If you’re struggling with the pressures of delegation and empowerment, adopting a coaching leadership style will help foster a culture of shared responsibility, growth, and self-sufficiency within your team.
As a leader, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed with the endless list of tasks, the responsibility of having all the answers, and the pressure of guiding a team that frequently looks to you for direction. You may find yourself frequently falling into the trap of delegation, giving tasks away to your team members to alleviate the weight on your shoulders. Empowering your team to take on more responsibility can seem like the right solution, but is it really?
While delegation and empowerment are commonly used terms in leadership, they often carry underlying assumptions that limit the potential of both the team and the manager. These assumptions can inadvertently keep you stressed, overworked, and disconnected from your team’s true potential. The good news is there is a more effective approach: coaching.
In this blog, we’ll explore how adopting a coaching mindset can help alleviate the pressures you face as a manager, encourage your team to tap into their innate power, and cultivate a culture of shared responsibility that leads to greater success.
The Delegation and Empowerment Dilemma
Delegation is often seen as a necessary evil for managers who are bogged down with tasks they can’t handle alone. In theory, delegating tasks should lighten the load, allowing the manager to focus on higher-priority matters. However, delegation comes with the assumption that the manager is the sole source of knowledge and the only one capable of carrying the weight of decision-making. Delegating can also create a divide between the manager and team members, as the team becomes dependent on the manager to provide instructions and make final calls.
Similarly, the term “empowerment” is commonly used as a way to inspire team members to take ownership of their work. It’s about giving someone the power to act and make decisions. On the surface, this seems like a positive step. However, the concept of empowering others suggests that they are powerless to begin with and that their success depends solely on the leader’s ability to give them power. This assumes that team members don’t have the intrinsic capacity to generate solutions on their own. It places the manager at the centre of the equation, inadvertently keeping them as the bottleneck in decision-making and productivity.
Both delegation and empowerment are about external control—whether giving responsibility or power. But what if there was a way to move beyond these transactional approaches? What if, instead of delegating or empowering, you could coach your team to realise their own power and responsibility?
Just Start Coaching: A Path to Empowerment Through Collaboration
Coaching is a leadership style that empowers individuals to draw on their own abilities and insights. Instead of simply delegating tasks or empowering team members to take control, coaching fosters a collaborative approach where both the leader and team member work together to solve problems, unlock potential, and address challenges.
The key difference between coaching and mentoring is the role the leader plays. In mentoring, the manager often acts as the expert, providing answers and guidance. In coaching, the leader’s role is to draw out the best in others. Think of coaching as a catalyst. A catalyst accelerates change without directly providing the solution. In the same way, a coach facilitates self-discovery and problem-solving in their team, helping individuals identify the best course of action and develop a solution that works for them.
By using a coaching leadership style, managers can shift their focus away from being the problem-solver to becoming a facilitator of growth. This transition not only helps alleviate the stress of having to “do it all” but also builds a more empowered and self-sufficient team.
The Coaching Approach: Draw Out the Best in Your Team
One of the biggest benefits of coaching is its ability to help team members realise their full potential. Far too often, managers spend their one-on-one sessions talking, offering advice, and telling their team members what to do. While this may seem like a helpful approach, it’s more akin to mentoring than coaching. Coaching, on the other hand, is about creating space for the other person to explore their thoughts, ideas, and challenges.
Here’s how coaching can address some common challenges:
- Work Through Problems: When you adopt a coaching leadership style, you move away from simply giving solutions. Instead the focus is on helping your team members work through their problems. By asking thoughtful questions, you can help your team identify the root cause of the issue and develop a solution themselves. This not only builds their problem-solving skills but also fosters ownership of their work.
- Explore Opportunities: Coaching also creates the opportunity for team members to think beyond the immediate problem and explore new possibilities. When team members feel confident in their ability to generate ideas and explore solutions, they can contribute more creatively and proactively to the organisation’s growth.
- Address Obstacles: A coaching mindset encourages individuals to reflect on the obstacles they are facing and think through possible strategies to overcome them. By focusing on solutions rather than dwelling on challenges, you help your team move forward with a sense of agency and confidence.
- Realise Innate Power: Every individual has an inherent capacity to generate solutions and contribute meaningfully to the organisation’s success. Unfortunately, many people don’t realise their own potential until it’s drawn out by someone else. Coaching helps team members tap into their natural strengths, fostering a greater sense of self-efficacy and accountability.
The Goal: Reposition Yourself as a Coach, Not an Expert
As a manager or leader, the ultimate goal is to reposition yourself as a coach rather than an expert with all the answers. This shift in mindset requires letting go of the assumption that you must have all the solutions and instead embracing the role of a facilitator who helps others discover their own.
This doesn’t mean you abandon your expertise, but rather, you move away from being the person who dictates how things should be done. Instead, you guide your team through their own process of discovery, problem-solving, and learning.
The role of a coach is not to provide all the answers, but to create an environment where your team feels empowered to find their own solutions, collaborate with others, and take ownership of their responsibilities.
The Practice: Four Key Coaching Practices to Implement
Transitioning to a coaching leadership style is not an overnight process. These four practices can help you start shifting your approach:
- Notice Yourself First: Before you begin coaching, take a moment to reflect on your own mindset, priorities, and pressures. What expectations do you bring to the conversation? Are there biases you need to set aside in order to be fully present for your team member?
- Listen to Others: Effective coaching starts with active listening. Pay attention to what your team members are saying, as well as the emotions behind their words. Listen without judgement and stay curious about what’s unsaid.
- Ask Questions: The right questions can open up new perspectives and help your team members explore their own thinking. Instead of giving advice, ask open-ended questions that encourage them to think deeply and reflect on their own insights.
- Summarise: Summarising is a powerful tool in coaching. It helps ensure understanding and validates the other person’s thoughts. When summarising, focus on reflecting back what you’ve heard, using fewer words, without adding your own opinions or advice.
Conclusion: Unlock Potential Through a Coaching Leadership Style
Adopting a coaching approach as a manager is a powerful way to foster a culture of shared responsibility, growth, and self-sufficiency within your team. By letting go of the need to always be the one with the answers and instead focusing on helping your team discover their own solutions, you can unlock their full potential and create a more empowered, high-performing team.
If you’re struggling with the pressures of delegation and empowerment, consider shifting to coaching as a practice. It will not only alleviate your stress but also help your team realise their innate power, allowing them to thrive in ways you may not have thought possible.
