The Leader as Coach

Christopher McCluskey and Chris Ihrig

As caring leaders, it is our goal to help those who work under us get in touch with how their passions intersect with God's work in the world—to identify those things that will inspire them to fulfill God's will for their lives. Taking on a coaching role is how leaders can do this for their employees. You take where they are working right now, help them cast a clearer vision for where they believe God wants them to be, and help them figure out how to close the gap. Coaching is calling people to the rich and abundant life of being what God created and called them and gifted them to be.

As a manager, we all have different styles. But no matter what your temperament and style, if you can add this coaching model to your repertoire, you will be able to engage and inspire people. You can get in touch with who they are and what they're passionate about. As managers and leaders, we have a responsibility to lift up and encourage people. Coaching enables you to do that. It is truly engaging and dialoguing with someone so they can get in touch with who they are and what God wants them to be. It is life transformation through relationship. It is empowering people to recognize that they have more to draw upon than a job description and the things their boss said need to be done.

What Coaching is Not

Some things that jump into our minds when we hear the term "coaching" are mentoring, counseling, and discipling. But coaching isn't any of those things. In mentoring, counseling, and discipling, there is a master/teacher and an apprentice/student. You are interacting with your employee as someone who has the answers, who has mastered a field and is passing on your expertise. You are working from the outside in—telling them, helping them learn this information and put it into practice. You are in some way directing the employee.

Each of those roles has a place in the leader/employee relationship. But there is another tool you can add to your arsenal of management techniques, another hat you can put on in situations where it would work well—COACHING. In coaching, you are on a level playing field. You are seeking to draw out from the employee what they bring to the table. You are looking at the person's life side by side, not top down. You are reaching into the individual where they already are and helping them become more aware of what they already know—their strengths, gifts, calling. You are trying to bring them to a greater awareness of those things and how they can employ that in their current situations.

Benefits of Coaching

When you coach an employee, they learn how to move beyond following their job description or the latest mandate that has come down from the top. They become empowered and encouraged and aware of their own calling, and their creativity gets freed. All of us get energy from working in our area of passion. As you coach your people, both you and they will get a better sense of how God has equipped them. You can make sure they are in a job that fits them, and they will catch the vision for how their job fits in with their personal calling and the vision of your ministry. You are energizing their passion.

Most teams have people in three different categories of workers, and the coaching model can benefit all three.

• There are the stellar performers, people who achieve at a high level. These people don't need much help from you as a leader—if anything, you're giving them more and more work because you trust them. But these folks probably never have the opportunity to sit down and just talk about what's important in their lives. You can coach them into greater passion for their work as they identify new areas God is calling them to.
• Then there is a middle group. They are doing a good job, but aren't quite clicking at a high level. They respond to coaching well because they just need a tweak here or there to get them to the next level.
• The third group takes 80 percent of your energy. They are the "disgruntled employee of the month." They desperately need you to coach them to help clarify their role and give them a sense of passion.

Seven Coaching Skills

When we talk about coaching, there are seven key skills.

1. Active Listening
   We have all heard how important active listening is, but we rarely put it into practice because it takes single-minded focus. Active listening is really listening and hearing what someone is saying, what they are not saying, or what they are saying through body language. It requires being fully present with the person. Most coaching takes place when someone interrupts you with a problem. It's so easy to be keep thinking about what you were doing, or what you're going to do next, instead of tuning in to the person who has just come to you for help.
   
   Here are some tips for active listening:
   • Make eye contact
   • Give your full attention
   • Be truly curious
   • Listen to understand, not to respond (don't think about your response, just try to understand what they are saying)
   • Reflect back what you heard them saying
     

Sometimes all a person needs from us is active listening and a reflection back of what they were saying. It validates and diffuses their feelings and helps you as the coach see the picture clearly. Sometimes people say to me, "Chris, this is so helpful for me to hear myself articulating what I'm wrestling with, and when I hear you say it back at me, I suddenly see it so much more clearly. Not only do I see the struggle, but suddenly the answers become more evident."

