1323: 5 Coaching Strategies of Top Bosses by Amber Waugaman of AW Coach on Business Management

[00:00:00] This is Optimal Work Daily, Episode 1323.

[00:00:03] 5 Coaching Strategies of Top Bosses by Amber Wagemann of awcoach.co.

[00:00:10] And I am your narrator. My name is Dan and I'm here with you every single day,

[00:00:14] including weekends and holidays, reading to you from these great business-related blogs.

[00:00:18] And I'm going to keep this intro short for you for today's episode.

[00:00:22] And let's get right to it as we optimize your life.

[00:00:29] 5 Coaching Strategies of Top Bosses by Amber Wagemann of awcoach.co.

[00:00:36] Coaching is a severely underutilized leadership skill, and many leaders overestimate the quality

[00:00:41] of their coaching capabilities because they rarely get feedback on their coaching skills.

[00:00:46] Why is coaching so beneficial?

[00:00:48] To simplify it, coaching is extremely beneficial for two reasons.

[00:00:53] One, it is very engaging and motivating for others.

[00:00:56] Coaching develops and engages your high potentials.

[00:00:59] And two, it creates self-accountability.

[00:01:02] The more you coach someone, the more that person reflects on their own

[00:01:05] and starts to do their own postmortem analysis of their successes and failures,

[00:01:10] which informs their future efforts.

[00:01:12] People who are coached are far more invested in the success of their efforts.

[00:01:16] Many leaders prefer to give directions most of the time because coaching requires lots

[00:01:21] of upfront time and patience. Being directive is time-saving in the short term,

[00:01:25] but has no long-term benefit.

[00:01:27] Coaching takes time in the short term and yields many long-term benefits.

[00:01:32] The investment of time now will actually save you time in the long run.

[00:01:36] Not every conversation needs to be a coaching one.

[00:01:38] You must be intentional and use your best judgment about when it's more important to

[00:01:42] be directive and share your domain expertise versus coach for increased improvement of

[00:01:47] performance and capability.

[00:01:49] Here are five foundational coaching strategies that top bosses implement.

[00:01:54] 1. Exhibit no judgment.

[00:01:57] Top bosses create a safe space for the coachee to be open and exhibit vulnerability.

[00:02:02] They don't take things personally because they recognize this isn't about them.

[00:02:06] They maintain an open mindset and exhibit no judgment.

[00:02:09] If people find you closed-minded or judgmental, they won't open up with you.

[00:02:14] Additionally, they need to trust that you will keep what they say confidential.

[00:02:19] 2. Believe in the person's capability and they are wholly resourceful.

[00:02:24] Top bosses acting as a coach come from a place of positive intent.

[00:02:28] They believe that the coachee is capable, resourceful, and a fully functioning human

[00:02:32] who is able and capable to solve their own problems and self-correct when necessary.

[00:02:37] Question yourself.

[00:02:38] Do you truly believe this?

[00:02:40] Can you operate from a place of positive intent?

[00:02:43] If you don't, you need to work on yourself before you try to coach others.

[00:02:47] 3. Ask open-ended questions.

[00:02:50] Top bosses acting as a coach ask open-ended,

[00:02:54] non-leading questions and they prompt for more information to dive deeper.

[00:02:58] Examples are,

[00:02:59] What are you hoping to get out of our conversation today?

[00:03:02] Tell me more about that.

[00:03:04] What would you like to see from that person?

[00:03:06] What are you thinking about doing?

[00:03:08] How are you going to do that?

[00:03:10] What do you make of that?

[00:03:11] What meaning are you assigning to that?

[00:03:14] What's coming up for you?

[00:03:15] And, what's getting in your way?

[00:03:18] A common trap is when leaders ask leading questions where they have a desired outcome

[00:03:22] in mind and are trying to lead the coachee toward their desired outcome or answer or solution.

[00:03:28] Top bosses don't do this.

[00:03:30] When they coach, they don't make it about them and their desired outcome.

[00:03:33] They attempt to learn and understand where the coachee is coming from.

