Unlocking Potential – why should we adopt a coaching approach?
In this edition, we explore the transformative power of adopting a coaching approach in leadership and teamworking. We highlight our partnership with CBM Global, share testimonials from recent coaching work, and offer practical resources to help your coaching approach.
Adopting a Coaching Approach
In our work supporting people committed to sustainable change, we consistently find that one of the most powerful approaches to leadership is to adopt a coaching approach. This is not about becoming a formal coach. Rather it is developing skills and abilities that we all have and already use in our day to day lives.
A profound way to understand what is involved is the idea of “keeping someone company while they think.” Being present, listening effectively and asking great questions, creates the necessary space for reflection, allowing individuals to find their own insights and solutions and build lasting confidence.
One of the biggest obstacles to adopting a coaching approach is the temptation to jump in with our perspectives, ideas and solutions – what author Michael Bungay Stanier calls the ‘Advice Monster.’ Whilst this may be well-intentioned, it often prevents the people we are speaking with from doing their best thinking. If you’re curious to gain more insights about this, watch this clip about how to tame your Advice Monster.
“Adopting a coaching approach” is Essential 12 in our book: ‘Our Essentials of Transforming Leadership’. This essential highlights how coaching conversations with your colleagues are an empowering way to create a ripple effect of leadership throughout an organisation.
For those looking to practically implement this, we draw attention to our Caplor House Coaching Tool – a simple but effective framework designed to adopt a coaching approach in conversations taking into account the behavioural preferences of yourself and the people you are speaking with.
Partner Spotlight: CBM Global
Embedding a coaching approach has been a core element of our ongoing partnership with CBM Global Disability Inclusion. CBM Global works alongside people with disabilities living in the world’s poorest places to fight poverty and exclusion, transform lives, and build inclusive communities.
We are approaching the end of Year 2 of their Leadership Programme, having worked with around 70 leaders across the organisation (see a photo from our last session below). Alongside the core leadership development modules – which help participants explore priorities relevant to their roles and to CBM Global as a whole – we have placed a strong emphasis on developing coaching skills. We have also supported leaders to embed these skills through dedicated group coaching sessions.
Particular thanks go to our Advisor, Professor Sharon Turnbull, who has supported this part of the programme and provided insights on how best to attune a group coaching approach to CBM Global.
Our Growing Coaching Expertise
As well as encouraging and enabling people to develop a coaching approach, we provide formal one-to-one and group coaching. We continue to invest in our own development to ensure we offer the highest quality support. We greatly appreciate this element of our work and are delighted to gain feedback from people we have worked with. For instance, here is some feedback from a recent coachee that Kemal was working with:
“I was astounded how supportive Kemal could be without actually ‘telling’ me what to do. I found this empowering and felt a sense of achievement when the conversations resulted in breakthroughs.”
If you or people you know would like one-to-one or group coaching to navigate change, build confidence, or unlock creative problem-solving, please get in touch with us.
We also continue to provide leadership training and facilitation on adopting a ‘coaching approach’ and embedding a ‘coaching culture’ in your team or organisation.
You can find out more about our tailored approach and the impact we deliver in our flyer.
“When the best leader’s work is done the people say, ‘We did it ourselves.’”
– Lao Tzu
Best wishes,
Lorna, Kemal, Rosie and Ian