Coaching and leadership are similar in many ways but also have distinct differences. While there’s some crossover in how they work, it’s essential to understand when and where to incorporate characteristics of both strategically. This blog explores how to discern when to use coaching and/or leadership practices in an organizational context to accomplish goals.
Positioning Leadership and Coaching Within the Organizational Chart
Organizational charts serve as important internal and external references that position the distribution of team leadership and determine the flow of interpersonal processes. I use an organizational chart as an essential starting point for expanding on when and how leadership and/or coaching methods can be most beneficial. Both are impactful when imagined within the organizational chart but function best when operationalized on different levels.
Leadership and Strategy in Senior and Executive Positions
If you lead at a senior or executive level, you likely lean more heavily on leadership principles as they work best when overseeing strategic direction and initiatives. For example, a chief executive officer is more effective when they focus on goal setting, missions, visions and measurable objectives necessary to accomplish tasks at hand and goals. Each of these focuses is encompassed in a leadership-centered approach.
In addition to how executives cultivate change, how they interact across the organizational chart and structure represents strategic leadership methodology. As a leader at this level, you must ask powerful questions and embrace a problem-solving approach that effectively addresses company challenges. Leadership-centered thinking is key to approaching problems, creating proposals with measurable outcomes and providing a wide range of support.
Additionally, the hierarchical nature of how organizations are structured often means senior and executive leaders will assume an authoritarian approach to decision-making because sometimes it’s necessary to set goals and accomplish them. Even leaders who embody a more distributive and shared leadership framework sometimes must make executive decisions depending on circumstances.
Coaching in Mid-Level Positions
Coaching skills are pivotal if you’re a mid-level leader, such as those in supervisory roles who manage smaller teams. These smaller contexts provide an opportunity to facilitate more intimate connections and short-term, highly outcome-focused goals and objectives. For example, executives employing the leadership lens will create missions, visions and objectives. Mid-level professionals using more of a coaching approach will focus on operationalizing those missions, visions and objectives by engaging in close relationships with entry-level employees working to meet those goals.
Additionally, mid-level professionals can approach problem-solving and decision-making by applying management techniques from a coaching perspective. Given the intimacy of the relationships between these professionals and their subordinates, problem-solving and decision-making follow a much more shared model, which distributes the power. Embracing relationship-building, emotional intelligence, management skills and active listening can be powerful building methods within the organizational structure. It’s also important to note that while the larger decisions are made by senior leadership, mid-level professionals still make tons of daily decisions.
How Leadership and Coaching Overlap in Organizations
While leadership and/or coaching methods are more effective depending on levels of seniority, this is not to paint a siloed picture of how these two practices function. There is incredible overlap in how these are used across various levels within the organization – that is, senior corporate executives also employ coaching practices, and mid-level professionals also use leadership methods. Both require high levels of communication skills and people management.
This is not an either-or approach to how professionals practice leadership and coaching; instead, it elaborates on which principles are more effective depending on context, purpose, expertise and positionality. Coaches are leaders. Leaders are coaches. Coaches lead. Leaders coach. There is so much fluidity in how these demonstrate themselves across the organizational context. Regardless, a great leader is marked by mastering when to exercise which approach.
The Rest of the Organizational Chart
We’ve covered senior and mid-level professional positions because that’s where we most commonly observe leadership and coaching principles. You’re not excluded if you’re outside of these roles! Elements of leadership and coaching are also incorporated at the lower levels within the organizational chart, which is especially important for early-career professionals to understand as they navigate promotions and eventually move into mid- and senior-level positions.
These professionals need opportunities to demonstrate their coaching and leadership skills, commonly evidenced through smaller-scale projects in which they must use critical thinking, collaboration, strategy and other essential skills. This form of on-the-job professional development makes employees feel like their tasks contribute to future success. It’s a great discussion point for performance reviews as well.
Leadership and coaching are important concepts for an individual to be an effective leader. Accounting for their differences and similarities allows for strategic placement and incorporation of said principles in the most effective ways. This strategic incorporation of approaches paves the way for outstanding leadership, coaching, performance and an ultimate path for learning and development across the organizational chart.
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