Unlocking Potential: 7 Coaching Skills that Transform Individuals, Teams and Organizations - Michael K. Simpson (30 of 2023 and Feb 5th)

 As a leader, your success is directly measured by the success of those working on your team, and in fact their success is your success. So a leader, we need to coach our team to success. 

The essential work of a coach is to engage the team and unlock potential. Perhaps the best definition of coaching is 'unlocking the potential of another human being.' Coaching is about building a relationship of trust, tapping a person's potential, creating commitment, and executing goals. Trust, potential, commitment and execution - 4 foundational principles or realities of coaching. 

Repeating the 4 foundation principles:

1. Build Trust, 
2. Tap Potential, 
3. Create Commitment and 
4. Execute Goals

Coaches are neither born nor made. Great leaders choose to be great coaches. All professional coach

• Show genuine concern for the individual's welfare and future
• continuously demonstrate personal integrity, honesty and sincerity
• Keep confidences

Coaching leaders ask insightful question that help people gain greater awareness of their situation and help them reframe and creatively explore new and better ways to move forward. 

Good coach must rely on senses other than sound- she must "look beyond the words" for information and insights from non verbal cues. Watch for physical behaviours, verbal behaviours and Emotional behaviours. 

Deeply held views that color every aspect of a person's thinking are called paradigms.  Paradigm is systematic perspective. A person's paradigms may or may not correspond to reality. Our paradigms can help or hurt us, it can limit us in achieving our potential.  

As a coach, your task is to help individuals change paradigms that are holding them back from achieving their potential. 

One need to create 'Lasting' commitments. 

Coaching framework involves

Preparing yourself,

1. Clarify Together - permission, time
2. Learn by listening
3. Explore options
4. Commit to action

Execution involves getting into the flow. 

The four stages of coaching are:

1. Aligning objectives and defining success
2. Data collection and Relationship building
3. Data Debriefing and Behavioral Coaching
4. Transition and Sustainability

7 Key skills:

1. Build trust - both - character (who you are) and competence (what you do). 
2. Challenge Paradigms - Explore assumptions, Probe rationales, Question viewpoints and perspectives, examine implications and consequences, question the question. 
3. Seek Strategic clarity - understand short term noise, drive strategic direction and focus, strategic narrative, drive goal alignment clarity and accountability, define wildly important goals.
4. Execute flawlessly - Focus on wildly important goal, act on the lead measures, keep a compelling scoreboard, create a Cadence of Accountability. 
5. Give effective feedback - It can be a coaching tool. Avoid negative reaction, focus on posetiv. SARAH feedback response model - when people get negative feedback, they go through Shock, Anger, Rejection, Acceptance, Humility/Help.
6. Tap into talent - Three types of conversations - i) The coaching job-performance conversation, ii) the career-development conversation. iii) the 'clear the path' conversation. 
7. Move the middle - Reward the top and move the middle. Coach to create a great performing team. 

The unexamined life is not worth living. 

Coach the organization: The organizational effectiveness cycle - Most ailing organizations have developed a functional blindness to their own defects. They are not suffering because they cannot solve their problems but because they cannot see their problem. 

Leaders need to be able to see the real problems and root causes, and not just surface symptoms. Know he Vision/Mission/Values

Assign and design the 6 rights:

1. People
2. Structure
3. Rewards
4. Resources
5. Decisions
6. Processes

Organisations mission, vision, values, strategy, goals and core processes should help achieve market and customer values. Once this is set right, its time to assess its 'talent system'. Culture (high trust behaviour) and Results (Internal and external). 

As I work with leaders all around the world, I am amazed by how many attribute their success to someone  who believe in them when they didn't believe in themselves. - Dr. Stephen R. covey. 

Be that coach, who believe in others.