Regular readers of Unleash The Power will know that I shared bite-size guides on leadership over the last couple of weeks.
This week we focus on Coaching one of the 4 situational leadership styles. We will look at what coaching is, the benefits it brings, and one of the most popular frameworks to apply.
What is coaching?
Coaching is a process to help someone realise their inner potential and deliver fulfilment to that individual. It is about achieving excellence, motivation, intrinsic learning, and intense satisfaction. Coaching can occur in any conversation between two or more people creating a positive and measurable impact on performance beyond what the individual or team thought was possible. When every leader in the business coaches, it helps creates a performance culture. It is crucial that coaching is not confused with mentoring, which is usually longer term and involves the passing of knowledge or the tricks of the trade.
What are the benefits of coaching?
Coaching is a form of development that is tailored to meet personal needs. As each individual takes ownership of their experience and is held accountable by their coach, it is much more likely to bring about long-term growth and change.
Coaching can help employees attain their goals, allowing them to become more focused and achieve quickly.
Coaches can empathise with the individual being coached, with it being beneficial to have an outsider listen to issues in a confidential environment.
Coaching can help individuals experiencing change, perhaps in the event of a promotion or an increased workload, leaving the individual clear and motivated about the way forward.
Coaching enables employees to develop accountability, enhanced confidence, performance, decision-making, relationship development, and leadership qualities.
A coach can help clarify goals and choices to enhance career satisfaction, maximise goal setting, and prioritise and manage time more effectively.
The G.R.O.W Model
If you are new to coaching, one of the most quoted frameworks to adopt is the GROW model.
The reason for its popularity is that it underpins coaching at all levels, whether carried out with a group or an individual. Coaching focuses on achieving goals rather than dwelling upon past behaviours and failures, and the GROW model provides a flexible framework. Allowing the coach to jump between stages to follow the conversation pattern as it develops, enabling the person being coached to move forward.
Before entering the coaching conversation, a subject should be decided on for discussion and, if appropriate, set a long-term aim for the sessions.
Now you are ready to help people GROW.
GOAL
This is what the individual receiving the coaching wants to achieve. There must be clarity surrounding the desired outcome, perhaps using SMART goals, ensuring the result is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and trackable.
REALITY
This is the stage where the current situation is discussed, and the coach starts using open questions to probe under the surface. No assumptions must be made during this part of the conversation, irrelevant history is ignored, and problem-solving is avoided. However, through providing feedback, the session's goal may be reviewed if necessary.
OPTIONS
Once clarity is gained on the reality of the situation, then you can start exploring all possible solutions and options that can achieve the goal. While it might feel comfortable to accept one of the first few possibilities, it is crucial that every possible action is discussed. The person being coached decides on the preferred path to follow, with the coach refraining from suggestions to avoid the risk of mentoring rather than coaching.
WRAP UP
This final stage reaffirms the individual's commitment to action, setting clear timelines and providing an opportunity to identify possible obstacles and agree on any support required.
Coaching is just one of a range of training and development interventions that can be used to meet identified learning needs, and its merit should be considered alongside training courses, mentoring, or on-the-job training.
How are you going to help others grow this week?
Or what challenges could coaching help you resolve?
Have a brilliant week!
Dave Rogers, Chief Business Explorer, Fuelled Fit and Fired Up
At Fuelled Fit and Fired Up, we have a childlike curiosity about people and their businesses and use it to explore their challenges and discover their future business success stories. Think of it as unleashing your power.
Contact us at [email protected] to find out more.
And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel @thebusinessexplorers.
The world is changing rapidly, and businesses need to be able to adapt quickly to succeed, meaning leaders need a flexible approach to developing their teams.
There are many reasons why it is more crucial than ever for leaders to be versatile and adaptable in their style. First, the workforce is becoming more diverse, with different personalities, varied cultures, and multiple generations being thrown into the mix. Second, the business environment is becoming more complex, with new challenges being faced daily. Third, technology is changing rapidly, meaning leaders need versatility in the way they communicate and engage with their teams.
