It’s a unique privilege to lead people, and when you’re a coaching leader, one of your main jobs is people development. You view leadership differently and understand that your purpose is to add the most value to the people you lead and to help them improve. But to become a coaching leader, you’ve got to embrace a specific set of skills to help those you lead become their best selves.

In this article, we share seven skills of a coaching leader and explain why they’re necessary to develop if you want to equip those you lead, improve their performance, and create a lasting leadership legacy.

Why are the skills of a coaching leader important?

The skills of a coaching leader are important to develop because they not only strengthen your leadership, but they help your team and your organization too. Once you develop these skills, you’ll better understand yourself and those you lead. This new level of awareness will enhance your EQ (emotional intelligence) and increase your overall leadership effectiveness. And your teammates will be helped by your use of these skills because by better understanding them, they’ll trust you more. And when trust is formed, you’ll be able to more deeply speak into their lives and careers—helping them to reach new levels of success. And trust increased within a team benefits an organization because when an organization's culture is healthy and strong, employees are happier and more productive.

If you’ve read our CEO & Founder, Daniel Harkavy’s book on Becoming a Coaching Leader, then you’ve probably heard about the necessary skills of a coaching leader, but in today’s article, we want to provide you with actionable tips for the skills to help you develop your own coaching leadership.

7 Skills of a Coaching Leader

1. Practice Active Listening. This skill helps people feel heard. And when someone feels heard, they feel validated and understood, which increases relational trust. And when trust is in the relationship, then you can speak into a person’s life in a way that they receive. To practice active listening, you must resist interrupting. Let your employee finish their thoughts without you finishing their sentence. And then repeat back what you heard them say to ensure you’re understanding. This will create trust as they will feel respected and heard by you.

2. Ask Powerful Questions. As a busy leader, it can be so easy to simply ask, “Why aren’t you done with that project?” But a coaching leader reframes the question and instead asks, “Is there anything hindering your progress on that project? And how can I help you get it across the finish line?” You assume positive intent with questions like this and partner with your employees in their work. This will increase productivity and grow relational equity. Plus, if you’ve been practicing active listening, you’ll have a better sense of what’s going on in your employee’s lives both in the office and outside of it. You can then ask powerful questions that show them care. A coaching leader gets things done, but also understands the immense privilege it is to lead people.

3. Take Thorough Notes. During your regularly scheduled one-on-ones (and they should be regularly scheduled with your direct reports), take good notes. If you’re listening well and asking powerful questions, you should capture important details in your note-taking. This will allow you to review your notes prior to the next one-on-one and show your teammate that you heard them. If you’re able to retain details without notes, that’s impressive, but set yourself up for success and jot down a few notes to help you keep the momentum going in your next one-on-one.

4. Create Action Plans. As a coaching leader, you should be helping those you lead to set achievable action plans with compelling goals. At Building Champions, we love the SMART goal framework. To set a SMART goal, it must be: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. Help your teammates set goals following the SMART framework and then add them as an action plan in your one-on-one. Then follow-up during your next one-on-one to learn their progress toward the goal. That’s when you can employ powerful questioning if it looks like the deadline for the goal might be in jeopardy.

5. Value Accountability. To hold someone accountable to a goal they’ve agreed upon or a standard that’s been set is to help them be successful. Feedback is a gift, and a coaching leader knows that holding a teammate accountable will help them get where they want to go. And as a leader, if you’re demonstrating accountability to your teammates—admitting fault when needed and taking healthy ownership of your own work—then your employees will be more likely to receive your words. A coaching leader knows that accountability is key to a person’s success and when trust is built within a relationship, then accountability can propel someone forward to the life and career they’re wanting.

6. Tell Good Stories. People connect to stories—it’s why we love movies, shows, and books. So, become a proficient storyteller; don’t ramble or manipulate but use story to drive your point home. Remember, people learn differently and therefore retain information better when delivered from different mediums. Some people need facts, some receive story, and some connect to and remember humor better. So, take some time to understand the different ways that people connect to information and learn to tell good stories. And don’t be afraid to draw from your own personal experience, as appropriate—because it can communicate authenticity, and a coaching leader is an authentic leader.

7. Become a Strong Communicator. If you’re utilizing active listening and asking powerful questions, your communication will improve—because when you’re truly listening and seeking to understand your employees, you’ll be able to better speak into their lives. You have a unique opportunity to help them grow and develop and become who they want to be. A coaching leader gets to instill confidence in those they lead and help them to become their best selves. So, don’t assume you understand or that they’ve heard you, but own your part in communication and ensure communication has been both given and received in the way that you intended.

Do you want to become a coaching leader? We’d love to help you develop the skills. Our team of coaches have worked with thousands of leaders like you, helping them to hone these skills and transform their leadership. And when you become a coaching leader, your teammates will see it and your organization will feel the positive impact of it. Reach out today and book a complimentary discovery call to learn more.