There are four levels of listening. Level 1 is listening for information. Sometimes this is all we need: "Where is the copier?" Level 2 is listening for their interpretation of what the situation means to them. Level 3 is listening with—it is when two people are hearing the same thing and intuitively "get it" at the same time. Level 4 is listening in the Spirit—those times when God has entered in and given us a message. Coaching should take place at level 2, 3, and 4 listening.

2. Clarifying Vision and Mission
   When you're coaching someone, you are not looking to tune them into the "self." You want them to plug into the larger vision of the organization and their particular mission within that. You want them to see the part of the vision that they are responsible for. This will take root when you are able to draw this vision awareness out of them rather than directing them to the organization's vision statement.
   
   This is the part of coaching where you say, "So this is where we are. Let's look down the path and see where we're going 6 months or 3 years down the road. What do you need to do next? What will be three steps that will move you in that direction?" Stephen Covey says that we need to begin with the end in mind. If your person feels like they are trudging up the mountain, it can feel exhausting and overwhelming. But if you can take them in their mind to what it will be like at the pinnacle of the mountain, then they can look down the mountain and see the path more clearly. They will be able to understand the reason for trudging through all that difficulty. Take them to the top of the mountain so they can see what the next step to getting there needs to be.
   
   
3. Grounding the Vision in Core Values
   The "why" of our vision should be grounded in core values. Sometimes, through coaching, you discover that the vision a person is pursuing isn't undergirded by their values. If you can pull from a person what they sense their life to be about, they can get a sense of why they are carrying out this vision. They begin to understand why the vision is important for them. In the process, they will buy into the vision.
   
   
4. Artful Questioning
   As mentioned earlier, coaching isn't about having all the answers. In fact, it's mainly about asking the right questions. You need to learn to be an expert in probing, in being curious, in exploring. You want to ask open-ended questions that invite curiosity. Sometimes you need to leave a person with questions to think about, and know that you can't come up with an answer in that session.
   
   
5. Playing to a Person's Strengths
   This is the part of a coaching session where you help the person identify what they bring to a situation. They are well aware of their weaknesses, but maybe they are not appreciating how their strengths might help them in a particular situation. As a manager, it helps to start with a spiritual gifts inventory or psychological battery. That way you can help your employees be in roles that play to their strengths.
   
   When someone comes to you feeling unable to deal with a problem with a co-worker, you can diffuse the situation by complimenting his or her strengths. Tell them, "I can see that you've used some good strategies already, but they're just not working." Or "I'm glad you've taken some initiative in dealing with this. You've done a great job of developing the relationship, and that gives you a good starting point."
   
   
6. Anticipate and Deal with Obstacles
   Again, go to the top of the mountain and try to look back at the path and anticipate what roadblocks you might have run into and how you could get around them. Begin with the end in mind. Brainstorm with the person: what could you do? What else could you do? If they are stuck, come up with some possible solutions, preferably outrageous ones: "Well, what if you did this?" This "what if" process somehow jumpstarts people's creativity and gets them into brainstorming mode. Before you know it, they will have come up with several possible solutions—without a top-down management decision from you.
   
   When you help the person come up with their own way of dealing with obstacles, you have empowered them. They feel confident that they can fix the problem. You have shifted the way they view their role by making them aware of their power to bring change to the situation. Next time they face a difficulty they might not even need your help, because they understand how they can come up with solutions on their own.
   
   
7. Challenge and Encourage
   No matter how great a coaching session you've had, chances are good that the person you've coached will have lost steam and maybe even forgotten about your conversation a few weeks later. Now your job as coach is to hold out the vision for them and remind them of the power that fueled it: their passions. Remind them of what they have discovered, what they care about it. Remind them of the rewards that come with pursuing their passion.

Adapted from a workshop presented at a Christian Management Association annual conference. Christopher McCluskey is a certified life coach and president of Coaching for Christian Living. It is a private coaching service specializing in life balance, simplicity, and marriage enrichment. He is also the director of the Christian track at the Institute of Life Coach Training. Chris Ihrig is human resource and international business consultant for World Vision United States, a global partnership team. He has had the privilege of coaching World Vision leaders from around the world.