The team is losing, the players are defeated, and the coach steps into the locker room. Even though we know what’s going to happen next, we hold our breath for the speech that changes everything. In reality, we know it takes much more than one grand speech to inspire long-term success; however, we can all learn a little something from cinema’s greatest coaches and their epic locker room speeches.
During a recent podcast, I spoke with Adam Brantley, a successful entrepreneur and executive coach at Building Champions. Prior to working with Building Champions, Brantley led prosperous teams as a restaurant owner. During our conversation, we discussed the benefits of a coaching culture and how to build one in any workplace.
Listen to the full episode here:
1. Establish a People-Based Vision
Brantley defines culture as a group of individuals working together towards a common goal or vision, and he believes we’re in an era when successful companies focus more on people than tasks. In order to succeed, employees need people-focused goals that invite anyone at any level to engage and contribute. It’s up to leadership to not only communicate this vision to others but to also show each person they have a valuable role, no matter their title or pay grade.
During our discussion, Brantley emphasized the importance of establishing and communicating a vision that involves moving forward through inspired action. Employees need to see how what they are doing now will impact what they do in the future. Most important is a vision that is based on reality, even if that reality isn’t ideal.
2. Know and Care About Your Audience
A coaching culture starts with caring and connection. Today’s employees crave inclusion and engagement, and they resist old-school directive management styles based on hierarchy. Today, information flows faster than ever, and companies thrive when their employees are empowered to problem solve and innovate without all of the red tape that comes with traditional hierarchical management models.
This doesn’t mean hierarchy in the workplace isn’t necessary. It means that leaders must position themselves to unlock and not control their employees’ potentials. “People ultimately want to feel valued and included and challenged and engaged versus the whole directive and manage mindset,” said Brantley, “and I think that’s where coaching fits in beautifully.”
Leaders who want to build a coaching culture will take time to get to know their employees and what they want. Brantley suggests surveying employees about their levels of engagement and what effective engagement looks like to them. He also emphasizes the importance of building trust. “Trust is absolutely the foundational element of any healthy relationship,” he said. “I think the cornerstone of trust is being authentic, being vulnerable, and just being real.”
3. Know and Care About Yourself
According to Brantley, “self-leadership precedes team leadership,” and I couldn’t agree more. “If you’re going to show up and be the best leader for your team or the best employee for the organization, you need to be leading yourself well.”
From the beginning of our discussion, Brantley made it clear that inspiring leadership goes beyond the workplace and starts with the self. To him, there are three types of well-being: physical, social, and emotional. A person can only support each type in others when they are fully supporting each within themselves.
Just like any activity, coaching takes practice, and great coaches are continually developing their skills. Every Friday, Brantley blocks out time to develop his own leadership skills and believes that a strong leader’s calendar should reflect their desire to improve. If you’re not sure where to start, Brantley suggested a couple of books: Essentialism by Greg McKeown and H3 Leadership by Brad Lomenick.
4. Shift Your Leadership Mindset
“If you think about just the idea of coaching leadership, that’s one on one,” said Brantley. “But really, a coaching culture is across the entire organization from the top all the way down.”
Building a coaching culture isn’t about telling employees what to do. In a coaching culture, leaders get to know their employees and how they thrive, and they empower people at all levels to contribute and grow. Leaders must shift from directive-based interactions with employees to relational-based interactions.
To Brantley, a directive leadership style “becomes this very short-sighted, short-term sort of approach to management and leadership.” He suggests, “More of a long-term approach is this coaching leadership style where you are engaging the employee.”
5. Ask Powerful Questions
Rather than telling employees what to do, leaders building a coaching culture ask powerful questions that inspire action. A leader may have a solution in mind; however, that solution is likely limited and could be enhanced by others. Asking employees how they view a problem and what opportunities they see to fix it will not only promote a culture of collaboration and active engagement, but it will also lead to better solutions.
Brantley emphasized the importance of regular one-on-one meetings. Not just scheduling them but keeping them and making them a clear priority. Leaders should also make time for walkthroughs and open time to be available to employees. “When you look at your calendar,” said Brantley, “you should see this structure of coaching your people and developing your people shining right back at you.”
6. Hear Powerful Answers
Many leaders fall short when they ask powerful questions and then ignore the powerful answers.
Effective leaders build a coaching culture by asking clarifying questions that lead employees to develop their own solutions to problems.
It’s important to remember that active listening doesn’t mean always agreeing. Strong leaders and coaches authentically hear their employees’ ideas, good and bad, and respond accordingly. If an employee’s response is vague or off-topic, a good coach will ask questions that push the employee to be more specific and goal-oriented.
7. Take Powerful Actions
The most difficult part of coaching is turning powerful responses into powerful actions. Employees don’t trust and respect leaders who ask questions and don’t actively respond to the answers. During meetings, leaders should take diligent notes and then follow up with employees, not only with words but also with actions.
8. Inspire a Team of Coaches
Culture is something that develops over time. “This isn’t something you’re going to flip a switch and all of a sudden your culture is a coaching culture,” said Brantley. “You’re going to have to have some key drivers and some key influencers embrace this.”
Whether it’s hiring outside coaches like Brantley or recruiting and training colleagues, leaders who want to establish a coaching culture need to do so with a team who believes in coaching and is able to effectively coach others.
The ultimate goal is to have coaches at all levels who naturally step up when needed and are able to inspire others to do the same. This doesn’t mean recruiting all of the high performers. This means recruiting team members who demonstrate leadership skills and who are coachable themselves.
It also means training and believing in others to be great leaders. “You have to believe that everybody has the potential and the opportunity if they are trained the right way and have the right mindset to really thrive in that role,” said Brantley. “I don’t think you have to be Winston Churchill to be a great leader of your team.”
A great coach doesn’t just teach people how to do something; they inspire people to do their best. By following these steps to build a coaching culture, leaders can help their teams engage and thrive.
You can learn more about Brantley and Building Champions at www.buildingchampions.com, where you can also check out a couple of their e-guides on coaching: Guide to Coaching Leadership and Becoming a Coaching Leader.