The Power of Coaching in Modern Leadership with Nancy Nouaimeh

In a rapidly changing world, how can leaders transform their teams from functional to extraordinarily dynamic? In this episode of Leadership Coaching for Excellence, I'm Nancy Nouaimeh, sharing insights from my 24-year journey as a Leadership Technical Coach. Discover how modern managers can create learning, innovation, and adaptability by shifting from command-and-control to a coaching-focused leadership style.

We’ll explore practical coaching techniques, such as the GROW model (Goal, Reality, Options, Will), and situational coaching, demonstrating their impact with real-life examples like Alex's project management challenges. Learn how to turn the tide on team disengagement and foster a thriving coaching culture.

Join us as we unlock the secrets to building a supportive team environment that emphasizes psychological safety, emotional intelligence, and continuous feedback. Inspired by leaders like Satya Nadella at Microsoft, we'll discuss actionable steps to promote diversity, inclusion, and a sense of belonging within your organization. Tune in to become the coach your team truly needs.

Chapters

• 0:13 Leadership Coaching for Excellence
• 8:56 Building a Coaching Culture for Success

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:13

Hello and welcome to the Excellence Foresight Podcast. We often hear that the leaders of the future need to be futurists, humanists, tech-savvy as wise as Yoda, explorers, translators, great communicators, global citizens, and still they need to remain servant leaders to their team. So the question is how can they achieve that? Today, I will share insights from my 24-year career and recent experiences as a leadership coach. In this episode of the Excellence Foresight podcast on leadership coaching for excellence, we'll focus on practices crucial for future leaders, particularly those who strive to empower and unite their teams toward their true north. So let's dive in. I'm Nancy Noemi, your host. Today, we'll discuss how modern managers can foster learning, innovation and adaptability through coaching. First, by being coached for leadership excellence and second, by becoming coaches themselves to lead high-performing teams. In the past, successful careers began by expertise in a specific domain. Doing your job well meant doing and having the right answers. If you proved yourself, you'd climb the ladder and eventually move into management. As a manager, you directed your team, taught them and evaluated their performance. Command and control was the norm, and the goal was to ensure employees could reproduce fast successes. But not today. Rapid, constant and disruptive change is now the norm. 21st century managers simply don't and can't have all the right answers. Companies are shifting from command and control practices to a model where managers provide support and guidance. Employees they learn to adapt, are leeching fresh energy, innovation and commitment. In short, the role of the manager is becoming that of a coach, challenged by how to provide the right support to their teams in times of rapid change. This shift is significant. Research shows more companies are training their leaders as coaches. Making coaching integral to a learning culture isn't just about external consultants. It's about managers within the organization engaging continuously with employees. The key to effective coaching involves asking questions instead of providing answers, supporting rather than judging, and facilitating development instead of dictating tasks. So let me ask you this first question what strategies do you use to foster a learning culture within your team? Do you do that? Have you ever thought about it? Skilled coaching unlocks people's potential to maximize their performance. The best practitioners impart knowledge and help others discover it themselves, balancing both in different situations. Many managers resist coaching, finding it soft or uncomfortable. Iniel goldman study on leadership styles coaching with the least favorite style. Even if managers think they're good at it, they often overestimate their abilities. A study found 24 of executives significantly overestimated their coaching skills. This tells us there's still a lot of work to do in this area. So here's my second question to you how comfortable are you with adopting a coaching style in your leadership approach?

Speaker 1: 3:52

Having worked and coached several CEOs, I recommend using a situational coaching approach. Create a balance between the directive approach, which is all about telling, and non-directive coaching, which is about listening and questioning. About telling, and non-directive coaching, which is about listening and questioning. My professional and personal experiences have taught me that equilibrium is crucial in any situation. Understanding the context, asking the right questions and adjusting accordingly are vital. So here is a story from one of my coaching sessions with Alex.

