Are you familiar with the saying “people leave managers, not companies”? Having competitive salaries and perks is important, but money is not everything. Additionally, it is essential to think not only about keeping your employees in post but also about keeping them happy and engaged. This is where a coaching leadership style can help you reduce your turnover and increase long-term employee satisfaction and engagement.

What are the main reasons for people leaving their jobs?

42% of respondents to the IIP survey stated that having a bad boss was their primary reason for leaving their job.

According to a survey conducted by Investors in People (IPP), the main reasons for people leaving their jobs in 2023, after money, are management, being valued, career progression, and working hours. 

Check out our article about how poor managers can hurt your team morale.

Consider factors in your organisation that could be adversely affecting staff retention rates – these might not be immediately obvious but employee engagement survey results can be one way of identifying priorities or pinch-points for organisational culture.

What is a coaching leadership style?

A coaching leadership style is centred around people and their needs, and when done well, can help people feel more satisfied, engaged and connected to the organisation and the team.

This leadership approach aims to bring the best out in teams by guiding them through goals and challenges. The ultimate purpose is to develop people and create a continuous learning environment. In leadership terms, a coaching leader would also act often as a mentor or guide to individuals, Offering guidance and support when needed. 

Sir John Whitmore described it as “A coaching style of leadership requires that you connect at the human level, beyond the task and stop thinking that the leader is “the expert” who has to tell everyone the best way to do things. Coaching is based on trust, belief and non-judgement.” 

A coaching leadership style generates awareness and responsibility in people: 

*The benefits of a coaching leadership style (source: Coaching for Performance book)

There are many skills we can work on in order to become better leaders. Fortunately, studies have shown that managers can improve their coaching skills in as little as 15 hours, provided they’re prepared to invest in how to learn to coach in the first place. 

For a coaching leadership style, there are two skills that are essential. The first one is the ability to ask great questions. Coaching is about self-reflection, and this is something only we can do, we cannot be told to change our behaviours, we need to go on this journey ourselves. 

Read more about “how to use questions to empower your team”  here.

The second skill is active listening. Actively listening to someone instead of just waiting to respond is one of the most effective ways to understand your employees but also to make them feel valued and appreciated. 

You can learn more about active listening here. 

How can you use a coaching leadership style to reduce employee turnover?

Using a coaching leadership style is about helping people with self-reflection and allowing them to come up with their own answers. By asking questions that seek to understand your team and actively listening to their view of the world, you can help them find their own purpose but also align it to the purpose of the organisation. 

You also need to help people recognise the value they bring to the organisation and encourage them to bring the best version of themselves to their job. When we are too involved in our day-to-day tasks this can be challenging, a classic case of not being able to see the wood for the trees. As a leader, you have the responsibility to help them see their positive impact on the organisation, which will help people feel more involved and valued. 

An important part of a coaching leadership style is recognising we don’t have all the answers. This knowledge will help you avoid micromanaging and instead encourage people to find the answers for themselves. This will in turn encourage autonomy and ownership. Allowing people to come up with their own ideas, projects and new ways of working, will encourage them to take responsibility. 

Ultimately, a leader/coach facilitates conversations: using meetings, team away days and 1-1s not only to discuss operational stuff but also to gain a deeper understanding of your team and enhance trust. Knowing your team and their individual needs can help you find the right flexibility and motivation that people need to feel happy and engaged with their jobs. 

Check our article about how to optimise performance reviews here.

The Optimist View…

Ultimately, we all want to feel valued, be part of a team, and feel we contribute to a bigger purpose. And this is where a coaching leadership style can help your organisation. 

It changes the dynamics from telling or dictating to a more collaborative and empowered environment where people feel safe to speak up and share their ideas, which will, no doubt, encourage them to take more responsibility. 

At Optimist Performance, we work with leaders to help them develop the necessary skills to become even better leaders. As we said before, no one has all the answers, and coaching is about continuous learning. This is what we are passionate about, helping leaders become their best selves to in turn get the most out of their teams and ensure their organisation goes from strength to strength.

If you want to take your and your team’s leadership skills to the next level, get in touch with us.

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The single biggest decision you make in your job — bigger than all the rest — is who you name manager. When you name the wrong person manager, nothing fixes that bad decision. Not compensation, not benefits — nothing. – Gallup CEO, Jim Clifton. 

