So have you heard about “Leader as a coach”, which may seem like a cliche, but what an extraordinary combination, if a leader can pull both the tag of a leader and a coach. Will such a leader be well followed, well respected and looked upon too. I suppose so…

Still coaching is an art which is quite misunderstood and usually confused with mentoring or consulting. Most leaders are good at both -mentoring and consulting, but are they truly good at coaching!!!

To understand, Coaching, let’s look at some of the “beliefs of excellence” in the field of NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming). NLP can be used to delve deep into the mind of the coachee to bring out solutions. So the predominant presupposition is :-

• There is solution to every problem, and all the resources we need are within us.

So the underlying principle is that for any issue/problem the person(or team member) facing the issue/problem can come up with the best solution for it himself.

The leader as a mentor, may suggest the team member some solutions based on his own experience(which is quite common), but that may not be the best solution for the team member as the context maybe different and the leader may not have all the underlying details of the issue at hand.

So if the leader can help his team member explore all the options towards the solution, the team member will not only come up with the best solution himself, but also own it, and fully implement it to resolve the issue.

Leaders need to learn the art of coaching and the art of powerful questioning …question which start with What…?, How…? and let the team member explore the issue, make a deep dive into the depth of the issue, reach to the core, and finally understand what he is missing out on. Once the team member can reach to the core of the issue, he will be well adept to reach for the best solution. The solution that he owns and is excited to try out…

What better way to resolve issues and setup goals at workplace, then to get team members to work on their solutions and setting up their goals, which they feel passionate to achieve…

Hence a leader who is a coach will bring much larger change and development in the organisation, which just a leader may not be able to do…