Based on the readings reflect upon the statement below.
This statement suggests clients already have answers to their problems within themselves, however, they are unable to bring those solutions to the surface on their own. This is when they turn to an executive coach for guidance. However, this is not limited to executive coaches since great leaders often find themselves serving a coaching role often. For example, executive coach can be changed to leader and client can be changed to follower in the statement above to illustrate the leader/coach and follower relationship.
The Situational Leadership model consists of four styles (S1-S4) with levels of leadership behavior all relating to tasks (goals) and relationships (people). S2 is a “Selling” strategy with a high people focus and a high goal focus. This is typically associated with leaders needing followers to ‘buy-in’ to the strategy and increase ownership. S3 is an “Involving” strategy with a high people focus and a low goal focus. The leader may not have the answer in these situations or may want the followers to discover the solution on their own. Going back a few weeks when we discussed chaos theory, I remember an attractor is a plot of action on a phase space diagram. Period attractors are “where the action revolves around a specific part of a phase space diagram” (Obolensky, 2014, p. 175). This is relevant because pairing strategies create paired periodic attractors, one being the coaching attractor. This attractor is created from pairing the S2 (Sell) and the S3 (Involve) strategies together. Obolensky (2014) suggests the coaching attractor is the “most powerful and also demands the greatest skill” (p. 179). Coaching also bridges the gap between S1/2 (Selling/Telling) where the leader is being the leader and S3/4 (Involving/Devolving) where the leader encourages the follower to lead. Furthermore, coaching facilitates moving the individual towards level 5 followership.
So how does a leader successfully perform as a coach? Obolensky (2014) suggests the most effective approach is to use the “GROW model coupled with a questioning technique which makes use of a mix of open/closed and suggestive/non-suggestive questions” (p. 179). GROW stands for the type of questions asked: Goal, Reality, Options, and Will. Since clients/followers are the best experts at solving their problems and achieving their ambitions, GROW enables them to find their way. We typically associate the coaching process with leaders coaching followers, or executive coaches coaching their clients. However, it is important to note that everyone can be coached, including leaders. As a matter of fact, “there’s no question that future leaders will need constant coaching. As the business environment becomes more complex, they will increasingly turn to coaches for help in understanding how to act” (Coutu, Kauffman, Charan, Peterson, Mccoby, Scoular, & Grant, 2009). Would it make sense to think that some of the sports greats such as Brett Favre, Derek Jeter, or Michael Jordan didn’t have coaches until the day they retired? No. They received coaching throughout their entire career to make them the exceptional players the were. Leadership is no different. Great leaders can become better leaders as there will always be areas to improve and coaches can help facilitate these improvements.
References:
Coutu, D., Kauffman, C., Charan, R., Peterson, D. B., Maccoby, M., Scoular, P. A., & Grant, A. M. (2009). What Can Coaches Do for You?. Harvard Business Review, 87(1), 91-97.
Obolensky, N. (2014). Complex adaptive leadership: embracing paradox and uncertainty (2nd ed.). Farnham, Surrey, UK: Gower.
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