Leadership Coaching - Three Crucial Questions
In the last few years, coaching has moved away from being the exclusive domain of professional coaches. Now, leaders at all levels are being asked to become more coach-like with their team 
members and colleagues. And yet, despite its growing popularity, certain misconceptions about coaching are pervasive. Contrary to the popular view, coaching is not a nice, neat cognitive process involving the exchange of feedback, insights, and action plans. It might better be described as a muddled, awkward expedition full of chaos, experimentation, self-learning, disappointment, and elation. And coaching is certainly not easy. It requires a considerable investment of time and energy to help another learn and develop. Leadership coaching demands more than the basic communication and interpersonal practices such as relating well to others and providing constructive feedback. Leadership coaching is not about doing more of the same traditional management practices. It’s about building intense, development-focused relationships and engaging in risky, performance-changing conversations.
There are many important skills that leader coaches need to develop. Listening, giving feedback, and performance planning are high on this list. But most importantly, each leader coach must answer three crucial questions before setting out to coach:
- Have you earned the right to coach?
- Are you capable of establishing the kind of relationship necessary for coaching?
- Are you willing to engage in the kind of conversation that stimulates changes in performance?
These questions form the foundation of the Great Expectations model of coaching which has been used by professional coaches and managers alike to produce remarkable results.
More to come on leadership coaching next week!