Thomas Lim is the COO of Technicorum Holdings, a Web 3.0 Coach & Dean with Thrive Consulting and Master Trainer: PEARLS Coaching Framework.
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Leadership and coaching are two sides of the same coin. Effective coaching can help leaders develop their team members and enhance their performance, both personally and professionally. Here are six actionable steps leaders can take to use coaching as a tool for team development. I use an acrostic—PEARLS, which stands for Purpose, Experiences, Attitude, Resilience, Learning and Step Out—to remember these steps.
1. Start with purpose.
In my workplace coaching practice, I will always start by asking about the leader’s fundamental purpose. This helps activate what is meaningful for them. By then identifying the goals and objectives of the team, leaders can align their team members’ work with their personal values and career goals. The coach-leader will then be able to communicate purpose and vision clearly, inspire their team through their personal and professional goals and then work with them to align the team’s mission with the company’s vision. I have found that the process of purpose discovery activates motivation and fuels engagement, leading to increased productivity and, ultimately greater satisfaction arising from shared goals.
2. Provide experiences.
When coaching a leader, I will often tap into their past experience, particularly those that gave them a great sense of achievement and contentment. By activating the positivity of these successful memories, my coachees are often able to extract unique insights from these experiences. Sharing these internalized perceptions with their team allows for deeper engagement while inspiring confidence in the leadership, thus motivating team members.
3. Foster attitude.
I have noticed that leaders who make the effort to create a positive, supportive environment for their team end up encouraging innovation. This "can do" mindset generates positive energy by tuning the team to focus on what they want to achieve via a generative orientation, instead of being bogged down by fear of failing, which often leads to a vicious spiral of anxiety as people frantically avoid what they do not want to happen. Fostering a "fail-safe" environment allows the leader to cultivate healthier workplace relationships and ignite collaboration. Having a clearly articulated reward and recognition system for desired behaviors can encourage this attitude shift within teams.
4. Build resilience.
While coaching leaders during the Covid-19 period, it became clear to me that resilience was what differentiated those who were able to emerge stronger, versus those who struggled or became stuck. The PEARLS approach aligns closely with the concept of antifragility, which is about bouncing back higher than before. Conversations during team coaching should help create a narrative of breakthroughs whereby the factors that have helped an individual within the team can be translated and harnessed to help the entire team manage their workload and cope with stressors. There should also be discussion of self-care regimens to further aid team resilience.
5. Encourage learning.
A good segue from the Experience conversation involves crystallizing the learning points. Episodes shared by leaders and members within the team coaching context are often charged with positive emotions around stories of personal growth and overcoming the odds. Facilitating team learning in a nurturing setting by building upon each other’s narratives provides fuel for new attitudes, insights and revelations to emerge. The shared experience of learning from each other is a powerful source of continued renewal and will ultimately cultivate the growth mindset of the collective. The use of organizational development tools such as double-loop learning can accelerate the development of new insights for the workplace.
6. Step out.
PEARLS is a thinking framework to help leaders develop their antifragility index. This methodology sees its greatest dividends when that leader is willing to take the necessary steps to translate insights into action. Leaders who lead by example speak louder than words. As team members observe the leadership shift, they too are moved to step out of their comfort zone.
The process of evaluating a problem from multiple perspectives often leads to "out of the box" solutions emerging. The successful implementation of these innovative approaches results in virtuous cycles, as exemplified by the core theory of success, which focuses on the positive interplay of better collective thought and actions creating better results that strengthen the team’s relationships. Leaders attending to their team’s needs and concerns and availing themselves to co-create solutions together greatly raises the bar of the team’s performance.
Team members who receive coaching from their leaders are more likely to feel valued and supported, leading to higher retention rates and a stronger sense of loyalty to the organization. It's important to note that coaching is not a one-time event or a quick fix. Rather, it's an ongoing process that requires commitment and dedication.
Conclusion
A team leader might serve as a coach by working with their team to identify communication barriers and develop strategies for the implementation of the PEARLS framework, or another coaching framework. They might start by helping the team sharpen their collective understanding of a shared vision and mission, then work through the specifics of aligning the team’s work with organizational-level goals. Through regular check-ins and feedback sessions, the team coach can help the team stay on track and continue to improve over time, fortifying antifragility in the team’s development.
Coaching is a powerful tool for leaders looking to develop themselves and their team members. By focusing on Purpose, Experience, Attitude, Resilience, Learning and Stepping Out, coaches can help individuals and teams overcome challenges and reach their full potential. By incorporating team coaching into leadership development programs, organizations can build a culture of growth and development that benefits everyone involved.
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