Great Leaders Are Great Coaches

The secret to true leadership lies in the ability to coach masterfully.

The great Bill Campbell also known as the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) of executive and business coaching would say that your people make you their leader. Your job title will make you a manager, but your team will make you the leader. Therefore the priority of every great leader should be the well being of their people.

It sounds simple and obvious — but let me tell you, having spent 20 years in the corporate world and workspace has beguiled this notion of ‘your people first’, in my personal experiences. Slipping into negative mode — my frustration of experiencing poor leaders and leadership is one which has followed me throughout my career. Bad managers exist in all shapes and forms and I, unfortunately have fallen victim to this impediment, throughout my years, far too many times — to the point I have felt like pulling out my hair!

The main reason for this has always been the feeling and actual realization that my manager, simply does not care. They are far too busy brown nosing their superiors and others. Don’t you just hate boot polishers and suck ups in the workplace? It drives me insane, sometimes. It happens too often and it’s no wonder people, teams and companies fail to succeed or perform optimally.

There are a multitude of reasons as to why this could be so — it will take a book to talk about all of the root causes and their manifestations. So, for now I will focus on one area that is most lacking and the most frustrating when experiencing poor leadership in the workplace; and that is the inability to build trusting relationships and lack of care (or empathy) for others.

Here are a few great ways to develop the skills to build amazing trusting relationships with your people and demonstrate that you care (this is the first step to becoming a truly great leader):

Learn and practice openness & transparency

So why be so clandestine — what is the secret? I get it — there are boundaries at work and what can and can’t be shared. But being so secretive and unapproachable is a guaranteed, sure fire way to distance you from your people. Always keep your communication simple, clear and avoid nonsense jargon, that just goes over peoples heads.

The key here is to have an open door policy — your role is to serve and support your people not the other way around. Your communication methods and messages say a great deal about your ability to care about delivering concise and clear messages. Avoid being aloof — it is probably the most destructive way to lose your team and peoples respect (I once had to learn this the hard way myself!)

Build rapport through humility and humbleness

Don’t just attempt to build rapport for the sake of building it. It’s not just part of your job — it’s about understanding your people on an individual level (their needs, weaknesses, strengths, likes, dislikes, etc). Whether that person is a senior member of your team or a new graduate at the bottom of the work hierarchical ecosystem. Treat everyone equally, by giving your time and consideration. Trust me — people notice your behaviors on a micro-level and they are looking for you to be there on equal par — not someone who is above them.

Be an awesome sounding board by being present

I once had a line manager who would sit in her corner office all day without even coming onto the floor and even saying good morning or hello. I call this the ‘corner-office syndrome’. Just because you reside in your superficial corner glass office all day — doesn't mean people are not observing your behaviors.

Your job is to be present — be there for people. Your role is to help solve their bottle necks and problems in order for them to perform at their jobs optimally. Not the other way around. Be their ‘rock’ — and don’t ever abdicate responsibility, when things go wrong. Support them to resolve issues and challenges.

Coach like you mean it!

I won’t badger on about the outdated GROW coaching model and other coaching processes or frameworks. I’ve learnt that the greatest leaders are always amazing coaches. They listen actively, they take notes, they trust you wholeheartedly, they help you resolve your issues and challenges by offering solutions and most importantly they hold you accountable by using empathy and giving you true and honest feedback to help you improve your performance and grow as an individual or team.

“Managers help people see themselves as they are. Leaders help people to see themselves better than they are.” — Jim Rohn