[00:03:37] When a top boss uses this strategy in coaching,

[00:03:40] they might say something like,

[00:03:42] My thought here is X. What do you think?

[00:03:45] And if and when the coachee disagrees with their thought or indicates that it doesn't resonate,

[00:03:50] the top boss doesn't take it personally because they aren't attached to the outcome.

[00:03:55] 4. Validate and Empathize

[00:03:58] Top bosses acting as a coach help others feel heard and valued.

[00:04:02] This is an extremely powerful and underused strategy.

[00:04:05] Far too often, leaders and humans want to dish out advice and help people solve their problems

[00:04:10] without providing space to empathize, acknowledge, and help the person feel heard and valued.

[00:04:16] Top bosses acknowledge the person's courage, beliefs, desires, passions,

[00:04:21] vulnerability, and strengths, and they genuinely empathize when appropriate.

[00:04:26] Examples are,

[00:04:27] I see your strength of teamwork shining through here.

[00:04:30] And, that sounds challenging. Thank you for sharing this.

[00:04:35] And 5. Expand the coachee's perspective

[00:04:39] Top bosses acting as a coach help the coachee expand their perspective

[00:04:43] about themselves, about their perception, and about the situation, problem, or issue.

[00:04:48] Examples are,

[00:04:50] What role are you playing in this?

[00:04:52] How are you in your own way?

[00:04:54] What's going to help you most in making this decision?

[00:04:57] What haven't you thought of yet?

[00:04:58] How do you want to walk away from this situation?

[00:05:01] And, what could you try that you haven't tried yet?

[00:05:05] Top bosses who take a coaching stance talk much less than the coachee during the conversation.

[00:05:10] Like anything, coaching is a skill that must be practiced to learn.

[00:05:14] You have to start somewhere.

[00:05:16] Since most leaders overestimate their coaching abilities due to a lack of feedback,

[00:05:20] try soliciting feedback on your coaching skills.

[00:05:23] You might want to go into a coaching conversation by letting the person know

[00:05:26] that you're going to try a different approach, and then ask them how it was for them.

[00:05:34] You just listened to the post titled,

[00:05:36] 5 Coaching Strategies of Top Bosses by Amber Wagemann of awcoach.co.

[00:05:42] When it comes to hiring, don't go searching for the one.

[00:05:45] Just meet your match with Indeed.

[00:05:48] Indeed is your matching and hiring platform with over 350 million global monthly visitors,

[00:05:54] and a matching engine that helps you find quality candidates fast.

[00:05:58] Ditch the busy work.

[00:05:59] Use Indeed for scheduling, screening, and messaging.

[00:06:02] 93% of employers agree.

[00:06:04] Indeed delivers the highest quality matches compared to other job sites.

[00:06:08] And one of the things I really love about Indeed is that it filters out those incompatible applicants.

[00:06:14] So when you're hiring, the process is much faster and you only have to consider applicants that are

[00:06:18] already likely to be a great fit.

[00:06:21] And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit

[00:06:25] to get your job's more visibility at indeed.com startup.

[00:06:30] So just go to indeed.com startup right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed

[00:06:36] on this podcast.

[00:06:37] Indeed.com startup.

[00:06:40] Terms and conditions apply.

[00:06:43] And we want to thank Amber for letting us share articles from her website.

[00:06:46] Amber Wagemann provides crucial development coaching to leaders and professionals.

[00:06:51] She partners with you or your organization to upskill, reskill, establish, expand,

[00:06:57] and apply highly effective leadership skills, grow, strengthen, and sustain long-lasting

[00:07:03] transferable skills, heighten self-awareness, and overcome insecurities, low confidence,

[00:07:09] and imposter syndrome.

[00:07:10] To learn much more, you can check out her website, which again is awcoach.co.

[00:07:16] And that does it for today here on Optimal Work Daily.

[00:07:18] I do hope you enjoyed this post from Amber and that you'll join me again tomorrow

[00:07:22] where your optimal life awaits.