Quick Take | Tips to Help Executives and Leaders Grow
The Quick Take podcast provides concise and actionable tips to help executives and leaders, like you, tackle the thorny and complex challenges that affect us daily. By leveraging their experience and relationship with other global leaders, our hosts provide suggestions that are based on their deep experience as leaders and coaches but also pressure tested in boardrooms everywhere because they asked their friends….(almost). Hosted by James Capps and Susie Tomenchok. Episodes release weekly on Thursdays.
Quick Take | Tips to Help Executives and Leaders Grow
Moving from Boss to Coach - Have You?
Could shifting from a commanding boss to an empathetic coach be the key to unlocking your team's potential? In this episode we dive into the critical transition executives must make from commanding to coaching. Discover why this shift is crucial for your leadership success, learn practical tips to foster a culture of continuous learning, and find out how mentorship can transform your approach. Don't miss this essential guide to elevating your leadership game and multiplying your impact!
In this episode, we discuss the following:
1. The challenging transition from being a "boss" to becoming a "coach" for executives.
2. Importance of self-awareness and personal responsibility in leadership.
3. Three key tips for moving from boss to coach.
CONNECT WITH SUSIE:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/susietomenchok/
CONNECT WITH JAMES:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/capps/
Welcome to the Quick Take podcast, the show where you get targeted advice and coaching for executives by executives. I'm Suzy Tominchuk.
Speaker 2:And I'm James Capps. Give us 15 minutes and we'll give you three secrets to address the complex topic of issues that are challenging executives like you today.
Speaker 1:Hey Quicksters, welcome to Quick Take. I'm Susie, along with James. We are so glad that you decided to choose us today, right?
Speaker 2:We're excited. Oh, we're excited, and we have some fun stuff to talk about. So sit down, get a cup of tea, coffee, whiskey and let's get ready to rumble.
Speaker 1:Okay, so here's my story for today. Always true stories behind closed doors.
Speaker 2:These are true stories.
Speaker 1:Names may have been changed to protect the not so innocent. Let's just put it that way.
Speaker 1:And it's highly likely we'll use more than one name but we mean the same person, so if you get confused, let us know. So one of my clients is a VP Her name is Rachel and so I do sessions with director level and VP level, and so it's really interesting to me because I get a lot of intel behind closed doors from both levels, and so Rachel's direct reports were in this meeting and they were telling me that when Rachel has a staff meeting, she basically opens up the staff meeting and talks the entire time. So I had a session with the VPs a couple weeks later, and one of the questions I just lobbed out is tell me about your listening. How do you coach your team? And Rachel went first. She always jumps in. Oh, now, I made that connection.
Speaker 1:She jumped in and she was like, oh, I'm such a good listener, like I get on my calls and I just let my team do it, and so I was like almost blown away. I couldn't say to her wrong. I have heard otherwise.
Speaker 1:I couldn't, but I was really curious about this. Actually, it was more than a few weeks ago, to be honest. I circled back with her direct reports because I had a conversation with her outside of that to tell her I thought she needed to listen more, and they report that she's still not listening.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know and I think that, if I recall the story too, that it is a matter of you know, there's this um uh, this, uh, this level within the organization that this is the most challenging right.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:It's when you get promoted from being a hero to a scale multiplier is where this is the most difficult. It's where people no longer can work hard and hard to get it all done, and so you now have to you're the multiplier you have to get people to do the work, and so that's when you have to go from boss to coach. Go, you know, from boss to coach, and that transition is possibly the hardest thing to do for high potential, very good employees is going from boss to coach.
Speaker 1:And I feel like you need to restate that because it is the hardest transition and it's not up to somebody else to make that transition for you. You have to change your mindset and so many people don't, Because once you get up higher like that, SVP doesn't know that about Rachel. She is not going to get that feedback from anybody else Because they're you know they're catching bigger fish. They're frying bigger fish. Whatever that saying is, they're on to bigger things. They're frying bigger fish.
Speaker 2:Whatever that saying is, they're on to bigger things Catching and then frying, you can do both.
Speaker 1:And at some point, leadership becomes a personal responsibility that you need to self-assess how you're doing and you need to observe your own leadership by what are the things that you're seeing that are happening around you?
