Upsize Your Leadership

Leaders Who Coach With the rise of empowerment styles of leadership, companies increasingly expect those who lead or manage to coach and mentor their people. Over the past 20 years I've helped a number of companies establish internal coaching or mentoring programs. And for several semesters I taught an MBA course on coaching skills for managers. In this episode I offer an overview of how this emphasis on coaching has evolved and some of the differing approaches companies have taken in creating a coaching culture. For a printed transcript of this episode, follow the download link at https://www.leaderperfect.com/podcast. The emphasis on having leaders who coach is a result of the evolutionary development of coaching, which began 30 years ago when executive coaching emerged as a sizable profession. Early on, external coaches were used almost exclusively by companies, and usually in an effort to salvage a manager whose career was tanking. About the turn of the century, the pattern shifted, so that external coaches were engaged more often for developmental coaching of high-potential workers than for remedial coaching. This then set the stage for companies wanting to broaden the number of people in their organization who could benefit from coaching. Since extending that benefit would be so expensive if the company relied on external coaches exclusively, interest quickly developed in building a culture of internal coaching, where leaders and managers were routinely coaching their people. This approach continues to expand and mature today. This episode provides an overview of that trend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices