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The collaborative and engaging style of a "Coach" enables leaders to be a "manager-coach". This approach focuses on developing employees in order to achieve business results rather than managing their every move. The mindset of the manager-coach is to create an environment that fosters learning, independent thinking and opportunities to contribute. The manager-coach doesn't want to be seen as a solution provider. Rather, they want to be seen as a facilitator, paving the way for the employee to achieve their results. Manager-Coaches are a role model for others. They are excellent listeners and communicators, providing perspective and encouragement while also setting high standards and expectations.

How effective is your approach to coaching? We invite you take a coaching evaluation to see where you stand in comparison to outstanding business coaches. It will measure the how strongly you prefer to behave collaboratively or dictatorially, how prone you are to giving advice or enabling other people to discover answers for themselves, and how apt you are to exert your expertise or treat everyone as equals. While certainly the best coaches adjust their style to the particular person and situation at hand, we have found that there are ideal ranges on the scores for all six of these dimensions.

This was a thought provoking survey,that helped confirm an area of my own leadership that I wish to evolve - wanting to solve everyone's problems for them rather than engaging them in helping to find solutions.

Coaching isn't advocating a point. Coaching isn't teaching existing knowledge. Coaching isn't giving what I call "drive by feedback". The standard for coaching is much higher than that. We should be less casual about its use, and hold it in much higher regard.

Coaching is about working with people to show them new possibilities and assist them in taking actions previously not obvious to them. Coaching is the capability to alter or shift the structures of interpretation, the context, the ground of being within which people normally operate. It is the means by which people development becomes a process of continuous learning integrated with people's daily work lives.   In this sense, introducing coaching competencies into an organization is a very powerful strategy for modifying or creating a culture which is more adaptable to change and growth.

Coaching is conversation. It's about asking questions, listening and being thoughtful about your responses with the goal of learning and development for the person or team being coached. Here, a few things all managers should know about coaching.

Coaching, however, deserves careful thought and practice. Here are some specific opportunities to improve our daily coaching efforts.

Confirmation that companies are on the right track in demanding frequent coaching sessions comes from Google's "Project Oxygen," the company's rigorous, data-based analysis of what makes great managers. Technical expertise made a difference, but only a small one. The single most important differentiator between good and great managers? "Be a good coach."

One of the most important, leadership skills to develop in managers is the ability to coach effectively-including how to connect with employees and get the best out of them on an ongoing basis. From my own experience, here are three employee performance management best practices I've found effective in turning frontline managers into first-rate coaches.

No matter how successful a coaching session feels while it's underway, if it doesn't lead to change after it's over, it hasn't been effective. Unfortunately, too many managers don't adequately follow through and thereby squander the important time they've invested in coaching. You can make the process more effective by adopting these practices after every session.

Coaching is about connecting with people, inspiring them to do their best, and helping them to grow. It's also about challenging people to come up with the answers they require on their own. Coaching is far from an exact science, and all leaders have to develop their own style, but we can break down the process into practices that any manager will need to explore and understand. Here are the three most important:

As a manager, you provide some level of coaching to all your direct reports, helping some attain higher levels of professional achievement, and helping others improve their performance to fulfill their current roles. But while every manager should have the capability to coach, you also need to have the ability to discern when coaching isn't working.

In the corporate milieu, we can leverage these findings to encourage strong showings among our employees. Our experience suggests that as a manager/coach, you can help your employees live up to their promise by adapting the five Olympic coaching principles in the following ways:

Coaching isn't about asking versus telling. It's about creating a new awareness, which includes the reflective practices of sharing observations and sensations, motivational acts of encouraging and challenging, and ways of holding the space in the moment so the person can fully experience their self even when it feels uncomfortable. Coaches do all of these things as well as questioning.

Through coaching - a.k.a. collaborative development discussions - with their managers, direct reports can learn and grow in key ways. Coaching can help people gain greater self-awareness, increase their autonomy, reinforce strengths and skills, and take more responsibility for their own development and career path. Direct reports will also be more likely to agree with and implement their individual development plans and be more engaged in their work.

As I study, learn, use and teach coaching principles I am continually struck by the power of its approach. This article is fascinating and highlights many of the concepts we teach in Leader as Coach at Tweddle University.

Coaching says "yes" to who we are and what we have to bring, and creates the conditions that activate Self 2. Coaches are powerful agents of change specifically because they deconstruct three limiting social myths, operate out of three profound values, and ask perspective-changing questions from three important angles.

As a leadership style, what coaching brings is a commitment to unlocking people's potential , focusing on the stuff that matters, empowering people, and helping them take responsibility.

This is a powerful passage: "The second thing we do is help people realize how lousy most of their advice is. With brain scanning, you can actually see what happens in people's brains when you offer up advice. Basically nothing. When you ask a great question, you can hear the new neurological links being made."

Most of our team members want to be known by us. They want to know that they matter and that we care. As coaching leaders, we are looking for ways to inspire those we lead so that they can accomplish greater things and grow more than they could if they were not being coached. To accomplish this, we must work to find out what personal and professional goals our teammates have, what motivates them, what hurdles get in their way, what fears hold them back, or what bad habits derail them. We must really get to know them before we work on action plans, skills, knowledge and process if we want to have the highest probability of helping them to grow and perform at higher levels over the long haul. How well do you know those you are responsible for developing?

"Starting today, you can be significantly more effective as a manager - and enjoy your job more - by engaging in regular coaching conversations with your team members. As you resolve to support their ongoing learning and development, here are five key tips to get you started."

The best way to empower employees is not to manage them. Coach them to success. This is a process of developing their skills and providing them specific feedback to meet high standards. Employees want to be on the same team with their bosses.