Speaker 2:Couldn't agree more. In fact, our previous episode that I think we dropped, talked about the responsibility you have as a leader to do certain things and in this particular case, you have a responsibility as a leader to consciously understand the difference between the boss and the coach and examine it for what it is and make a concerted effort to change the way that you lead.
Speaker 1:Yes, and what makes it? Even you know I'm getting so high I have to take my jacket off because this topic makes me really I'm very passionate about it.
Speaker 2:I'm fired up. I'm fired up.
Speaker 1:I have to say but the other thing that happens is self-awareness goes down as you go up in an organization, and so part of the contributing factors to that is people learn what kind of feedback you'll take or not, and so if you think about the fact that you're being an observer of you and if you aren't showing and portraying those good leadership skills, you don't you have less of a mirror to look at.
Speaker 1:And so oh, it's so important that people listen to this because you have to make that shift. You have to look at yourself. As it's easy to be a boss, it's easy to say do this because I said so. It's harder to give guidance and shut up and then really observe.
Speaker 2:No, I couldn't agree more and I think that's, you know, the first piece of advice I'll give is you know, when you look back at what has happened to Microsoft over the last 15 years, satya's approach to changing the way they lead, the emphasis on empathy and coaching, has been incredible, and the way that that culture has changed. And that is a concerted, concerted, top-down perspective on the importance of getting things done through empathy and mentorship. And I think that that is one of the best examples of a company who has pivoted and really transformed the way it behaves and reinvented itself to a point of now leading the industry in so many ways. And I think my first piece of advice is truly engage in the thinking around coaching and make it part of your overall leadership style.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and you're exactly right when I have organizations that come to me and say I want you to do the boss to coach and I want you to start at this level. No, it has to be done at the senior levels or it will not happen and that level needs to be coaching. I love that you use that example with Microsoft, because that's when it gets sticky and it stays and then it becomes a part of the fabric of the culture.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of the best books I remember reading recently was the Coaching Habit, which talks about how do you incorporate that as a habit. That was the key there. It's not how to be a coach, it's how the coaching becomes a habit and how it becomes part of your day-to-day leadership style. So I think that's just so important.
Speaker 1:It is. You know, I got to tell a funny story. I talked to an SVP before we started this program and I said how are you at coaching? And he goes oh, I got this. I have coached my son's little league team for like five years and he was serious. I believe it, I was just like oh my gosh, if that's your answer, you're wrong.
Speaker 2:You should listen to this. We got a long way to go in the idea of coaching. It's like saying I'm a really good engineer because I drive trains. It's not the same. It's not the same thing.
Speaker 1:That's probably an inside joke, but yes, no, that's true. Okay, what's the second tip?
Speaker 2:You know, I think the other element that's so important is you've got to keep um, uh, uh. You got to foster a environment of continuous learning. You've got to get your people to feel comfortable that they are always changing that the way they do things. I love thinking about how Google had historically had the 20% time where you were really making people think outside the box and really engaging their other part of their brain, changing the way that they are comfortable. And I think if you are going to make that pivot from boss to coach, you've also got to have an environment in which you are allowing your people to continuously learn.
Speaker 1:And you're illustrating that you are putty as well. You are a work in progress and you you have to show that and illustrate that you're learning and shifting along the way you are putty Is that?
Speaker 2:is that part of the?
Speaker 1:I know you do a big oh, is that that's?
Speaker 2:Oh, my gosh, you've got putty right there. That's crazy, that's handy and it didn't show up very well on the screen.
Speaker 1:I will say the color Does it look more familiar. It's still like putty. Yeah, that's probably what you should have gone with. It's quiet so that I'm not like clicking something. So now you know.
Speaker 2:Oh, I do know that sound.
Speaker 1:I can smell it.
Speaker 2:I can't even smell it.
Speaker 1:Okay, we went off topic. Let's bring it back. So it's important to illustrate that you're a work in progress too, and some of the ways that I've seen this be successful in leaders is being even articulating. Listen, I got this feedback. I'm going to illustrate. You know, I heard it and this is what I'm trying to do to put it in place, or being vulnerable in a way that you can say, ooh, wow. After all this time I realized this was. I need to shift this, I need to ask that differently.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep.
