There’s an old saying: You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. In the world of work today, there are a lot of watering holes; not just yours. At first glance, leadership and coaching may seem like opposite activities.

• The former is at the helm; the latter in the stern.
• The former runs ahead; the latter gently nudges from behind.
• The former has the vision; the latter waits to be told.

It seems unimaginable that one person could, or even should do both. Everything about them seems different: their perspectives, their goals, and even their tasks.

In an organisation, we’d expect to see them in the same chain-of-command in much the same way as leaders and managers are. Almost by definition, the roles of leaders and managers seem to be just as dichotomous. Leaders initiate change, while managers strive to maintain the status quo.

Just like that apparent contradiction, however, the roles of leader and coach both need to be fulfilled in the same person. In other words, leaders should coach, and coaches should lead. When we look at athletic teams, we see an example of how this looks in practice.

There is a head coach. This person is in charge - the leader, in other words, and yet his or her role is to coach: That is, it’s to not only point the way, but also to encourage the players to head in that direction.

True leaders have willing followers. By that we mean that no one is forced to follow; to play along. No one is coerced or threatened with dire consequences for failing to do so.

Coaches, on the other hand, have willing students. They are those who seek personal advice. It’s more than, “given a choice between A and B, what should I do?”. Instead, the student wants to know specifically where improvements can be made and exactly what they are.

Professional tennis players have one or more coaches. One may specialise in serves. Another may specialise in certain kinds of shots. Performance coaches help players to have the right attitude and to help them to form rituals that they can go through between points that will bring them back to their “zone” so that they can deliver the next serve perfectly.

Ivan Lendl is a good example of this. You may remember that he always bounced the ball a certain number of times, took a deep breath and let it out, and then served. That wasn’t fatigue or exasperation. It was all part of a carefully designed routine that brought him back to his centre and got him ready for the next serve.

That’s what coaches do. They help you to return to the form that delivered the best results, and they look for incremental changes that you can make to improve your game, whether it’s on the football pitch, at work, or in life.

 

How leaders can coach

Now that we’ve established the connection between leadership and coaching, we need to think about how you as a leader could fulfill the role as a coach, too.

 

Individuals

The first thing that you need to understand is that coaching is a personal activity. It’s one-on-one. Even where teams are involved, all coaching begins with the individuals. That’s because the success of the team depends in the first instance on the skill of those who are in it.

Sometimes we speak of the weakest link. (There was even a television programme made by this name.)

Team effectiveness is never an average. You can’t balance the weakest member with the strongest one. That’s because the work that each member does is unique. There’s no overlap.

And so the team can never be any better than the weakest person on it.

John Wooden knew this. In his 29-year career as head coach, his university basketball team won more than 80% of the games they played, including the national championships for ten years in a row. He worked personally with each of his players to help them be the best that they could be in life; not just on the basketball court.

 

Teams

You’ve probably heard something described as being “greater than the sum of its parts”. That’s the way that teams should be. They should be able to do more than the collective activities of the same number of individuals working alone.

This is where coaches lead. They work with individuals to help them be the best they can be as often as possible, and then they bring everyone together so that as a unit they’re even better. The conductor of an orchestra does exactly the same thing.

The very best of them can make 100 or more people playing a variety of instruments create something that’s so magical that it can reduce an audience to tears or make them stand up and rejoice.

 

How leaders become coaches

 

Think like one.

In order to become a coach, you first of all, have to learn how to think like one. You probably have a pretty good idea of what it means to lead, and as a leader there are certain things that you work on every day.

It’s more than likely that you think about “big picture” stuff, for example, - strategies that will take your entire organisation from where it is to some predetermined future.

You also meet with each of your immediate reports to check on progress since the last time you met. Coaches, as we have seen, are thinking about things on a much more granular level. It could be that you’ll have to imagine that you’re trading your leadership hat for that of a coach.

You could even buy two baseball caps for this purpose. You wouldn’t need to wear them necessarily, except in private. Their purpose would be simply to get you into the right frame of mind.

You see, when all you do is lead, it’s easy to think that others will always be there to follow; but when you coach, it requires a different way of thinking.

There should come a time when you don’t have to switch between the two. Instead, you’ll see how they work together. You’ll recognise how leaders coach, and coaches lead, and you’ll do both simultaneously according to the need.

At the beginning, however, you may need to deliberately choose to look at things like a coach. And it might do you some good to go on a field trip. Go on a day when the weather is decent if you can. You’re going to be outside.

You want to attend a team athletics even, and you want to sit in the front row. Not where you can see the game or the match, but where you can observe how the head coach leads, and how as a leader he or she coaches.

Of course, it would be ideal if you were on the winning side.

 

Practice

The second thing you must do is to practice the actions of a coach. When you act like a leader, there are certain things that you do. When you coach, there are certain other things that you do. If you’re not a competent coach, then in order to be one you have to practice those activities that make coaches what they are.

One way to get a handle on this is to make a list of what you do as a leader, and what coaches do in their role. Then organise them so that to the extent possible, similar activities are side by side. Notice the similarities and the differences. Now you can write out some statements.

• “Instead of X, do Y”.
• “Instead of A, do B”.
• Or, you could write, “Do X like Y” or “do A like B”.

Just as what you do to lead will be different than your peers or those in other organisations, so it will be with coaching. You’ll have to work these things out for yourself.

 

Get a coach

There’s a third thing that you can do, and that is to get a coach yourself. If leadership is what you do best, then it’s unlikely that coaching will be something that you do well naturally.

And so it’s worth getting someone who can help you to delineate between leadership and coaching behaviours, and who can hold you accountable for them. It will take humility to do this, and not everyone has it.

Even so, if it’s important enough to you to learn this essential skill, then you’ll be willing to swallow your pride and make that investment.

 

Conclusion

The workplace has changed - radically. You probably knew that. Leadership is still important, except that people don’t automatically follow in the same manner as they may have done in the past. Instead, they consider whether they should follow you or anyone else.

If you want to influence them today, then you have to give them a good reason for doing so. One way is through coaching. That’s because coaches encourage.

They help people to see how to make comparatively small changes in their lives so that they can get the results that they want. Organisations can no longer expect people to blindly do what they’re told.

That’s for at least two reasons. First, there’s a shortage of people with the skills necessary to get the work done. If you rely on just ordering them about, they’ll leave. Why should they put up with that?

The second reason is that they have more education and general skill than any before them. They are used to solving many of their own problems.

If you don’t believe that, then ask yourself how many functions on your smartphone you understand compared to them. In developed nations, those born in the last 30 years have not known what it’s like not to have a computer. Those born in the past 25 have not known what it was like to not have the Internet.

 

Let that sink in.

The past two generations know what’s possible, where to look for it, and are learning how to get it. You can either help them, in which case they’ll follow you, or you can let someone else do it, but people only follow those who help them to reach their goals.

It’s your choice.

 

 

If you need to improve your ability as a coach or leader – email Bob Hayward now