By The Henley Centre for Coaching
Almost every manager is now expected to be able to use coaching as part of their management toolkit. But is coaching the be-all and end-all of management? Is coaching the only management skill a good manager needs?
In this guide we argue that the best managers have a wide range of styles, which they can adapt to different people and different situations. While good managers might be able to use coaching as their default style of leading their teams, they can also engage in consultative, directive and pace-setting styles to deliver results when the circumstances demand.
Different styles of leadership
Warren Bennis has been credited with first recognising that
If the only tool a manager has is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail.
But people are complex, dynamic and, to quote another hero of mine, Phillip Larkin, they display ‘the million-petalled flower’ of human existence. It is thus not surprising that leaders need subtle, adaptive ways to communicate, engage, influence, develop, inform and direct those who work with them.
There a number of situational leadership models, one of the most popular (Goleman,2000) has six styles, effective in different ways:
- Directive leadership
- Pace-setting leadership
- Visionary leadership
- Affiliative leadership
- Democratic leadership
- Coaching leadership
In the full 3-page guide, available online, author Jonathan Passmore explores these different styles of leadership and goes on to suggest where he thinks it most effective to deploy a coaching style.
Professor Jonathan Passmore, Director The Henley Centre for Coaching, ‘How can managers use coaching at work?’
Read full article at https://www.henley.ac.uk/how-can-managers-use-coaching-at-work
