Three Questions To Unlock Your Teams Potential

Using coaching to create a culture change

More than ever, people are feeling disconnected from the overall vision of their organizations. In fact, due to a lack of trust in their leaders, I find many organizations have people actively pursuing a different direction or quietly opting out of the overall vision, leading to increased dissatisfaction and employee turnover.

I regularly share the following fable from Ken Schwaber, a leading expert in Agile management, highlighting what it means for a leader to be ‘all in’. A chicken and pig walk down the road. The chicken says to the pig, “Do you want to open a restaurant with me?” The pig considers the question and says, “Yes, I’d like that. What do you want to call the restaurant?” The chicken replies, “Ham and Eggs!” The pig stops, pauses, and replies, “On second thought, I don’t think I want to open a restaurant with you. I’d be committed, but you’d only be involved.” So while the chicken is involved, only the pig will put its bacon on the line and be committed.

A good coach will be ‘all in’ and deeply invested in the team’s work, protecting and helping them succeed no matter what. They will know there are three core questions that anyone will ask of them as a leader before people follow them:

• Do you care for me?
• Can you help me?
• Can I trust you?

These three questions have the power to transform you as a leader and enable you to build a team that trusts one another without fear of judgement or failure.

Every email you write to an individual, every conversation you have with your team and every task you ask them to do should leave your team in no doubt that you care for them, you want to help them, and they can trust you. Trusting others doesn’t mean that they won’t make mistakes. It means that if they do (or you do), you can trust they will act to help solve it.

This shift in posture from delegating to being personally responsible is difficult for many leaders to accept (especially if you are in an organization with a culture of low accountability and enshrined hierarchy). However, I have seen the pattern dozens of times when leaders who let down their guard and adopt a leading posture through empathy results in others becoming more confident and adopting a bring-your-whole-self-to-work attitude.

The coaching versus managing approach can help you take on the world, unlock their potential and conquer the future by making the people you lead partners and part-owners in culture change.