Are you bringing people onto your team that don’t share your perspective?
If your team consists of a bunch of people who share your same perspective, you will lack the richness of a diversity of people working together to create innovative ideas. That diversity might include people who think differently than you, come from different socio-economic backgrounds, and have differing levels of education.
Cultivating diversity on a team starts with adopting a coach approach.
The best leaders listen intently to their team members, focus on the whole person, and take their context seriously. These leaders ask questions to clarify and understand. Each person is unique, but unless a leader is fully engaged they miss the nuances that each person brings.
One leader I know is working hard at the foundational coaching skills: listening for self-discovery and asking powerful questions. He is a hard-charging leader. Adopting a coach approach forces him to slow down and exercise patience–which is hard for this leader. But with practice and time, he is getting better and better.
What is a coach approach?
I’m excited to share a new resource with you! You might share this with members of your team or colleagues interested in developing their coaching effectiveness. In November 2021, I launched a platform called www.christiancoachingtools.com with my colleague Bob Logan.
On the site we created five GrowthTracks. The first is designed to orient people to coaching through an Independent Self-Study. I envision this being a helpful way to orient a person who is brand new to coaching. For instance, if you want to introduce members of your team to what a coach does, this would be a helpful place to start. If you already have experience being coached or have read books on coaching, this information will be familiar to you.
We structured the material around three important questions to orient people to what a Christian Coach does:
- Are you a Barnabas?
- What is the goal of coaching?
- What is the process of coaching?
Then, you can do a deep dive into the coaching process.
The coaching process we designed was based on original research we conducted with world-class Christian coaches (CLICK HERE for a fuller explanation). We conducted over 20 behavioral interviews with coaches on four different continents and asked them what they do on a consistent basis with leaders they coach.
In addition to the descriptions of each of the elements of the coaching process, we identified 5 of the most powerful questions coaches use. This will serve you well as you begin to integrate a coach approach to leaders you are supervising and developing.
Finally, at the bottom of the page are three resources that will assist you as you take the next step in your coach development.
I hope these resources serve you well! My goal is to help you succeed at whatever God has called you to do in and for His kingdom.
Back to your team and fostering a healthy culture: I challenge you to expand your circle and incorporate people who provide a different voice, a new perspective, or innovative ideas. See if you can bring out the best with your team members by adopting a coach approach.
Photo by Mac Mullins from Pexels