Speaker 2:I couldn't agree more, and I think that my that's a great segue to my third recommendation, which is you know, you, you really don't understand something until you teach it, and I think that one of the best ways for you to really focus on how you are being a better coach is through specific and targeted mentorship.
Speaker 2:Identify folks within your company, outside the company, in your community, that you can mentor, because that you can't tell somebody to do something who is a mentor. If you are working with a graduate or somebody in a different industry and it just seems to you it's so simple, tell them to go to hell. Well, you're going to learn really quickly that that's not really adding any value. Putting yourself in your shoes as a mentor is a really great way to start to build the muscle that is so important when it comes to being that kind of coach. I think so many companies over the years GE comes to mind, procter Gamble all of them have very specific mentorship programs, and I think that the identification of the need for that really continues to show and highlight the value that that brings to the table.
Speaker 1:And I also heard that you said actually do it, Don't just talk about it. Don't write it on the board. I mean, that happens to me. I just did a session with a new group this week and I had new slides that I did and they looked so good to me in my head and then I got up to do them and, and I'm like this is too much information for the audience. This doesn't work.
Speaker 1:And so that just that, that click in to say, and that takes courage to go ahead and try, and having a mentor can really help you get that courage to do it.
Speaker 2:No, you, yeah, you've got to have the perspective. You've got to do it more than once, you know, just like those slides, you've got to have the, the, the, the repetition, the muscle memory. Um, you can't do something well after doing it once. Um and uh. I think that, uh, mentorship is a great way to learn to uh coach your people uh differently than uh, especially if you've been comfortable being a boss.
Speaker 1:So good, so good. I used to be comfortable as a boss, and it's a lot of work to be a coach, so don't just think it's so much harder. It's so much harder. It's not the easy route.
Speaker 2:People think I've done it before.
Speaker 1:It's easy, it's not, and it's not like you learn it and you get better at it, but it is something that is something you have to work on on a regular basis.
Speaker 2:No, I couldn't agree more.
Speaker 1:All right, what are your tips?
Speaker 2:So my three tips are pretty good. First, you know you've got to. You've got to have a, an environment of continuous learning. I think is the first one. I did that second last time, but I think in this order it makes more sense. Create an environment of continuous learning. That way you are comfortable being uncomfortable and you're more comfortable with change. Second, you want to integrate coaching into your leadership style. So step away from the command and control, understanding that that type of coaching and your leadership is going to move more needles and it's going to affect a broader change. And then, third, really focus on mentorship. Mentorship outside of your org chart, outside of your company, is a great way to build a muscle that can be applied into your new leadership style. And I think you know the world is better for it if we had more people using mentorship as a way to grow. So I strongly encourage you to use that as a way to improve your leadership skills.
Speaker 1:Love it Such an important topic. Thanks, James.
Speaker 2:Good topic. Hey Susie, I have a question. Okay, I have been fortunate enough to get an executive in a Fortune 50 company and I'm leaving. I'm going to work from Brussels and our podcast is over. But because the world is so magical and I'm moving to Brussels, you also have the ability to backfill me as your podcast host can be any animal.
Speaker 1:You're replacing yourself with an animal. I'm just going to leave that. You're replacing yourself with an animal. I'm just going to leave that.
Speaker 2:You're replacing me with an animal, and what animal would that be?
Speaker 1:Mountain lion All right, spicy, not really knowing what's next, a little bit coy kind of stays in the background but, you know, takes advantage of the situation when it's it's that the time has great timing.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:Really good looking.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure if you're saying that's what I am and you're backfilling me with a like like replacement or you're upgrading significantly.
Speaker 1:I think this is reading into it any way you want to.
Speaker 2:And I will move on. Thank you for that answer.
Speaker 1:Thank you for that random question that was awkward to answer. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Quick Take, where we talk about the questions that are on the mind of executives everywhere. Connect with us and share what's on your mind.
Speaker 2:You can find us on LinkedIn, youtube or whatever nerdy place on the internet. You find your podcasts. Our links to the show are in the show notes. We appreciate you.
