CoaChing as a ManageMent style: An excerpt from The Extraordinary Coach: How the Best Leaders Help O

What is Business CoaChing?

Say the word coaching and an image immediately comes to mind. For some, the image is NBA coach who watches his superstar from the sidelines and points out speci c ac- tions that the star should take in order to win the game. For others, the image is that of a wise sage o ering profound insight about some weighty matter. For others, the term conjures up images of someone answering questions based on lots of experience, like the columnist in the newspaper who dispenses advice about the thorniest family problems. ereare,ofcourse,countlessotherimagesandvariations of the ones we have just described.

When it comes to business coaching, all of these images are largely incorrect.As a matter of fact,they actually run counter to what we believe high-quality business coaches actually do. On occasion, a skilled business coach does give advice or of- fer suggestions; however, this is not the main thrust of what such a coach does. e best business coaches act as a valuable mirror for their direct reports and help them to better assess what they are doing and how they are doing it.

ManageMent status Quo

Coaching seems like a new idea to many managers. One reason for that could well be that societal values have changed dramatically and our leadership practices have been scrambling to catch up. is is epitomized in the dramatic shift in child-rearing practices. It seems that modern parents spend endless hours negotiating with their children, whereas their own parents and certainly their grandparents would have been highly directive. e Internet has democratized information so that everyone

has access to all but the most guarded, classi ed informa- tion. Globalization has made diversity of backgrounds and styles a welcome practice and a business necessity.

Management practices have evolved to a small degree, but they have not kept pace with what has happened in society. Remarkably little has changed when it comes to the basics of management. Most leaders tend to gravitate to an area on the continuum, usually without much thought or intention. ey do not consciously choose their lead- ership style; instead, their leadership style is de ned over timeandbypatternsofaction.Interestingly,Tannenbaum and Schmidt rst articulated the various approaches to leadership—laissez-faire, autocratic, and collaborative—in 1958 and expanded on their original writings in 1973.Tan- nenbaum and Schmidt noted that the work environments that seemed to function best were those in which there was the most felt and expressed control and in uence.

If employees want control and in uence in their work environments, which management style is the best? And how does coaching t in to all this? We will explain the an- swers to these questions by addressing the three leadership styles—laissez-faire, autocratic, and collaborative—what each looks like and common reactions of direct reports.

Laissez-Faire Leadership: Who is driving the Bus?

What does laissez-faire leadership look like? is would be the leader who is “hands o ”or even absent.Sometimes the Laissez- Faire leader has good intentions; many leaders adopt this style of leadership with their highest-performing employees, believing that the high performers do not need “managing.”

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If you ask who has control and in uence in a laissez-faire system, it would seem on the surface that the employees must have them, since the leader seems to be abdicating them. However, if you ask these same employees how much control or in uence they feel they have, they will quickly say things like:

“I’m not sure how I am performing; there is little or no feedback.”
“ ere is no clear sense of direction, so I hope that I have been working on the right things.”
“I feel like I am drifting along, but no one is really paying attention.”

Over time, it seems that employees who are given great latitude (or who are simply ignored) feel untethered and ungrounded. While there seems to be a move toward laissez-faire leadership for some high-potential employ- ees and also for highly technical personnel, some of the recipients interpret this style as “benign neglect.”

If this is your approach with high performers, or even your overall leadership style, we would challenge you to consider moving toward the middle of the continuum. Your highest performers are often the employees who are most interested in growth and development; treating them with a hands-o approach is a risky strategy indeed.

autoCratiC Leadership: “My Way or the highWay”

What does autocratic leadership look like? It includes the highly directive leader who issues orders and commands and the leader whose guidance seems to suggest “my way or the highway.”Who has in uence and control in an au- tocratic system? e leader. Employees feel that they have very little of it, if they have any at all. Over time, this type of leadership system seems to promote compliance rather than commitment on the part of employees. Employees stop bringing forth their good ideas and new ways of thinking about things, as they know that their ideas will be shunned or overlooked.

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CoLLaBorative Leadership

In virtually every dimension of Western life outside of business, there has been a remarkable shift from autocratic relationships to much more collaborative interactions. is is true of marriages, parenting, educa- tion, and even our local political processes. Still, some business leaders have retained the autocratic style. Why? We will o er some possible reasons later in this article. But rst, some have argued that the collaborative posi- tion is the one that requires the greatest e ort and the healthiest egos.

What does collaborative leadership look like, and why does it work? You can probably conjure up the image of a leader working alongside her employees, genuinely focused on solving problems together. Leaders and employees partner, with no threats of power or need to use hierarchy to in uence decisions. Leaders are willing to listen and be in uenced, and employees, in turn, are more likely to contribute and feel a sense of ownership. Who has control and in uence in a collaborative system? Both leaders and employees feel that their contributions matter and that they can in uence both the processes and the end results. at is why the collaborative system works so well: both leaders and employees are invested in the process and the outcomes.

ConCLusion

Coaching is the leadership practice that makes the col- laborative leadership style work. As Gary Hamel has repeatedly argued, the underlying philosophy and lead- ership practices that are in vogue today were established in the early decades of the twentieth century, when the objective was to get semiskilled individuals to perform tasks repeatedly with ever-greater e ciency. Organiza- tions need to become more inspiring and more human in order to meet the needs of the people who populate them today. Coaching is one of the best ways to achieve this, creating greater interaction between leaders and direct reports, and thereby aligning goals and progress.

John h. zenger, d.B.a., is the CEO and co-founder of Zenger Folkman. In 1994 he was inducted into the Human Resource Development Hall of Fame. He is the author or co-author of seven books on leadership and teams and is considered one of the most authoritative voices on improving organizational performance and developing leadership.

Kathleen Stinnett is a Senior Consultant with Zenger Folkman and has earned the Master Certi ed Coach credential through the Inter- national Coach Federation. She works as an executive coach and passionately believes in the power of coaching to help individuals achieve greater performance and ful llment. She is a master trainer with Zenger Folkman and co-designer of the Extraordinary Coach program.

ContaCt us phone 801.705.9375 email info@zengerfolkman.com internet www.zengerfolkman.com