What is leadership coaching?

The leadership coaching definition is a customized and personalized approach for individual leaders that enhances their performance and helps them achieve short-term and long-term organizational goals at any leadership level. A coach observes leaders objectively while they work through their daily routines. Then, they identify and remove potential obstacles such as habits, beliefs or fears that prevent the leader from meeting objectives or achieving goals.

Types of leadership coaching

Here are some types of leadership coaching you may consider for enhancing your and your managers’ leadership capabilities:

• Executive coaching: Executive coaching is one-on-one coaching that helps executives improve their performance, develop new leadership skills, prepare for advancement and overcome obstacles. Organizations request coaches from outside their company to work with executives for a set amount of time or a specific number of coaching sessions.
• Behavioral coaching for leaders: The main goal of behavioral coaching is for coaches to help leaders make long-term changes regarding their behavior, attitude and interpersonal skills. These changes help leaders learn how to motivate their teams and work more effectively with them.
• Business coaching: Business coaching is coaching provided for senior leaders individually or with a team to help them improve their leadership performance within the business environment. The main focus of business coaching is to set strategies that achieve results for the business.
• Strategic coaching: Strategic coaching is a proactive approach for top executives that teaches them how to plan for long-term organizational success using comprehensive strategies. This form of coaching aims to enhance senior leaders’ leadership development and the performance of all employees who report to them.

What can leadership coaching teach managers?

Leadership coaching for managers is highly beneficial. Personalized coaching sessions provide managers and team leaders with skills and techniques that allow them to handle challenges and approach long-term goals with confidence.

Leadership coaching may also teach managers how to:

Improve communication and interpersonal skills

Coaches work with leaders to practice new and effective methods of communication. Leadership coaching also teaches leaders how to communicate and connect with different personality types, which may sharpen their interpersonal skills.

Deal with conflict management and conflict resolution

Leadership coaching assists managers with handling challenging employees and customers effectively. Coaches help to empower managers to deal with conflict and may role play with them to help them deescalate situations before they become a larger issue.

Develop self-confidence

Leadership coaching helps managers develop self-confidence by allowing them the opportunity to self-reflect on their progress and accomplishments throughout the coaching process. This helps empower managers to do exceptional work that they’re confident about.

Find work-life balance

Coaches may teach managers how to prioritize and delegate their work to help them manage their time effectively. This gives managers time for other things that may be important to them.

Strategize more effectively to meet organizational objectives

Coaching enables leaders to remove mental and emotional blocks from their leadership. This helps leaders see a clear pathway to success that allows them to strategize more effectively, producing better results.

Inspire free-thinking

Targeted coaching helps encourage managers to broaden their thinking patterns and consider other ways to think about problems and opportunities. This encourages flexible leadership that allows managers to make precise, quick and creative decisions.

Keep employees engaged

Coaching helps supervisors develop new ways to keep their employees engaged. When team members are engaged and excited about the projects they’re working on, this can help boost both morale and overall production in the workplace.

Become more adaptable to change

Sometimes, managers get stuck doing things the way they’ve always done them. Coaching helps managers adapt to the growth and change that may happen in their organization.

Set well-defined goals for themselves and others

Leadership coaching teaches managers how to follow through on their goals to see progress. This helps them to set well-defined, achievable goals for themselves and their employees.

Cultivate empathy

They teach empathy in leadership coaching to help managers build better relationships and connections with their employees and clients. When leaders treat clients and staff as equals and show them courtesy and respect, this can encourage a continual business relationship with clients and boost employee morale.

Discover their own leadership styles

Coaches discuss leadership techniques and help managers to discover what type of leader they are. This helps managers identify opportunities to adapt their leadership style to organizational goals and objectives.

Develop effective ways to provide feedback

Coaching helps leaders cultivate confidence and communication skills, which helps managers to provide effective, constructive feedback to their employees when necessary. This aspect of managers coaching is especially helpful for leaders who tend to approach feedback with criticism.

Gain new perspectives

Coaches aim to help managers see their leadership style and skills from an outside perspective. This helps them change any behaviors they identify as problematic, and it allows them to utilize new, positive techniques when managing employees and team members.

Build more positive relationships

Most management positions require relationships with clients, customers, colleagues or employees. Coaching helps managers to use the connections they have to build healthy relationships with everyone in their immediate circles. It also gives them the confidence to seek new clients and opportunities that can contribute to the business in a positive way.

Leverage existing strengths

During leadership development coaching sessions, managers discuss their strengths with their coach, and the coach teaches them how to use their strengths to benefit their work and employees. Discussing one’s strengths and receiving positive feedback from a leadership coach allows managers to feel more confident in their leadership skills when assigning workloads, resolving conflicts and dealing with day-to-day challenges.

Build a positive and motivating workplace culture

Leadership development coaching can provide managers with the tools they need to positively shape the overall culture of the workplace. A leadership coach can help managers understand the importance of inclusion and diversity, which in turn can lead to a more positive and motivating work environment for all employees.

Improve business productivity

While business productivity rates are sometimes affected by situations out of a manager’s control, there are also situations in which a manager’s leadership directly affects production. A leadership coach can help managers and team leaders develop stronger problem-solving and critical thinking skills to better handle production challenges and improve overall productivity levels.

Reduce employee turnover rates

Employee turnover is an unfortunate reality in many industries, as employees often leave jobs in which the work environment is more negative than positive or if there are limited opportunities for advancement. Leadership coaches provide managers with tools and skills to help them build trust and develop rapport with employees, which allows them to feel valued, respected and needed.

FAQs about coaching managers

Here are some frequently asked questions about how to coach managers that may provide you with more information:

How long do leadership coaching sessions last?

Leadership coaching sessions between a coach and manager or leader last anywhere from three to 12 months depending on the leader’s coaching needs. Each coaching session lasts for about an hour unless the client requests more time.

What techniques do leadership coaches use?

Leadership coaches may use these techniques to help a client:

• Building trust
• Active listening
• Asking questions
• Performing a fear vs clarity assessment
• Encouraging engagement with goals
• Promoting learning and outcomes
• Providing support with development
• Offering constructive feedback

What can I expect from leadership coaching?

Leadership coaching usually involves a series of steps such as:

• The data-gathering phase: During this phase, the coach finds out information about your background and performance in your current role and former roles within the company.
• Assessment: Next, the coach assesses your current performance by observing your work behavior or by conducting a 360 interview.
• Feedback: Then, the coach provides the manager or leader with feedback using all the data they collected in the previous steps.
• Action plan: Once the coach provides you with feedback, the coach gives you activities to complete with a due date.
• Coaching: Coaching sessions may involve role-playing, devising improvement plans or envisioning success.
• Evaluation and results: Last, the coach sets up a meeting and provides you with the results of their evaluation.

What are the six essential principles of leadership coaching?

The six essential principles of leadership coaching are as follows:

• Creating a safe and supportive yet challenging coaching environment
• Creating a coaching plan within the coachee’s agenda
• Facilitating, collaborating and focusing on the coachee’s needs
• Advocating self-awareness for the coachee
• Promoting learning from experience and fostering experimental learning and development
• Modeling what you coach—coaches must strive to utilize the techniques they teach managers in their outside experiences and daily lives