Leader as Coach

Leaders need good leadership coaches, but can also act as coaches for their team. Doing so can improve organizational performance, engagement, culture, and morale. What key techniques should you employ to act as an effective coach? Listen in as Bill and Ralph discuss.

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*Note: The following text is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors

Bill Berthel: Welcome to the Get Emergent podcast. Our podcast is focused on individual, team and organizational development and performance. We focus on topics such as leadership, human development, raising consciousness, and awareness. We aim to provide creative concepts, new ideas, and pragmatic tips and practices for leaders in all walks of life.

I’m Bill Berthel.

Ralph Simone: And I’m Ralph Simone. And today we’re gonna be talking about leader as coach and I hope that doesn’t put us out of business, but what do we mean by this idea of leader as coach Bill?

Bill Berthel: I love that challenge of putting us out of business. I think that’s actually part of our mission is that if we were no longer needed, right, the leadership in every organization, would be reaching their potential.

Let, let’s talk about this coaching modality, right? What, what coaching is to begin with. Leaders who coach really aren’t too different we think than athletic coaches. They’re capable and regularly practice highly directive and highly supportive leadership behaviors. We gotta talk about what that looks like, Ralph, and I know you’ve got a lot to contribute to today’s conversation, right?

Directive behaviors, directive behaviors.

Ralph Simone: I think people are hesitant just because of the word to tell people what’s needed, why it’s important to the organization, and when it’s needed by. You use the example of a sports coach. Those things are all very clear and in some cases how to do it. In some cases, our role is to instruct people. And I was kinda laughing when we first started because I remember when I first added coaching to my business 20 years ago. You know, my father wanted to know what sport, right, exactly. But it is the sport of corporate performance and, and I think that while there are some differences, if we really looked at the leaders coach model from the world of sports, I think both our performance and our consciousness would increase significantly.

Would you agree?

Bill Berthel: No, I love it. I love it. You know, I think when clarity, when structure, maybe fundamentals and direction is needed, a good leader, coach doesn’t hesitate and they know just the right amount to dial in the right amount of direction. Right? Too much. And you’re that micromanager. I think that’s some of the hesitation.

We don’t wanna micromanage, we don’t wanna over control. Too little, you’re causing unnecessary ambiguity and confusion.

Ralph Simone: We wanna find the sweet spot. Yeah. And I think we find the sweet spot through experimentation, but what you can’t do is not do it. Now, we talked about directive, but you used another word leader as coach, supportive, and And what do we mean by supportive behavior?

Bill Berthel: Yeah, so supportive behavior. So a 87% of American workforce is moderately to highly capable, meaning their skills, their knowledge, their abilities are proficient or better, however, their commitment to the tasks at hand are moderately to highly variable, and this shouldn’t be a surprise to the vast majority of