A traditional style of leadership (or management) is a one-on-one meeting between the Coaching Leader (employer, leader) and the Apprenticing Leader (employee / follower / apprentice) to review leadership, goals, performance, direction and change. This usually takes place inside of the office, online meeting, conference call or confines of the work environment. In this scenario the Coaching Leader doesn’t usually venture into the actual leadership environment of their Apprenticing Leader .
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A next step in this particular relationship could include some time between the Coaching Leader and the Apprenticing Leader together outside the walls of the working culture. (Please don’t undervalue this investment of time between two leaders, however, you can be friends without working on a common mission. You aren’t being paid to be friends — you are being employed to accomplish something!)
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A commonly used technique for enhancing leadership in this setting will be for the Coaching Leader to share tips, tricks & practices that are gleaned out of their current or previous leadership responsibilities. The only real difference to the Apprenticing Leader from the classroom in school in this particular scenario is that the lessons are based on an actual environment with real people and real challenges. However, the Apprenticing Leader is not seeing the leadership practices being carried out in an actual environment. The challenge with this technique is that although there is a lot written and to be learned about leadership, we all know that the soft skills needed for any leadership environment are almost impossible to capture fully in any written document and even more difficult to draw from unless the exact situation presents itself.
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Here is where I would like to propose what could very well be the best way to coach an emerging leader… go into their actual leadership environment and observe them in action. Don’t step into lead, but rather step into support (stand behind them) or assist (stand beside them). ALWAYS be very careful to not lead for them or in place of them.
As a Coaching Leader standing behind your Apprenticing Leader should mean that you are seen but not heard. You are there to observe, encourage and in the event someone comes to you to for leadership, you redirect them to your Apprenticing Leader. There are lots of great phrases to use in this scenario, but one might by “hey, thanks for asking me about that, but I am sure that Al has an answer, he seems to be doing a fine job leading”. When you are seen supporting the new leader, you are giving them “credentials” that will take them a while to earn on their own.
Standing beside your Apprenticing Leader means you are in a position to see all of the challenges that they are facing, give them quick observations, tips or pointers, all the while affording them the space and authority to take the appropriate actions. Here’s the thing - developing leaders want to lead, but they can be better equipped to lead if they are coached through the process as we would do with an athlete during the game. If you will approach leadership and leadership environments as a Coaching Leader you will give others confidence in the Apprenticing Leader because they will see that you are actively involved in their development.
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