Furthermore, finding new talent is becoming more challenging, and employees are more likely to leave their jobs because they know there are more opportunities out there for them. In addition, high turnover is not only expensive, but it also takes a significant investment in time. Consider how much time your company spends between hiring and onboarding new employees.

So, while reviewing and identifying concerns with new hires may appear daunting, consider how much you’re losing by waiting until it’s too late.

Is the new hire hurting your team?

There is usually a follow-up process when recruiting a new employee; there is a probation period and, in most cases, a review. When it comes to new management, though, finding the truth might be difficult.

It’s likely that members of the team will be afraid to speak up and express their worries about their new boss. Furthermore, outcomes from performance and productivity can take a long time to appear, and by that time, it’s usually too late. The same is true for annual reviews.

Here’s where team morale becomes a strong indicator of management success. The impact of a poor manager on a team can be noticed sooner than the impact on productivity, allowing you to intervene before people start heading for the door.

Why is team morale essential?

Employee morale is defined as the attitude, satisfaction and overall outlook of employees during their association with an organization or a business. An employee that is satisfied and motivated at the workplace usually tend to have higher morale than their counterparts.

People will be more engaged, proactive, and eager to go above and beyond to ensure customer satisfaction if they feel safe, content, and happy in their jobs.

On the other hand, people who are nervous, anxious, or feel unsafe, will be less motivated to do their best work, ultimately impacting their performance. 

You can end up with an unmotivated team that only does the bare minimum or with no team at all. Either way, the effect of low morale among your employees will have a negative impact on the business.

The manager accounts for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement.

Furthermore, emotions are contagious, and negative emotions spread even faster. In addition, managers are responsible for at least 70% of the variation in employee engagement. Employees rely on their leaders for inspiration, motivation, and growth, thus a bad manager may quickly turn a high-performing team into a demotivated one.

How to measure team morale?

For small companies, it’d be easier to identify changes in attitude. However, it can be more difficult for big companies. 

Nonetheless, team morale is just as important for every business. So, here are some suggestions for determining whether your recruit is negatively impacting your team’s morale. 

• Use anonymous feedback. People who work under a bad boss will be hesitant to openly voice their opinion, which is why anonymity can help. Also, ensure everyone in the team that it is a safe space for them to talk and that there won’t be repercussions if they do so. 

• Ask other teams. The chances are that if your team has been in the company for a long time, they will talk to people in other departments about their problems, even if they don’t want to talk to HR or their boss’s boss. So, put your Sherlock hat on and ask other teams and departments.

• Pay attention to individuals actions and attitudes. When people are nervous, apprehensive, or demotivated, they act differently, and their environment alters as well. So, for a while, pay attention to small details and try to identify changes.

What to do if you identify low team morale?

If you identify a problem within the team, there are always solutions available. The essential part is to recognise the issue before it’s too late. 

It’s worth noting that joining a new team is always a challenge; for everyone in any position. It takes some time to adjust to new people and their working styles. It also takes time to build connections and for the team to work as a whole. So, before making any rash decisions, we should always try to find a solution within the team.

• Start with communication. Once you have identified a challenge, talk to the person involved. Explain how the team is feeling, why they are feeling that way and how they may move forward to avoid further harming team morale. Surely no one wants to hurt other people on purpose, so sometimes just being self-aware can help.

• Offer specialised training. According to research, 58% of managers said they didn’t receive any management training. It’s not unusual to promote people because they are doing well in their role, which is great because it gives individuals the opportunity to grow. However, being a successful leader implies a lot more than knowing how to do the job, it’s about leading a team, which involves different skills and abilities. So, it’s important to provide specific training opportunities for people to develop their leadership skills. We can help you with this, get in touch and learn more about our leadership development programmes and our executive coaching. 

The Optimist View…

Leaders must ensure not only that the job is completed, but also that people are happy while doing it. Leaders have a significant impact on the people they work with, which is why it’s critical that we analyse and reflect on a regular basis.

While it appears to be obvious what a leader must do in theory, putting it into reality is far more complex, and there is no shame in asking for help. It’s important to remember that we’re all still learning and making mistakes. However, it’s critical to ensure that the errors do not cause the team irreparable harm.

At Optimist Performance, we help individuals and teams to develop their leadership skills and become the best leader they can be. We work with individuals and teams through our leadership development programmes and executive coaching to help them reach their full potential. 

Get in touch with us to find out more about how we can assist your team and avoid losing your top players. 

