Assessing Team Health
Janet Walls, President of Delta Blvd, said that she asks five key questions to determine a team’s readiness for leadership coaching. I think they are excellent:
- Does the team push each other?
- Is there trust among team members?
- Will they speak with radical candor?
- Are they holding each other accountable?
- Do they have a focus on results?
Assessing team health is the job of a coach and the job of a leader.
In the first half of our discussion, we covered some basics: who should get leadership training, what it can do for you, when you need a coach as opposed to a mentor. Now we get into some more advanced topics, including the idea of getting a coach for your entire leadership team. That can be a very different situation and call for a very different dynamic. In addition, we talk a bit about when—or if—it might be time to move on from one coach to another or take a pause from coaching. It’s a great session, and vitally important for anyone who wants to continue improving their leadership skills.
Leadership Coaching Expectations
We also talked about what to expect from leadership coaching. Among the many ideas we shared were:
- Behavioral change
- Skills and competencies in a few areas
- Managing weaknesses and maximizing strengths
- Sustained team performance
- Leadership owning professional growth
Janet made the great point that a great coach will, “educate you on how, as you move up, you’ll need to ‘lose’ old skills and gain new ones.” That’s an incredibly important idea, and one I’d like to follow up on in terms of how leaders need to be thoughtful and even planful about their behavior.
When you are new to a career, there are a lot of things you can say and do as you learn the ropes that are fine… but later, those actions may not be as effective. Many people, under stress or even when just trying to be friendly or engaging, tend to revert to earlier forms of behavior and this can both hold you back as a leader, and be damaging to your team. The answer? Work with a leadership coach! Have someone observe you in your daily habits and help you reflect on which ones serve you well, and which should be pruned judiciously.
Listen in and start thinking about reaching out to a leadership coach for yourself.
Image Credit: Ihor Malytskyi