Speaker 1: 4:23

Alex is a fictionalist name in this case sessions with Alex. Alex is a fictionalist name in this case. So Alex was struggling with a project that's not moving forward as planned. So he came and he complained about that. So I asked him what's the main issue? Alex's answer was the team seems disengaged and deadlines are slipping. So I asked him back have you tried adjusting your approach based on the situation? Not really. How do I do that? So I had to explain to Alex that he had two problems at hand. He needed to assess his team's needs. Do they need more guidance or do they need motivation? Alex thought probably a mix of both. So he had to look at how to adjust his way of dealing with his team to a situational approach, looking how to motivate them but also, in the same time, providing them the right guidance.

Speaker 1: 5:16

For any coaching, I recommend you the GROW model. Grow is Goal, reality, options and Will the goal establish what the coachee wants to achieve. Ask them what do you want when you walk out of the door, that you don't have now? The reality? Ground the conversation with fact-based questions. For example, what are the key things we need to know? Look at the options with the coachee. Encourage broad thinking. Ask them if you have a magic wand, for example, what would you do? Let them open their mind to new solutions, new ideas, new thoughts. And the last is the W of the GROW model Determine commitment. Ask your coachee on a scale of one to ten. How likely are you to do this? Make sure you have a goal, you state the reality, you look at the options and you determine the commitment, the will to move forward. That's an agreement you should have with your coachee, whether he's a team member or anybody else that you are coaching.

Speaker 1: 6:17

Anyone can use GRU as a way to have constructive conversations with their team members. As I've mentioned earlier, many organizations are focusing on coaching as a key leadership skill. To achieve this, they should start by articulating the why, connect coaching to mission critical tasks and model the behavior Satya Nadella did at Microsoft a great transformation in their culture. He solicited input, listened empathically and encouraged openness about mistakes. He changed the culture. Build capabilities throughout your organization. Provide tools, training and support for your managers to develop a coaching style. Remove barriers to change there are many like unproductive review systems and make sure that you encourage open and supportive conversations. Create that culture of coaching. Teach your leaders how to become coaches and provide them with the tools to be able to do that. From my journey, I've seen how a coaching mindset can transform an organization leaders how to become coaches and provide them with the tools to be able to do that. From my journey, I've seen how a coaching mindset can transform an organization.

Speaker 1: 7:27

When leaders commit to developing their coaching skills, it creates a ripple effect. Teams become more engaged, innovative and resilient. This is what we aim for a culture of excellence where everyone is motivated to achieve their best. And, as a leader, that's one of your key roles. What steps can you take to build a coaching culture in your organization moving forward?

Speaker 1: 7:43

There are many dimensions into coaching. Another crucial dimension of effective coaching is creating a psychological safe environment. This means fostering an atmosphere where team members feel safe to take risks, express their thoughts without fear of judgment or repercussions. When people feel safe, they are more likely to share innovative ideas and collaborate effectively. In addition to psychological safety, use emotional intelligence. Leaders who are emotionally intelligent can better understand and manage their own emotions, as well as empathize with others. This helps in building stronger, more trusting relationships with their teams.

Speaker 1: 8:21

As we're talking about these soft skills, diversity and inclusion also plays a significant role. Embrace diverse perspectives. This can lead to more innovative solutions and a more dynamic team environment. Coaching should encourage leaders to recognize and leverage the unique strengths of each team member. In addition to these, I would add one last one continuous feedback, which is vital. Rather than waiting for annual reviews, effective coaching involves providing regular constructive feedback. This helps team members stay aligned with their goals and continuously improve their performance.

Speaker 1: 8:56

So, as a leader, you need to focus on your coaching skills. Look at psychological safety. Use your emotional intelligence to build that rapport with the teams, your team members focus on diversity and inclusion and provide continuous feedback. Now, have you thought about all this and how it can you do to make sure that you have this better environment within your team? We live in a world of flux. Successful executives must supplement their expertise with a capacity for learning and develop that in their teams. Managers need to reinvent themselves as coaches, drawing energy, creativity and learning from their teams. Many people, when they are in a leadership position, they work with coaches to develop leadership skills. It's important for organizations also to develop those leadership skills in their managers, in their leaders, and support a culture of coaching inside the organization to benefit everyone. With this, I would like to thank you for listening to Leadership Coaching for Excellence. Join us next time as we delve deeper into practical techniques, success stories from leading organizations and teams. Until then, keep coaching and keep excelling. I'm Nancy Naimi.