Using a coaching moment

When organizational leaders try to define what "leadership" means, they often talk about "seeing the big picture," "inspiring their team," "looking at things in a new way," and "taking a strategic view." And these are all important aspects of leadership.

One leadership that often gets overlooked is coaching. With coaching, leaders can help develop team members in different ways. Depending on the scenario, you can use coaching to help someone to think through a problem, or develop a new skill, or figure out the next step in a process.

But it's not really "coaching" if you just tell the person what to do. With coaching, you need to take a back seat and coax the other person to work their way through an issue. Here are 3 ways to use these coaching moments more effectively:

Ask open ended questions

Don't jump to the answer, ask questions that get the other person to think about the problem in a new way. For example, instead of asking "Why don't you ask __ about this?" you might ask "Who do you think could be someone who can help you?"

Be comfortable with silence

While asking these open ended questions, the other person will need time to think it through before they answer. Avoid the temptation to fill the silence, it's okay to take a moment. If you feel the other person might be stuck, you can ask "What do you think?" to break the silence without pushing for an immediate answer.

Choose your opportunity

Ideally, coaching is intentional. Set aside time to meet with the person you are coaching, and use that uninterrupted time to ask probing questions that help the "coachee" to think through issues and see the bigger picture. But meeting separately isn't the only way to provide coaching. Look for opportunities to provide coaching "in the moment," whenever the opportunity arises.