So, being able to adapt your leadership style to what is in front of you can help you to get the best results, build stronger relationships with your team, and create a more positive and productive work environment. Now who wouldn’t want that?
This isn’t new news though, however, in this multi-faceted business world we find ourselves in, it could never be more crucial to embrace it.
What is Situational Leadership Theory?
Back in the 1960s Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard developed Situational Leadership theory while working on their book, ‘Management of Organisational Behaviour’. It is based on the concept that there is no one "best" leadership style. Instead, the most effective leaders are those who adapt their style to the specific situation.
Versatility and adaptability are two primary requirements of an effective leader, along with being able to assess the readiness of the team or individual for a particular activity or task. The cherry on top is then choosing the appropriate leadership approach to develop your team while delivering results.
There are four main leadership styles in Situational Leadership theory:
Directing
Here the leader defines the tasks of their team members and closely supervises them. This leadership style is effective for inexperienced or first-time employees who need to be closely supervised, perhaps team members who lack competency but are committed to developing in their role or new employees who need direction to learn policies, practices, and processes.
Coaching
In this leadership behaviour, the leader still defines and assigns roles and tasks, but the communication is no longer one-way. While decision-making power may remain with the leader, they are more receptive to receiving ideas and suggestions from the team. This style can help less experienced employees who still need some guidance or in developing individuals who are competent but lack confidence in their abilities.
Supporting
Here the leader gives control and minimal supervision to the team. While day-to-day tasks and instructions may be given to the team members, they have independence in the way that they choose to accomplish the task. Often this style of leadership is best used when dealing with experienced employees who lack self-esteem or motivation.
Delegating
The final leadership style is delegation. At this stage, the leader is still involved in decision making but the tasks and processes are fully delegated to the team. This style is most suited to experienced employees, who can recognise what is required to accomplish certain goals and are looking to stretch themselves into the next stage of development.
What are the benefits of using situational leadership?
Increased productivity
When leaders use situational leadership, they can get more done, matching the leadership style to the needs of the situation, which results in a more motivated and engaged team.
Improved morale
Team members will be more engaged, leading to a more positive and supportive work environment, as the leader builds strong relationships with the individual, leading to increased morale and satisfaction.
Reduced stress
Using situational leadership avoids micromanaging tasks and activities, empowering the team to take ownership of their work. This can reduce stress levels for both you and the team.
So, if you're looking to improve your leadership skills, situational leadership is a great place to start. By learning how to adapt your style to the situation, you can create more effective teams and businesses.
Here are some tips to get you started:
Assess the readiness of the team or individual. This means considering their skills, experience, and motivation.
Be flexible. The situation may change, so be prepared to adapt your leadership style accordingly.
Communicate effectively. Let the team or individual know what you expect of them and how you can help them succeed.
Situational leadership is an important skill for leaders of all levels. By being able to adapt their style to the situation, leaders can create more effective teams and businesses.
How are you going to adapt your style this week?
Have a brilliant week!
Dave Rogers, Chief Business Explorer, Fuelled Fit and Fired Up
And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel @thebusinessexplorers.
No person is an island, which is especially true in business. Starting out can feel like you are all alone. But the truth is, there are people who want to help you succeed. You need to seek them out.
Look at the Avengers for inspiration, a group of superheroes coming together to save the world from evil. They are all unique, with different powers and skills. But when they work together, they are unstoppable. In many ways, the Avengers are like a successful business. A team of people with different skills and talents working together effectively to achieve common goals.
A support system can make all the difference in your business journey. It can provide you with the motivation, guidance, and resources you need to reach your goals.
What is a support system?
A support system is a group of people providing emotional, practical, and financial support. They can be family, friends, colleagues, mentors, coaches, or anyone else who cares about you and wants to see you succeed.
Why is a support system important for business?
There are many reasons why a support system is crucial for business. Here are just a few:
Motivation: When feeling down or discouraged, your support system can pick you up and keep you moving forward.
Guidance: Your support system can offer advice and guidance as you navigate business challenges.
