The Role of Leadership Coaching

Leadership coaching is a one of the more powerful and useful ways to practice reflective leadership and circumvent the blind spots we have discussed in previous weeks.

Coaching instills a discipline for leaders to meet at least once, and usually twice, per month with their coach in order to slow down the pace and to reflect. A credible coach asks important and relevant questions that opens the way for transformational insights and “Aha” moments.

The coach will co-create with the leader new practices and ways of being that will reinforce and help hardwire new neural pathways in the brain and result in new leadership behaviors.

Coaching happens in a climate of total trust and confidentiality. Therefore, it is a rare opportunity for leaders to feel safe in making their fears, anxieties and vulnerabilities transparent. In so doing, and with the help of a skilled coach who poses timely and insightful questions and holds up a mirror, the leader is able to reflect on his or her thinking, emotions and behaviors and often come away with significant insights. These insights are then usually followed up with new practices that allow the leader to exercise new cognitive and emotional muscles, which in turn lead to better results.

The journey from “Unaware Incompetence” to “Unaware Competence” and the corresponding coaching techniques outlined below is a useful framework for thinking about the coaching experience. Coaching is most successful when the leader becomes aware of his or her blind spots or areas for development and actively practices new behaviors.