If you’re operating in an environment where people need to think to succeed, then ensure people aren’t being told how to think or what to think.
Largely, the shift towards coaching-style leadership has well and truly achieved traction over the last three decades. This is where people are not given solutions, but instead are asked questions to help them design solutions and take action towards them.
The coaching approach activates what’s called the learning journey and the practical journey.
- The practical journey: The things we do to progress and achieve our goals.
- The learning journey: Who we become/how we develop along the way to this goals.
When we ask people questions, we’re stretching their thinking. By stretching their thinking we helping them create new neural connections in the brain. As they make more connections, they become better thinkers. As people become better thinkers – or solutioneers – the more their capability expands.
This is the value of a Coaching-style Leadership approach – you are in essence developing the potential of your business by developing the capability of your people.
Counter to this is telling people what to do. As well as stifling people’s development, over time it can also build resentment and silos – the exact opposite of what an innovative workplace needs.
Insights & Actions
Resist simply telling people what to do or provide solutions, help them get there by asking good coaching questions:
- What’s the best approach from your perspective?
- What do you think our options are?
- In your mind, what’s going to work better?
- What’s going to make this easier to get started?
- What are you trying to achieve that’s important?
- How do you want it to look in 12 months time?
- What would be a better outcome that this?
- What’s the conversation we really need to have?
- How do you think we can reshape this?
- What should we do differently next time?
I could keep going … all of these questions help people to think. They also lead to fuller conversations and engage the collective brain. Excellent for building innovation!
I hope you’ve found this article useful. As always, stay in touch and let me know if you have a question.
Take risks,
David Savage