Is acting like a coach necessary to lead a winning team?

Acting as a coach to lead

Is it necessary to act like a coach to lead a winning team?

First of all, what is a winning team?I think that, beside of the KPIs,and the goals that a person set for themselves, that a team set,for me a winning team is a team highly motivated, a team that take risks, that make different decisions, where there is room for error,but also to learn from mistakes,and obviously if there can be fair play,a good working environment, of collaboration,and sense of humor,even better. For me,it's necessary for a leader to be a good coach, that is able to bring out the best of the other person by asking questions,asking the powerful questions,and I think it's quite tempting not to ask, but to give answers when we have experience,when we have gone through the same issues. It's human to have that will almost wanting to help and make things progress,but a good coach has to focus on the part of asking and not to give answers.

However, he can't only be a coach because he would be a coach and not a leader.

Then, what's missing? The ability to lead, in every sense of the word,which is to give a context, a framework,share a vision, values,and the whole area of people management,to make them develop and grow.

Therefore, there must always be a balance between coach and leader.

In this year of experience, I've seen some differences in the way a leader manages all the relations with his team.

If we look back a few years,there were two critical moments each year between the leader and team members,occurring mid-year and at year-end.

We did those two checkpoints to ensure everything was perfect,communicate performance evaluations, bonuses and have those deeper conversations.

Recently, we moved to quarterly conversations, more frequent,where we can have that space for exchange.

What we actually see,more than the frequency of those conversations deep conversations,conversations that matter,and conversations that add deeper layers depending on the kind of relationship that exist and can help the employee to grow and develop at the organization.

So, it's obvious that organizations have a huge responsibility to prepare their leaders to be coaches and have those tools available. We are talking about training, teaching courses,workshops, but not only that.

It's necessary to create a safe space so that leader can practice,learn and can continue developing.in the organization. And when they do it,we see through organizational climate surveys that we are improving the results. Therefore I believe that a real development is happening,because only 10% of our learning is because of the formal trainings, class trainings.20% through learning with others,from feedback, and perception,the majority, the 70%,is through the learning,learning by doing.

I learn better by making mistakes, learning If we think about the example of learning how to ride a bike,is easier, I will learn in a more consistent way if I get on the bike,gain momentum and try, rather than just watching a YouTube video,or if I have someone saying:'First, you put one foot, then the other'.

So, this part of learning by doing has a very big space,organizations have that responsibility to accompany the leaders in this process.