11/05/2019

Lead With a Coaching Mindset

This helps employees stay flexible in a constantly shifting workplace

In associations, we tend to think about those familiar “many hats” through one perspective: the people who have to wear them. And though just about everybody I’ve ever talked to about the phenomenon has a smirking sense of humor about it—OK, guess I’m VP of global operations now on top of running membership—there’s no question that it’s a challenging position to be in, not just for the people who have to do the job but for those who have to manage them.

For leaders, that means supervising a team may have to evolve beyond the familiar command-and-control role that typically involves enforcing job responsibilities and making sure everybody hits their targets and deadlines. In that context, management shifts into more of a coaching role, to help employees stay flexible in a workplace that’s consistently asking them to do new things.

In “The Leader as Coach,” published recently in Harvard Business Review, London Business School professor Herminia Ibarra explores the new skill sets that managers need to acquire to do this kind of work. Ibarra’s model is one in which “managers give support and guidance rather than instructions, and employees learn to adapt to constantly changing environments.”

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.