perspective of them. What if you were to see them as having limitless potential? What is their special super-power? These questions can trigger a shift in your perspective and approach to the discussion.
Real Listening
As Stephen Covey talks about in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, listen with the intent and desire to truly understand, rather than simply respond. We listen not only with our ears, but through our body language, our eyes and through the space we give people to express themselves. There aren’t many things more powerful than giving someone a damn good listening to! In fact, it is so rare (and quite difficult for many of us), it could be the greatest gift you give someone today.
Tip #2: Being aware throughout the discussion the extent to which you are in your own head. Are you waiting for them to finish their sentence, wanting to share your advice or experience, or are you really trying to understand their perspective and give them space?
Being Curious and Exploratory
Asking open questions that gently explore without being intrusive. Open questions allow people to reflect and bring deeper awareness to their current situation. They open up the dialogue to discover new possibilities and potentially different solutions.
Tip #3: Closed questions are those that solicit a yes/no response and can restrict flow of thought and new ideas. Try to use open questions that begin with What, When, How, Who and Why and listen carefully to the responses.
Change is Taking Place
There is a lot written about how people experience change but the one thing you can do today is acknowledge that change is taking place in these coaching based conversations. Trying not to push too hard or fast to get to your desired outcome or goal can be helpful here.
Tip #4: Take the time during the conversation to understand how the person is feeling about the topic and what barriers or challenges they may need support in overcoming.
Being Trustworthy
As with all relationships in life, trust is the foundation of all strong business relationships. If your team member believes they will be judged or (worse still) penalised for admitting a mistake or weakness, they will be less likely to open up to you. Acting with integrity, honouring confidentiality and listening with empathy are key attributes here.
Tip #5: Trust takes time to build. It comes with honouring commitments, being open and transparent, showing vulnerability and being consistent — all of which you have the opportunity to demonstrate in your discussions.
Making some mindset shifts and bringing self-awareness to your motivations, approaches and behaviours is foundational in building a coaching approach with your teams. From this foundation you can begin to grow your skills and knowledge of coaching tools and techniques that will bring about even more powerful conversations.
If you try some of these out today you will be sweetly surprised.
You can see the first in my series of blogs on coaching (The Why of Developing a Coaching Mindset) in the following link: https://medium.com/@isabelmalynicz/how-to-be-a-great-leader-the-why-of-developing-a-coaching-mindset-81441b602194
