What sort of leadership style do you possess? Do you coach your employees to find the right solutions, or do you tell them what to do? If you’re in a directive mentality instead of a coaching mentality, it’s time to change your ways.
If you often find yourself saying, “I told them,” or “I’ll go tell them,” you may be more of a directive CEO than a coach. This happens especially with emerging leaders or CEOs. They rely far too much on telling people what to do, rather than guiding them. They go tell an employee to do something, and the employee does it. But the employee doesn’t do it because they’re necessarily meant for the task or good at the particular task, or even because they want to. They do it simply because the CEO told them to. Because they weren’t coached and given the freedom to figure out how to complete the task on their own, the employee may struggle. The CEO notices, has to get involved again, and may question whether the employee is having a performance issue. The CEO may even wonder if they have the right team in place.
An entirely different outcome could have resulted had the CEO coached the employee instead of directing them. To adopt a coaching leadership style, the CEO should guide the employee based upon their strengths. This allows the freedom for the employee to complete the task of their own accord, rather than being told exactly what to do. This allows for more freedom, creativity, and a sense of responsibility. The CEO then helps the employee develop, rather than stunting their growth by telling them exactly what to do and not giving them the freedom to think on their own.
As a CEO, your mission should be to help develop your employees. When you help to develop them by taking on a coaching approach, they begin elevating, and in turn the team begins to perform better. You’ll notice that if you begin to coach department heads, they will begin to coach the people under them as well.
Some CEOs may struggle to develop their teams by coaching them based on their strengths. It could be because they are a dominating leader (a seagull), or it could be because they’re uncomfortable with coaching so they avoid it completely. If you want to build a better, stronger team that turns a higher profit, begin adopting a coaching leadership approach.
To learn more about what I have to say about this important subject, listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpiYsN5UmA0&list=PL5lGfMdexeb9Muq15qg-BeqT-hrKqIFKl&index=9