You have probably heard that “You don’t leave a job, you leave your boss”.
This reminded me of the bosses that had the most influence on me and helped me to move on in my career. One was the Managing Director of an Advertising Agency, another was the Deputy General Manager of a Defence company. I enjoyed working with them because they:
- Listened to me and asked me open questions
- Made me feel a valued member of the team
- Trusted me to do the job and let me get on with it
- Supported me in my decisions
- Encouraged me to do more than I thought I was capable of
- and helped me move forward in my career
In fact they all coached me, and this was well before coaching was recognised as being a useful skill to use in organisations.
You don’t need to have “coach” in your job title to use coaching skills to engage with your team and get the best out of them.