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What is coaching leadership: It’s a style of leadership that is characterised by collaboration, support and guidance. It involves and facilitates people’s engagement by drawing out, understanding, and empathising with their specific and individual motivations. 

Coaching leadership aims to bring the best out in teams by guiding them through goals and challenges. The ultimate purpose of this leadership style is to develop people and create a continuous learning environment.

Why are questions important in a coaching leadership style?

This leadership style centres around asking questions instead of giving people the answers. The main idea is to allow people the opportunity to do their own thinking and develop their own solutions. 

Unfortunately, this is where the challenge starts for many managers or leaders due to the nature of the business world. We continually live in a high pressure “get it done” economy, where committing more time and effort can be a challenging decision. 

However, the new world of work we live in makes it more necessary than ever to move away from authoritarian leadership styles.

New generations are looking for companies and leaders that will allow them to have autonomy and flexibility over their work. In addition, remote working won’t succeed if the manager or leader wants to control and micromanage their team members. 

The importance of questions

As we mentioned above, in a coaching leadership style, the biggest tool is asking questions. So, here is why questions are so important and how they can benefit your team and organisation. 

Because of the way our brains are wired, when we hear a question, we can’t avoid thinking about the answer. This reflex is called “instinctive elaboration”. 

In addition, when we’re asked a question, our brain is stimulated and releases serotonin, which causes the brain to relax and makes it easier to find answers. 

The opposite happens when we are given feedback. When we receive feedback, our brains automatically move to survival mode or “fight or flight” mode. 

With this, we’re not implying that we shouldn’t give feedback. On the contrary, we believe offering constant and constructive feedback is essential for the success of teams and organisations. But it’s important to consider how we give feedback. 

Furthermore, questions that probe us to disclose our opinions increase neural activity in the areas of the brain associated with reward and pleasure. This means that by asking someone’s opinions, you’re making them happier. 

Another great thing about questions is that they can influence our future behaviours. This is called the “mere measurement effect”. 

According to research, asking people about their intentions impacts their future behaviours.

For example, a study published in The Journal of Applied Psychology showed that asking people whether they’re going to vote in an upcoming election increases their likelihood of voting by 25%. Another study from 2008 showed an increase of 8.6% of blood donation after asking people about their intention of donating blood. 

All the information above can have significant implications in the workplace. Because of the nature of our brains, by asking questions, we can increase creativity, engagement and accountability in our teams. 

5 tips for practising coaching leadership within your team

We believe in leading by example and walking the talk. So these are the questions that we use within our team. In our experience, they help team engagement, satisfaction and accountability, which in turn help our overall performance. 

Resist the temptation of telling people what to do

As mentioned above, when we tell people what to do, we rob them of the possibility to do their own thinking. So, instead, ask questions that allow them to find their own answers and solutions. 

The Optimist Questions:

• What would you do?
• What do you think about it?
• How would you approach the situation?
• How can I support you? 

Encourage learning and development 

The coaching leadership style aims to create an environment that focuses on learning and development. So, you must always be keeping these types of questions alive in the conversation. 

The Optimist Questions:

• How do you see yourself in a few months, in a year?
• What would you like to do in the future?
• What else would you like to learn about?
• What else would you like to be involved in?
• How can I/we help? 

Boost accountability

In order to increase accountability, people need to feel responsible and being part of the decision making process. 

The Optimist Questions:

• What are your goals?
• What are you planning to accomplish?
• What are your plans or goals for this week/month?
• How can I help you?
• What do you need from me/us?

Build trust and connections 

If you really want to make coaching leadership work for you and your team, trust is non-negotiable. To build trust, you need to create deeper connections. Genuinely caring about people’s lives, goals, expectations, and motivations is an essential part of this leadership style. 

The Optimist Questions:

• How do you feel about this? (When giving a new challenge)
• How do you find everything so far?
• What would you like to do more or less of?
• Are you enjoying the process?
• What are your goals in the near and far future?
• How can I help you achieve your goals?

Use questions as feedback

To avoid the natural adverse reaction that our brains have to feedback, we can use questions to incentivise self-reflection. This way, instead of giving your feedback straightaway, you offer a chance for people to reflect on their actions, whether they are positive or negative. 

The Optimist Questions:

• What do you think about your performance?
• How did you find the results?
• How did you find the tasks or project?
• What would you do differently?
• How can I help you with this?
• What do you need?
• What would allow you to do it differently? 