Resources: Your support system can provide the resources to grow your business, such as financial support, connections, and expertise.
Recognition: Your support system can celebrate your successes and offer encouragement when you need it most.
What are the different roles of a support system?
There are many different roles that people can play in your support system.
Mentor: A mentor has more experience than you and can offer you guidance and advice.
Coach: A coach can help you develop your skills and achieve your goals.
Friend: A friend is someone you confide in and who will be there for you through thick and thin.
Advocate: An advocate will speak up for you and help you get the resources.
How do you find a support system?
Reach out to your network: Talk to your family, friends, colleagues, and former classmates. You may be surprised at how many people are willing to help you.
Join a business group or association: There are many business groups and associations that can provide you with support.
Attend networking events: Networking events are a great way to meet new people and build relationships.
Use social media: Social media can be a great way to connect with people who share your interests.
How do you reciprocate the support of your network?
It’s crucial to reciprocate the support of your network, perhaps acting as a mentor, coach, or advocate. Sometimes, it is the simple things that make all the difference.
Be there for your support system: When your support system needs you, offer them the same support they offered you.
Pay it forward: Help others who are just starting out.
Be a good listener: Listen to your support system and offer them advice and guidance when they need it.
Be positive and encouraging: Help your support system stay motivated and focused on their goals.
So, I ask you who are you going to approach to become your Avengers?
Have a brilliant week!
Dave Rogers, Chief Business Explorer, Fuelled Fit and Fired Up
At Fuelled Fit and Fired Up, we have a childlike curiosity about people and their businesses and use it to explore their challenges and discover their future business success stories. Think of it as unleashing your power.
Contact us at [email protected] to find out more.
And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel @thebusinessexplorers
Difficult conversations are a part of life. They can be uncomfortable, awkward, and even downright scary. But they're also essential for maintaining healthy relationships, resolving conflict, and achieving our goals.
The longer we put off difficult conversations, the worse they tend to get. When we don't address our concerns head-on, they can fester and grow, leading to resentment, anger, and sometime sabotage.
So, how do we have difficult conversations productively and respectfully?
One helpful tool is the H.E.A.R. acronym, which stands for:
Hear: Listen actively and attentively to the other person's point of view.
Express: Share your own point of view clearly and honestly.
Agree: Find areas of agreement, even if they're small.
Resolve: Work together to find a solution that meets the needs of both people.
The H.E.A.R. acronym can be a helpful guide for any difficult conversation. It can help us to stay focused on the goal of communication, even when things get heated.
Listen actively and attentively. This means making eye contact, nodding your head, and paraphrasing what the other person is saying to show that you're listening. It also means avoiding distractions like your phone or computer.
Share your own point of view clearly and honestly. This doesn't mean attacking or blaming the other person. It simply means stating your own needs and feelings respectfully.
Find areas of agreement, even if they're small. This can help build trust and rapport, making it easier to resolve the situation amicably.
Work together to find a solution that meets the needs of both people. This doesn't mean giving in or giving up. It simply means being willing to compromise and find a solution for everyone.
Using the H.E.A.R. acronym can support us having difficult conversations in a productive and respectful manner, helping improve communication, resolving conflict, building stronger relationships, and increasing productivity.
Conflict
Conflict is a natural part of life. It can be challenging to deal with, but it is crucial to remember that conflict can be a positive force for change. When resolving conflict, we learn, grow, and strengthen our relationships.
Communication
When communicating effectively, we can share our thoughts and feelings clearly, concisely, and respectfully. This can help us build trust and rapport with others, and it can make it easier to resolve conflict.
Relationships
Strong relationships are essential for our happiness and well-being. When we develop strong relationships, we feel supported, loved, and valued. We are also more likely to be successful in our personal and professional lives.
Productivity
Communicating effectively, resolving conflict, and building relationships, leads us to be more productive. This is because we can work together more effectively and are more likely to be motivated and engaged.
How to Use the H.E.A.R. Acronym with Your Team
Start by setting clear expectations. Make sure that everyone on your team understands the importance of communication, conflict resolution, and relationship building.
