3 Questions Leaders Should Ask When Coaching

Three key questions leaders should ask to drive innovation.  Reflections from facilitating leadership and coaching techniques at an ASEAN Leaders Academy.

 

IBM is one of the most complex companies to work in, as we have businesses across hardware, software, services, consulting with various routes to market.  How we collaborate across the business units and professions could mean that we either appear like a bunch of misfits each trying to sell our offering to the clients, or a well organized team that has the vision and the right solutions to help our clients solve their business challenges.

With the onslaught of emerging areas of cloud, big data and analytics, social and mobility, and in the light of the new IBM-Apple announcements and Open Power Consortium, how do we identify clients who are at the leading edge to be the first movers, and also help clients at various stages of their business cycles to gain competitive advantage?

The leaders’ role is of utmost importance to provide direction and steer the team to be tip top of every single deal. With the frequent reviews and tones of templates that leaders in large corporations have to contend with, sales reviews can often turn into deal status reporting and the cursory escalation help than coaching.

On 25^th August 2014, we gathered the business unit leaders and first line managers across client coverage, brand, pre-sales, technical and channel teams for the first ASEAN Leaders Academy to help the managers and leaders think differently and coach effectively.

I was most happy to take a break from my marketing leader role to run the academy as a lead facilitator.  My role was to deliver the new coaching techniques to help strengthen “real provocations” that the leaders create with the teams, focus on coaching on the opportunity to make it bold and real, and how to coach the team with the right capabilities and confidence to deliver the opportunity, followed by reflection & rehearsal.

Facilitation is not just about sharing expertise, but to work with the leaders to come up with new ideas and strengthen group learning.

Here are three questions that leaders should ask ourselves when coaching the team:

1. Is it provocative?  

Do we provide a standardized response, answer the obvious or are we inspiring others to think differently?

2. Are we bold yet real? 

Are we daring to share new ideas? How can we turn ideas into reality?

3. Are we maximizing our capabilities and building confidence?

It is crucial to correctly identify the capabilities as it differs across markets. If the idea is different, how do we motivate and encourage the team to confident in their presentation and delivery.

The time invested in the preparation of the curriculum and facilitation of the academy, has had a positive impact.  I am glad to have energized the managers and provided them with a new way of thinking and essential coaching skills to be leaders.