Coaching Leadership to empower yourself

In the same way, we can use questions to empower others; we should use them to empower ourselves too. 

Actually, it’s important to work on yourself before trying coaching leadership in others. Otherwise, you will probably just end up falling into old behaviours at the first sign of difficulty. 

An example of this is an exercise that Herminia does with their executive class. They are given a scenario where they have two options; one of them is using coaching leadership.  

At the beginning of the exercise, 9 out of 10 decide that they want to help the individual develop and do better. However, when they have to play the coaching role, the outcome is different. 

The reason is that most of them had a preconceived idea of the response they wanted to hear. Their approach then is trying and formulate the questions to obtain this response. When they don’t, they start feeling frustrated and rapidly go back to “tell and sell” mode instead of the “ask and listen” that coaching leadership requires. 

Here are some questions to ask yourself

• What is your WHY or motivation? What are your drivers?
• What are your goals? What would you like to accomplish?
• What success looks like for you?
• What’s more important for you? What do you value the most?
• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• What would you like to change or improve about yourself?
• How would you describe yourself?
• Are you happy with your behaviours? What behaviours would you like to change?

These questions are just a starting point for self-awareness. To be able to coach others, you need to be self-aware first. 

Developing self-awareness and working on yourself cannot be done in a day. It requires time and effort; the good thing is that you don’t need to do it by yourself. 

According to a study by The Institute of Coaching, 70% of individuals who receive coaching benefited from improved work performance, relationships and more effective communication skills. They also reported that a massive 86% of companies feel that they recouped the investment they made into coaching plus more on top.  

As Optimists, we believe that all effort made towards improving oneself is an investment with long term benefits for both the individual and the team. 

Our executive coaching programmes are bespoke and orientated towards maximising your potential in order to achieve your top performance. 

The Optimist View…

A great leader focuses on serving others, and coaching leadership is an excellent tool for it. Nonetheless, there are many leadership styles, and a great leader should use a variety of them depending on the circumstances.

To us, the critical part of leadership is to be authentic. 

At Optimist Performance, we have made our mission to help individuals achieve their true potential. Our executive coaching enables you to become the best version of yourself, and we will be with you along the journey. 

Learn more about our Executive Coaching here or get in touch with us for a free consultation and start your journey today. 

What do you think of coaching leadership? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below. 

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Remote working has changed the way many of us communicate as teams. And so, effective communication is now more critical than ever before. 

According to research, 63% of American workers want to quit their jobs because poor communication prevented them from doing their job effectively.

In addition to helping retain the best employees, communication is a crucial pillar of collaboration, ultimately determining your team and company success. 

86% of employees and executives cite a lack of collaboration or ineffective communication for workplace failures, according to research. 

During the last year, we have all made immense efforts to ensure that communication and collaboration in the workplace continue to be effective. Nonetheless, we are still learning, with many companies working towards long-term hybrid or fully remote models. 

In our experience, there is no one size fits all when it comes to effective communication. How you define and structure your communication processes will vary depending on many factors, such as the number of people in the organisation, time zones, flexibility, etc.

However, there are many common factors that we should consider to achieve effective communication. 

CHALLENGES OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

1. Meetings overload provoking zoom fatigue. 
2. Difficulty to find opportunities for “water cooler conversations”. 
3. Finding the best time.
4. Struggling to ask questions and find quick answers. 
5. Trouble building trust within relationships. 
6. Loss or missing information. 
7. Different people, different needs. 

TIPS TO ACHIEVE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

Encourage every form of communication 

The first step towards effective communication is to encourage it. One of the challenges of remote working has been the missed opportunities for people to learn from their colleagues. 

Studies have found that office watercoolers help employees share their risky ideas and intentions, produce better research, and gain a 10% to 15% bump in productivity.

So, make sure you highlight the importance of asking questions and having ongoing communication within the team. 

As a leader, you need to lead by example. Encouragement is not only about what we say but also how we react when communication takes place. 

Provide the proper channels 

There are different types of communication, each differently suited to priority levels, subjects, teams, etc. So ensuring that we have the right channels is essential. 

Think about the different types of communication your organisation needs (instant messaging, “face to face”, teams projects, …) and organise your channels accordingly. 

Also, make sure you provide channels for both synchronous and asynchronous communications. And don’t forget to establish clear and understandable processes and etiquette for when people should use each one. 

