Learning to incorporate Coaching Principles into your Leadership Style involves acquiring both new Skills and new levels of Awareness.

One key awareness of the ”Leader as Coach” is Who Owns the Problem/Challenge.

The Owner of the Problem/Challenge is the person or team being coached… not the Coach/Leader!

As a Leader who is using Coaching Principles, you will naturally focus your efforts on helping the team arrive at their own solution. We collaborate on understanding the problem more deeply and arriving at appropriate action steps.

The focus is on how the Team will respond to the Challenge.

The Coach/Leader is responsible for creating the environment where the team can do it’s best work. The team is made to feel capable and resourceful in finding their own solutions. Their best collaborative effort is put forth.

Now this sounds simple, however, let’s look at what happens when the Leader/Coach takes responsibility for the problem.

WATCH OUT: When I think the problem is mine, several behaviors naturally occur.

• I think I am solely responsible for the solution - and start to work way too hard
• I tell the team what to do
• The Team Members don’t think or contribute - because I am not asking for it - they become “sheep” waiting for me to tell them what to do and where to go
• The Team gets the subconscious message that I don’t trust them to come up with a solution
• The collective knowledge and experience of the Team is left untapped.

As an effective Leader/Coach the focus is on your Team; not you.

• Not how You did,
• Not what You know,
• Not how good You looked,
• Not whether You were right or not.

The focus is on how You create the Environment/Context where your team can meet it’s own  challenges, growing their skills and confidence along the way.

Practice this difference in attitude and awareness and you will be making powerful steps toward incorporating Coaching into your Leadership Style.