The best way to achieve growth is through listening and asking questions. Sounds straightforward but this can actually be difficult to achieve, not because it is difficult to have a toolkit of excellent questions, but because it is often difficult to stop giving advice.
The core aims of a coaching leadership style are to:
- Raise awareness (change happens often by just raising awareness)
- Keep responsibility with the person we are leading
- Make the person we are leading think hard
- Increase performance
Here are some questions you could use:
- What is on your mind?
- What is the real challenge here?
- What have you tried so far?
- When it did go right, what was happening?
- What could you do? What else?
- What needs to change in our systems?
- Describe to me what this looks like when it is going really well?
- If I asked your colleagues, what change would they have noticed?
- What could you do to make this more exciting for you?
- Who do you need to go to for help with this?
- What is stopping you from doing that?
- What do you need to do to move this forward?
- How does this tie in with the organisations aims / values?
- If a customer sat with us, what would they say?
- Tell me more about that?
- What obstacles do you think you might encounter?
- When will you do this by?
Coaching can unlock potential and release performance in ways that other leadership styles cannot. If you would like more information about coaching training or the support from an external coach to work with your team, please get in touch with one of our team on 01924 827869.
