8 Coaching Steps for Leaders

Hi there and welcome. It’s Kerstin Jatho here from 4Seeds Consulting, a transformational coach who shifts people from languishing to flourishing. In this video, I want to provide leaders with eight coaching steps.

So, leaders right now have to be very multi-skilled or, as the modern word is, ‘ambidextrous’.

They have to be coaches, mentors, cheerleaders, decision-makers; they really have a lot of roles to juggle at the same time. But one skill that would really help a leader to master all of that, is if they start bringing in a coaching mindset. And what is that? A coaching mindset is about asking a lot of questions, not having the answers, and perhaps exploring them together with your team.

Even if you do have the answers, ask a lot of questions because you’ll be amazed sometimes at the outcome that comes out of asking questions, and involving your team enhances participation, engagement, productivity, making them feel part of it.

So coaching is a fairly new profession. When I say new, I’m talking 20 to 25 years.

And yes, it officially is a profession, which means it does involve training. But as a leader, you don’t have to go through all that rigmarole of getting the training and spending perhaps a year or two of going through the certification process. You just really need to follow these eight steps, which will help you.

Eight coaching steps for leaders:

Step 1

The first step is to understand what the objective is you are trying to solve. So, be very clear and if you are not clear, then you really have to home in on that because otherwise you solve every other problem except the one that you should be solving.

Step 2

The second one is to write down, “What do we know about this problem situation?”

Step 3

The third one is “What don’t we know about the situation?”

Step 4

The fourth one is understanding, “Where are we right now? And where do we ideally want to be. What does the ultimate look like?” The minute you understand “we are here, we want to go here, these are our gaps, this is what we have, and this is what we don’t have,” you already start designing a roadmap.

Step 5

The fifth one is to ask many open-ended questions. So, those are questions that you can’t answer with yes or no because that is actually a time-wasting question. You’d have to re-ask it. So, open-ended questions are questions that you would ask with what, how, who, or when. They are really trying to create exploration.

Step 6

The sixth one is to listen. Listen to understand and listen with curiosity. Try and understand the other person’s perspective. Be curious on how they actually got there. It doesn’t matter if you agree or don’t agree with it. That is irrelevant, but what makes this person come to this conclusion? That is where the curiosity lies and perhaps even the nugget.

Step 7

The seventh one is to summarise in between a conversation. So, to recap, to paraphrase, just to make sure that you are continuously all on the same page. To just bring in some pauses, to reflect, because it’s a conversation that happens.

Step 8

And the eighth step, which is crucial, but it’s so often left out, is to design action items or action steps. But not just to list them, but really be specific on by when they need to be completed, and who needs to be given feedback, or needs to be informed about them.

So, that process, these eight steps, really help create a coaching conversation, be it in an individual setting, or as a team, it brings in a lot of clarity and conversation. It does take a bit more time, but you’ll be surprised. You’ll receive way more decisions, better quality decisions, and I think you have most probably not thought of yourself.

So, try these eight steps and see what happens in your team and the depth of the conversations you have with your team.

Over to you for sharing your comments and experiences.

How comfortable are you to not having the answers to challenges?