Create a safe space for dialogue. Encourage your team members to share their thoughts and feelings openly and honestly.
Model the behaviour you want to see. Be a role model for effective communication, conflict resolution, and relationship building.
Provide feedback and support. Help your team members to develop their communication, conflict resolution, and relationship-building skills.
Fierce conversations are part of life and work. Next time you need to have a difficult chat with someone, why not see how H.E.A.R. can help you.
Have a brilliant week!
Dave Rogers, Chief Business Explorer, Fuelled Fit and Fired Up
At Fuelled Fit and Fired Up, we have a childlike curiosity about people and their businesses and use it to explore their challenges and discover their future business success stories. Think of it as unleashing your power.
Contact us at [email protected] to find out more.
And don’t forget to subscribe to our brand YouTube Channel @thebusinessexplorers.
Often, the most fleeting contact or conversation has a significant impact on us. The same can be said for our learning. A short, sharp shot of knowledge, delivered engagingly, can stay with us much longer than days spent in training room environments.
Over the next editions of Unleash the Power, I will share my go-to learning across four key business subjects:
Leadership, Self-Awareness, Coaching, and Building High Performing Teams.
First up, Leadership.
“The courage of leadership is giving others the chance to succeed even though you bear the responsibility for getting things done.” – Simon Sinek.
A brilliant leader possesses the combination of personality and skills that make others want to follow them. They must know themselves, have a clear vision that is well communicated, and have the trust of their colleagues to bring success to their team.
Here are twelve top tips for becoming a better leader.
- Know your role and responsibilities, ensure you are competent in them, and identify your development needs.
- Give team members roles and responsibilities, but ensure they know they are part of a team and can share responsibilities, helping each other achieve objectives.
- Ensure that the team members have the necessary skills and training to effectively participate in the team.
- Identify and discuss development opportunities with your team members. Ask them what they want to learn.
- Provide the team with a clear vision of the project objectives and focus on how they can help deliver them.
- Be proactive. Intervene when necessary, but avoid stepping in too early. Taking over could lead to a team member losing confidence and motivation.
- Be prepared to step in when a potential conflict arises between team members. Letting it go can affect team performance and unity.
- Motivate and inspire team members. Lead by example, coach and mentor to help develop people and give them scope to use their skills, knowledge, and initiative.
- Be patient, especially with newly formed teams or with new additions. It may take them a while to adjust and fully understand their role and responsibilities. An established team may take time to accept an idea or change.
- Provide positive and constructive feedback to individuals on their performance and project progress.
- Recognise and celebrate accomplishments and exceptional performance of the team and individuals.
- Create an environment of trust and open communication. Tell everyone what is happening and why they are doing specific tasks. Explain how their role fits into the overall organisational goals, and hold regular meetings where you seek out team members' ideas and suggestions.
Next week, I will be looking at a specific area of Leadership. That of Situational Leadership, and why it is crucial to be able to adapt your style and approach for the modern workforce.
Have a brilliant week!
Dave Rogers, Chief Business Explorer, Fuelled Fit and Fired Up
At Fuelled Fit and Fired Up, we have a childlike curiosity about people and their businesses and use it to explore their challenges and discover their future business success stories. Think of it as unleashing your power.
Contact us at [email protected] to find out more.
And don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel @thebusinessexplorers.
Have you used AI? What have you created?
Having taken time to warm up to the idea of AI to help create content, I now use it regularly, including generating ideas for this weekly newsletter. Thinking about it, perhaps I shouldn’t have admitted that in writing. Now everyone will try to decide which bits are me and which are not.
And how will I feel if the robot’s work is deemed better? Ah well, I’ll have to live with that, I suppose. Hopefully, my personality will shine through. 😊
Artificial intelligence has been rapidly changing the world around us for many years. From self-driving cars to facial recognition software, AI is all around us, significantly impacting our lives. But how did we get here? And what does the future hold for AI?
