Are our leaders equipped to lead in today’s environment?

What makes a great coach? Communication

Move, you gotta move your feet

Cliff Morgan, an Open Door Alumni, and author of ‘The Coaching Leader’ suggests that:

‘Most leaders aren’t equipped to lead in the way they need to in today’s environment. In a world that is increasingly dynamic, leaders need to not only navigate uncertainty, complexity, and change. But they must develop the ability to be adaptable with their people.

In this Coaching Café we welcome Cliff Morgan to discuss his new book. And to answer the question: how do we better equip our leaders to lead in today’s environment?

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The inspiration behind The Coaching Leader

Cliff is an endorsed organisational psychologist and coach. Cliff’s career in Air Force spanned 16 years and he is inspired by his Grandfather, who flew as a pilot in World War II. He was introduced to coaching as part of the Air Force Leadership Coaching Program run by Open Door’s Natalie Ashdown. And has never looked back. He shares that he was encouraged to write the book by his Business Coach. All of this experience is poured into the book.

Balancing various roles whilst achieving big goals

Thinking about our Coaching Café from last week, and the discussion about the ‘R’ in SMART goals. Meaning being realistic when it comes to setting big goals. Book writing can be all consuming. Therefore, it is important to balance your many roles whilst writing. In Cliff’s situation this includes business owner, coach, husband, dad and many other roles. Cliff talks about finding the balance on big goals. And his insight is really important. Because it relates to all the goals that we want to set. Ultimately, it is about finding what is right for you. The right approach to book writing, or any other goal, that is best for you. And your situation.

Challenges faced by leaders

Leaders are facing many challenges in today’s work environment. As we explore in the Coaching Café: Trends in Coaching for 2023. For example, the trends around increased hybrid work and the impact on connection and culture. In addition, attraction and retention of staff. Furthermore, balancing the business needs and staff needs. You can listen to our podcast about the Trends in Coaching for 2023. And therefore, it is not unreasonable to ask: are leaders equipped to manage and lead amongst these challenges?

Interestingly Cliff reflects on the amount of leadership and training that is given to leaders. And often when technical people are promoted to management, they are not given the training to enable them to lead. For example attending Leader as Coach programs.

Therefore, we need to take a good look at whether we are equipping our managers to lead. The answer for us lies in continuous development. Importantly, that we are doing something each year to improve our skills and abilities to lead our teams and organisations.

What is the Coaching Leader?

Cliff explains that it is not just putting the two words together. Coaching and Leader, to make a Coaching Leader. In the book, Cliff writes (p.70): Leadership is influencing a group of people towards a common goal. And there are many different leadership styles.

Therefore, a Coaching Leader (p.71): uses a leadership style that relies heavily on coaching skills as the primary method for influencing change.

This is a useful reflection. We can ask:

How are we influencing change?
What tools are in our toolkit?
How can we continuously improve our leadership style to bring more coaching into our style?

Of course, asking great questions is the hallmark of a great coach. And this falls under the practice of Curiosity in What Makes a Great Coach?

Enjoy the reflection about yourself as a Coaching Leader.

About the Coaching Café

One of the best things about our Coaching Café is the ability to learn from each other. We are so privileged that the Open Door Alumni (made up of past and present students) and all of you who read this blog, come together every Friday. We explore and stretch our coaching knowledge and skills. It’s only 30 minutes, but it is a highlight of our week to discuss key topics with such a talented and insightful bunch of people.

This year we are super excited to feature Open Door Alumni. People who are both experts and authors. So please contact us if you would like to be featured on the Coaching Café.

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