ON-DEMAND: The Benefits of Adopting a Coaching Leadership Style

We know we couldn't get to all your questions during the webinar, so our TaskHuman coaches have responded below:

• Question: How could the employee help his/her leader discover, and understand the advantages and value of the coaching leadership style, in case his/her leader doesn't express interest in exploring this style when introduced to it?
  
  TaskHuman Coach: Expressing your curiosity to learn and be coached can be a good starting point. Asking for feedback, and showing your willingness to learn new skills and be exposed to new experiences are also great ways to show your eagerness to be coached. Lastly to practically ensure that you will dedicate time for this, book specific 1:1 time.
• Question: How do you handle defensiveness from team members when you are providing feedback? Even more so when you have to provide feedback about different things. These conversations can be so uncomfortable because I always aim to make people feel heard and understood too.
  
  TaskHuman Coach: Well done for your aim to ensure that people are heard and understood, it builds trust. Some tips on providing feedback: always communicate that your intent is to raise your team members’ self-awareness and to help them improve their skills. Remember to talk about the behavior, not the personality, and through powerful questions and hear listening explore and agree together the way forward and the actions to improve.
• Question: Or, what if the Employee is set in their ways and lacks the basic foundations of the role? How do you navigate that with this coaching style ?
  
  TaskHuman Coach: Where one could start with an employee set in their ways is to identify through powerful questions and active listening. What can be the motivator for changing their behavior? If there are foundational skills missing there might be training required, mentoring, and shadowing that can be used complementary to coaching.
• Question: What is a good way for an organization to reward leaders for exploring/embracing a coaching leadership style?
  
  TaskHuman Coach: Role modeling from the leaders of coaching behavior, promoting employees who are good coaches, introducing rewards such as the best coach, and investing in capability-building programs for leaders to develop these skills.
  
  We hope these answers are helpful for you and, potentially, your team. Share your knowledge. Let us know how it goes via programs@taskhuman.com.