Coaching for a World Where Everyone Leads - International Coaching Federation
COVID-19 Resources for ICF Coaches

Coaching for a World Where Everyone Leads

Posted by Julia Fabris McBride, PCC | May 1, 2022 | Comments (1)

It’s the toughest challenges that bring people to coaching. 

  • A company’s culture is dysfunctional, so your new client is contemplating a job change. 
  • A nonprofit is floundering, and the exhausted CEO turns to you for help. 
  • A small business barely stays profitable as the owner confesses his feelings of incompetence. 
  • A school district struggles to help its most vulnerable students thrive academically. Your client – an elected board member – knows there’s got to be a better way. 
  • A working mother whose mantra was “I got this!” admits that with teenagers in the house she no longer has a clue. 

Challenges like these perplex, polarize and drain creative energy. Our clients feel stuck and, sometimes, so are we. We quietly fear that their problems are unsolvable. Useful next steps elude our powerful questions and sail beyond the reach of our most energetic brainstorming sessions.  

Clients get disheartened. Some switch jobs only to find equally entrenched issues. Some slowly disengage. Maybe they still show up for their job and family but with little of their former motivation to make the world a better place. They imagined being a leader but have resigned themselves to getting by. 

Eliminate the Word ‘Leader’ 

Our overuse of the word “leader” may be part of the problem. 

What if we dropped the word “leader” from our coaching lexicon? Instead, what if we encouraged clients to engage in the activity of leadership?  

See, if leadership is an activity, anyone can do it. Our clients in positions of authority can do it. Our clients without authority can do it. Everyone can get better at leading. With today’s tough challenges, no one person can cut through the complexity. Progress requires people from different backgrounds and with divergent values to find ways to move in the same direction, differently.  

Leadership is engaging more voices to solve tough problems. 

Ground Your Coaching in Leadership Principles 

1. Leadership is an activity, not a position.

Leadership and authority are two different things. Leadership is mobilizing others to solve their most important challenges. Authority is more like management. Having good people in authority positions is absolutely necessary, but insufficient to make progress on the things that matter most.

2. Anyone can lead, anytime, anywhere.

When it comes to our toughest challenges, everyone has a part to play. Lots of people need to contribute time and energy. Companies and communities need lots of people risking a bit of their own comfort for the sake of progress on something that matters. 

3. Leadership starts with you, and must engage others.

Some things an expert can fix, or the boss can order done. But culturally, we’ve fallen into the bad habit of waiting for others to lead. When your client embraces these principles, the waiting is over. Action is theirs to take. If your client is a high-authority one, encourage them to experiment with engaging new voices and perspectives, rather than try to fix a complex problem themselves.  

4. Leadership is risky.

As you coach your clients to engage differently to solve their toughest challenges, build your skill at helping them mitigate risk. Encourage them to listen, learn and test the waters with smart, small experiments. 

5. Leadership is about our toughest challenges.

If your client is going to exercise leadership, they must be willing to look bravely at the places that scare them, that dishearten and perplex them. They must boldly articulate their aspirations for change. It is in the gap between concerns and aspirations where leadership happens.  

Use Coaching Skills to Encourage the Activity of Leadership 

As coaches, we can challenge those who are ready to step up to the activity of leadership, whether at home, on the job or in their community. We have the privilege to partner with them in becoming their full courageous selves. 

  • Listen as your client talks about what concerns them the most. Encourage them to articulate bold aspirations. 
  • Ask wide open questions so they consider the challenge from multiple points of view.   
  • Invite them to talk about who they’ll need to engage to make progress – because our toughest challenges require us to work with people who don’t think the way we do. 
  • Acknowledge their strengths and the difficulties they’ll face if they choose to practice leadership more actively. 
  • Move them to action. Leadership doesn’t have to be bombastic. It’s about trying things, learning from conversations with other people, and adjusting along the way.  
  • Encourage accountability. As they design their experiments, keep asking “What will you do? When will you do it? What do you hope to learn?”  

Remember, with the toughest, most entrenched, most important challenges, we can’t do what we’ve always done, the way we’ve always done it, and expect anything to change. Coaches can contribute to cultures and communities where everyone leads. 

© 2022 Kansas Leadership Center 

Julia Fabris McBride, PCC

Julia Fabris McBride, PCC, is chief leadership development officer at the Kansas Leadership Center (KLC), creator of its ICF-accredited Leadership Coach Intensive training program and co-author of the forthcoming book from Bard Press,When Everyone Leads: How the Toughest Challenges Get Seen and Solved.” Founded in 2007, KLC is a first-of-its-kind nonprofit educational organization with a civic mission, national reputation and global reach.  

The views and opinions expressed in guest posts featured on this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of the International Coach Federation (ICF). The publication of a guest post on the ICF Blog does not equate to an ICF endorsement or guarantee of the products or services provided by the author.

Additionally, for the purpose of full disclosure and as a disclaimer of liability, this content was possibly generated using the assistance of an AI program. Its contents, either in whole or in part, have been reviewed and revised by a human. Nevertheless, the reader/user is responsible for verifying the information presented and should not rely upon this article or post as providing any specific professional advice or counsel. Its contents are provided “as is,” and ICF makes no representations or warranties as to its accuracy or completeness and to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law specifically disclaims any and all liability for any damages or injuries resulting from use of or reliance thereupon.

Comments (1)

  1. Dorothy Siminovitch says:

    Julia,

    Love your post about spreading the power and wisdom of coaching across the linguistic boundary that is shaped by leadership as a concept instead of as an orienting experience. Actually-I just love how this “opens” the process of coaching as an empowering learning conversation with accountability expectations.

    Thanks…

Not a member?

Sign up now to become a member and receive all of our wonderful benefits.

Learn more