Assigning priority to projects and tasks can make it easier to designate the right channel for them. 

Allow time for social interactions

Building trusting relationships is more challenging when working remotely. But trust is essential in a team, and social interactions are a big part of creating trust.

Even if they are online, organising social activities is a great way to build trusting relationships and therefore improve communication. It’s always easier to communicate when we have a connection with the other person. 

According to statistics, 50% of the positive changes in communication patterns within the workplace can be accredited to social interaction outside of the workplace. 

As you can see, communication doesn’t end when we leave the office or shut the computer down. As a leader, you need to keep in mind how social interactions affect your team and plan accordingly. (Check out our experiential events here)

Make sure everyone is part of the conversation

Participation, particularly in big groups, can be challenging for some people, so make sure you’re including everyone and encourage them to participate and ask questions. 

Workers aged 18-24 and 25-34 reported 10% decreases in the information given to them by management since they moved to remote working.

It’s important to consider new people too because they will probably feel less comfortable participating in group conversations. 

Also, according to research, 44% of people struggle to keep up with the conversation on a video call if too many people participate.

Keep in mind the number of attendees and try to reduce it when possible. 

Avoid zoom fatigue

Unfortunately, the term “zoom fatigue” is not a mystery anymore. In the process of imitating the office environment, many companies fall into the trap of overscheduling meetings. 

According to a survey of 182 senior managers by the University of North Carolina, 65% said meetings keep them from completing their work, 71% said meetings are unproductive and inefficient, and 64% said meetings come at the expense of deep thinking.

When we overbook our schedules with meetings, we are taking time out of doing the actual work, and it will also impact our level of stress, engagement, and productivity. 

To avoid zoom fatigue, it helps to understand what is causing it:

The missing non-verbal communication cues. Our brains keep on looking for them, but they can’t find them while online. 

TIP: Try to be more precise, even if it seems like over-communicating. 

Learn to leverage its features. Professor Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL), has studied the psychological reasons behind “zoom fatigue”. 

And he has come up with some easy to adopt changes that we can do to improve the way we use video conferencing tools. These are four reasons behind it and Bailenson’s solutions for them:

• Excessive amounts of close-up eye contact is highly intense.

TIP: Don’t use the full-screen option and add an external keyboard so that we can move further from the screen and camera. 

• Seeing yourself during video chats constantly in real-time is fatiguing.

TIP: Use the “Hide self-view” button (hover over your video and click the ellipses button, then choose “hide self-view”). 

• Video chats dramatically reduce our normal mobility.

TIP: Use an external camera to allow more movement space or switch to camera off mode once in a while. 

• The cognitive load is much higher in video chats.

TIP: Turn off your camera when possible. 

Be clear and organised 

An essential part of effective communication, even more in remote teams, is organisation. To avoid meeting overload or productivity loss, you have to organise and schedule meetings to create minimum disruptions. 

Did you know that “After a meeting, people take an average of 18 minutes to get their head back into work mode, with one in ten people taking at least 30 minutes before feeling productive again”? 

The best way to organise meetings will vary depending on your company. We have found that meetings first thing in the morning, or at the end of the day cause less distraction and work best for us.

Set up a clear plan

Having a clear agenda with main points and expectations can help maximise online meetings. Send a brief memo with bullet points or even communicate in advance what documents people will need during the conversations. 

“Employees spend an average of 47 minutes getting physically and mentally prepared before using tools like Zoom, Skype, and Microsoft.” 

Keep in mind the needs of different people 

According to research, younger people report having more difficulty when it comes to working remotely, including communication and collaboration. 

This could be because of their environments; younger people don’t have access to their own spaces. But it could also be because they are new to the company or even new to the work environment altogether. 

Being the new person in a team is already a challenge, but it gets worse if you can’t interact face to face with the rest of your team and learn all the tricks of everyday life on the job. 

THE OPTIMIST VIEW…

As Optimists, we are always looking for better ways, and finding suitable forms of communication in this new era of work is definitely crucial for us. 

Hopefully, these tips will help you to find your way too. But if you need a bit of external help, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Our mission is to help leaders and organisations maximise their potential, and communication is a key ingredient. 

And if you’re looking for the right social activity for your team, we would love to help; click here to learn more about our experiential events. The best way to build trust in a team is by sharing a life-changing experience that creates memories and bonds people together. 

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