A coaching mindset for senior leaders
Executive coaching has become increasingly popular, utilised by senior leaders to achieve their goals and to improve their performance. Now, as company culture features highly on corporate agendas for the acquisition and retention of employees, senior leaders can adopt a coaching mindset themselves, to motivate employees and to create lasting change.
So, how does a coaching mindset work in practice?
1. Ask questions
To empower employees and for them to feel truly heard, asking questions is a great place to start. Even simply asking, ‘What do you think?’ rather than telling your team what you want, will encourage collaboration. By asking questions on a regular basis, through one-to-one or team meeting scenarios, your teams will also feel more engaged.
2. Listen
You’ve asked questions, so now it's time to listen and to give your teams the space to communicate their thoughts and ideas. It sounds simple but listening is a real skill. Listening is not anticipating what is going to be said, forming judgements before they finish speaking, or feeling distracted by something else going on e.g., a deadline or a to-do list. It’s something that takes practice.
3. Set goals
Setting goals is a motivator linked to improved performance, so senior leaders can utilise this by working with their teams to identify goals to focus on, which support organisational objectives. Not only will this motivate your team, but it will also ensure that you’re improving overall efficiency. Working on goals through the questioning and listening noted above makes them intentional and collaborative.
4. Identify actions
Finally, working together on a set of agreed actions in order to achieve goals will ensure their success. How can you achieve it? How will you measure progress and success? What support will you need to achieve it? Does it align with the organisational objectives? When will you achieve it? When the goals and actions are identified, a level of autonomy can then be provided.
As Sue Leeson, Associate Executive Coach at Suzie Walker Executive Search says, “Being able to take that aerial view, to define outcomes truly wanted, and to work out how to achieve them with relative ease in a confidential and trusted place can be a game-changer.”
If you are a client or candidate and would like to access executive coaching for you or your team, please get in touch or connect with us/send a message on LinkedIn.
With warmest regards,
the Suzie Walker Executive Search team
Suzie Walker Executive Search is a firm of specialist headhunters with an expert team recruiting interim and permanent senior leaders for marketing and digital roles in consumer-facing FTSE 350 and private equity-backed companies. Find out how we can support you by connecting with a Consultant below.
