Many of the skills of a great coach are equally effective for a great leader – emotional intelligence, able to provide feedback, capable of creating strong working relationships, comfortable challenging the thinking of another, willing to ‘speak the truth’ when it’s most important, and the list goes on. Of course the question is which coaching skills might a leader adopt to get the best results in these all-important human interactions.
We think a good starting point is in the fundamentals of inquiry – the questions we ask and the way we ask these questions, along with the timing and the setting. Inquiries and well-timed questions can quite simply change the nature of our interaction, our relationship and our capacity to actively engage in development opportunities with those who work on our teams. We often encourage leaders to adopt the mantra of: “Ask more and tell less.” Sounds simple enough, right?
Download our Ask More, Tell Less White Paper to find out why this approach is so important as well as some high-value questions that will help you develop you and your teams' leadership skills.