While some people are excited about the potential of AI, others are more cautious, and I was one of those people. My early experiences with the new phase of natural languages processing tools, like Chat GPT or Bard, were one of scepticism. How is it going to help me? What is all the excitement about? And where is its personality?
And then it hit me. I was using AI like a search engine rather than conversing with it and taking the time to construct more detailed requests and prompts. After this epiphany, I’ve never looked back. My curiosity does the ‘donkey work’ for me, and then I add my personality to it, producing content more efficiently. I’ll let you decide whether it’s effective!
Most people seem to be willing to give AI a chance. In a recent survey, 72% of Americans said they believe AI will have a positive impact on society. And there are a few reasons why people are willing to accept and test AI. First, AI is already being used in many everyday products and services. For example, most people use search engines like Google or Bing, which use AI to personalise their search results.
Second, AI is becoming more and more affordable. In the past, AI was only available to large companies with deep pockets. Now many affordable AI tools are available to small businesses and individuals.
And third, AI is becoming more user-friendly, with many AI tools designed to be easy to use, even for people with little technical experience.
But how can you use AI to help with your content creation?
Here are a few ideas:
1. AI can generate new ideas for content by analysing large amounts of data and identifying patterns. If you struggle to develop new and creative suggestions, then this may help.
2. Prompted correctly, AI can write more engaging and informative content using natural language processing to understand your intent. Tailoring the content to a target audience and making it more relevant to the reader.
3. AI can personalise content to the individual user by understanding their interests and preferences, providing a more engaging experience.
4. For businesses operating across multiple countries, AI translation can help make content more accessible to wider audiences by producing messages in several languages.
5. Using more specific prompts, AI can identify and remove bias from content. Making it a fair and accurate representation.
The one clear thing is that this plethora of AI tools are not going away anytime soon, and the hot AI topics will continue to be discussed for the foreseeable future.
So, what is the world talking about when it comes to AI?
Society
Clearly, AI has the potential to benefit society in many ways, such as by improving healthcare, transportation, and education. It can help create new jobs and make our lives more efficient and convenient. Through its capability to automate tasks that are currently done by humans, it does raise concerns about how we develop new skills, in different areas to compensate.
Malicious Intent
Understandably, there is concern that AI can be used with malicious intent, perhaps spreading misinformation, creating inappropriate content, or developing computer viruses. It is crucial to be aware of these risks and to take steps to mitigate them, whatever your business.
Privacy
With the latest AI systems capable of collecting and analysing significant amounts of data about individuals, should we be concerned about our privacy being invaded? Taking further steps to protect our information, particularly online, is inevitable.
Bias
AI systems are trained on data that is created by humans, which can lead to bias, reflecting what is present in the data. Being aware of this results in steps being taken to mitigate it or perhaps even remove it completely.
Ethics
AI raises many ethical questions, such as who should be held accountable for the actions of AI systems. Having an open dialogue about all issues and then developing ethical guidelines accordingly is crucial for the ongoing development and use of AI.
The Future
AI is a rapidly developing technology, and the future is difficult to predict. What is clear is that AI will have a major impact on our lives in the years to come. Embracing a move to new technology and considering prospective applications will ensure we get the most from it. And it will become as ‘regular’ as the plethora of other technologies we have accepted into our lives over time.
On a brighter note, we could even have a little fun with AI, and ask it the questions we all all want the answers to. Such as:
Can a panda ride a surfboard?
What is the meaning of life?
Can you build me a robot friend?
When poison passes its sell-by date, is it potent (asking for a friend)?
What are the lottery numbers?
And while Bard tells me they will try their best to answer these questions, even if they are a little silly, it is helping people learn about AI and enjoy the interactions.
To conclude, AI is a powerful technology that has the potential to change our world in many ways. But, as AI continues to develop, at pace, it is important for us to debate responsible, ethical, and fair use.
What do you think about AI?
What are your plans for using AI in the future?
And have you any worries?
I’d love to know.
Have a brilliant week!
Dave Rogers, Chief Business Explorer, Fuelled Fit and Fired Up
Why not check out our new YouTube channel, THE BUSINESS EXPLORERS
