This is part two of a five part series on Formal Leadership. Each concept works alone however; fits nicely with the other articles. Please contact us if you miss an article.

The Leader as Coach

Vision alone is not enough. Much like a football team that is playing in the Super Bowl, having a game plan and the desire to win is important. However, winning depends upon execution. One of your primary roles as a leader is that of coach. Coaches reinforce the results they believe people are capable of achieving.

One way to develop a winning team is to surround yourself with extraordinary people. Another is to surround yourself with ordinary people who, through your leadership and coaching, achieve extraordinary results. As Sam Walton once said, "...there's absolutely no limit to what plain, ordinary working people can do if they're given the opportunity and the encouragement and the incentive to be their best." As a coach, your role is to help people develop winning attitudes and improve their skills. A coach helps people see beyond the problems, the limitations, and the "known," to focus on solutions and opportunities which are sometimes found by venturing into the "unknown". If you are going to create a winning team, you must be good at coaching. You must be able to inspire extraordinary performance from ordinary people. Coaching is seeing new possibilities and providing the support and guidance to help people and organizations to achieve new heights.

Your role as a coach begins by placing the right people in the right jobs. In every job, there is a basic skill requirement that must be fulfilled. It is important that people either have the skills and attitudes required to do the job when you hire them, and/or you have a development process in place that will ensure the development of those skills. Review progress regularly, explain and demonstrate new requirements or skills.

Coaching, though highly individual, has three basic functions. The first function of a coach is getting to know every person as an individual. If you are to coach them to higher levels of performance, you need to know what their skills are, what their level of knowledge is, what their goals are, and what you can do to help them reach their goals. Ask questions, listen, get to know what people value and feel. The classic "five w's:" who, what, when, where, and why can provide you with a simple formula to gather information, data, and feedback. When appropriate, another question to ask is "how?" Look for opportunities to ask questions that probe.

The second function of a coach is developing people and challenging them towards higher levels of achievement. Create a detailed development plan for and with each individual with whom you are directly working. Set goals, both short and long-term. Develop action steps and target dates along the way. Focus on those critical few action steps that are essential for personal and organizational goal achievement. Set regular review meetings and make them a priority. Provide regular feedback on performance, evaluate progress, and review areas in which new goals can be established.

The third function of a coach is creating an environment for motivation. A motivating environment helps people become excited about setting and reaching goals. Figure out what inspires people and use this knowledge to create an atmosphere that stimulates high levels of productivity and effective decision making. Get to know what issues are important to each individual.

Encourage people to talk openly and discuss problems as well as opportunities. Challenge them to go beyond their comfort zone. Help them to have the confidence to stretch themselves.

Coaches also develop a culture in which problems are viewed as opportunities...for solutions, learning, and improvement. Encourage "ownership" and responsibility. If someone is given a problem, whether by a customer, a peer, or a subordinate, they "own" it until they find a solution or personally deliver the individual to the person who has the solution.

Be careful to think and wait before responding to mistakes or problems. "Shooting the messenger" is a major deterrent to open, two-way communications. Take time to analyze data and encourage other to do the same. Focus on the goals and the root cause of the problem.

Ask people to analyze processes which interfere with their performance and/or the performance of the organization. If you are going to hold people accountable, give them an opportunity to have some say in how they do their work. Active participation will provide greater satisfaction and encourage pride in performance and continuous improvement. Look for opportunities to recognize growth and achievement, and be plentiful with praise. Seek to catch people doing the right thing! Positive reinforcement will help to get people to perform beyond their self-imposed limitation.

Your goal as a coach is to make the most of your most valuable resource, your people; and to maximize the skills, abilities, and knowledge of each person in the organization. Inspiring people to higher levels of performance has a lot to do with spirit, creating excitement, commitment, and desire. It is coaching ordinary men and women to extraordinary achievements.

Our next newsletter will discuss the Leader As Mentor. (part three)

Adapted from Leadership Development, Resource Associates Corporation. All rights reserved worldwide. This material shall not be copied by any means without the express written consent of Resource Associates Corporation