Lead effectively with “coaching leadership” and improve your chances for promotion
This is the second article in a series. Each article summarizes insights from recent research on one specific behavioral dimension required to lead health and safety in the workplace. It also introduces a program to develop these essential dimensions and set the learner up for success and career progression.
Written by Albert Maass, Industrial Psychologist and Principal Coach at Pro Talent Academy for Leadership Development, a SAIOSH corporate member.
First test your insight with this scenario then read on
Coaching leaders play to the strengths of all team members. What would you do to get to know your team members and understand the strengths of each worker in your team?
Option A: Send them for independent assessments
OR
Option B: Ongoing discussions and feedback
Read the summary of insights from recent research below to identify the most appropriate option. For more detailed insight and development of this essential leadership dimension visit www.learn-protalent.co.za and do the module COACHING LEADERSHIP in the course LICENSE TO LEAD 2027 PART 3 ACHIEVEMENT LEADERSHIP
Summary of insights from a research article published in 2023
“Coaching leadership as a link between individual and team-level strength use at work”
Written by: Liisa Mäkelä, Hilpi Kangas, Eveliina Korkiakangas & Jaana Laitinen
Individual strengths
Every individual has strengths, i.e., “specific individual characteristics, traits, and abilities that, when employed, are energizing and allow a person to perform at his or her personal best”. In the context of working life, being able to recognize, utilize and develop one’s strengths has been related to several positive outcomes, for instance, work engagement and well- being, reduced stress and burnout, and good job performance.
Organizational (leadership) support of strength use at work is essential and has been identified as an especially important job resource in the context of high job demands.
Conservation of resources theory COR theory is based on the idea that individuals attempt to acquire, maintain, protect, and foster things they value, i.e., resources. Resources can be objects or material goods (e.g., salary), energy (e.g., time), personal characteristics (e.g., personal strengths or skills) or conditions (e.g., having a coaching leader). Resources are salient for an individual’s well-being, and if one loses or is under threat of losing some resources, the importance of other obtained resources increases. Having fewer resources makes people more vulnerable to resource loss than those with greater resources. This negative process is called a loss spiral and leads to negative outcomes such as reduced well-being at work or decreased commitment to the organization. It has also been shown that the more resources available, the greater are the opportunities to acquire new resources. This kind of positive process is known as a resource caravan or a gain spiral and is likely to be linked to positive outcomes such as higher performance and commitment.
Strength use benefits
Strength use at work stems from the positive psychology literature and is based on the idea that all individuals have certain behavioral, cognitive and affective capacities that energize them and enable optimal functioning. Strengths are considered stable but not fixed, and they develop naturally over the life course but also because of conscious effort. In the context of work and organizations, a deeper understanding of strength use at work is beneficial, as using strengths at work has been linked to positive well-being outcomes among individuals, such as personal growth, less stress, greater self-esteem, vitality, and positive affect. If strength use at work is supported and encouraged in an organization, positive outcomes seem to follow. For instance, employees who are encouraged to use their strengths at work cope better with their workload and are less often absent. Organizational support of strength use has also been linked to higher levels of vitality, flow, passion, engagement in work, and lower intention to quit. Thus, organizational support of strength use at work is essential and has been identified as an especially important job resource in the context of high job demands.
Coaching leadership applies strength use in teams
Strength use at work has mainly been approached at the individual level, but recently it has been suggested that the team context plays an important role in how strengths are used at work. The organizational climate is a crucial factor in the multi- level process (individual and team) in terms of strength use at work, and leaders play a key role in nurturing and developing the organizational climate. It has also been suggested that leaders should employ strength-based practices not only among their individual subordinates but also in teams.
If the leader was unable to distinguish the strengths of the individuals, they were less likely to use these strengths on the team level. If the leader recognized and enabled the strength use of only a few individuals, this seemed to lead to feelings of unfairness among the work team. Therefore, by considering and identifying the individual’s characteristics, the leader was also able to formulate opportunities for strength use at the team level. As identifying and enabling individual-level strength use was highly person oriented, strength use at the team level was connected more to professional and work- related elements. For example, the leader coordinated the allocation of tasks and responsibilities to distribute work effectively. However, it was also important that they recognized and facilitated the process of subordinates’ shared strength use within the team. One important element, in addition to recognizing individual strengths, was identifying and employing strengths through diversity. This was firmly based on knowing each employee’s strengths. Many interviewees, both leaders and subordinates, raised the issue of strengths of employees of different ages. Many recognized that often, these groups’ strengths differed. It was considered important to first recognize that these differences could cause tensions, and then to identify how these differences could be turned into something positive.
The identification and effective use of strengths on the team level required intentional, planned actions on the part of the leader. It seems that there was a lot of potential in having diverse work team, but if the leader could not support the team-level identification and use of each employee’s strengths, some of this potential could be lost.
The important element in team-level support of strength use was creating a psychologically safe environment (Climate). It also became clear that the leader should act openly and transparently when distributing tasks and coordinating individuals’ strength use on the team level.
Strength use leadership
Organizations can promote strength use in several ways; for instance, by providing the opportunity for collaboration between colleagues whose skills complement each other, or by designing and allocating tasks based on employees’ individual strengths. Strength use can also be supported by different human resource management processes in organizations: Recruitment and employee selection can ensure a fit between employee strengths and job role, and the focus of performance management and development discussions can be on strengths rather than deficits. In addition, interventions and training programs that help employees identify, develop, and use their strengths are also one way in which organizations can support strength use at work.
One stream in leadership research that strongly acknowledges the support of employees’ strengths as the core of supervisory work is coaching leadership.
Coaching leadership
Earlier literature has identified leaders as organizational agents who support individuals’ strength use at work. Coaching leadership refers to supervisory work that identifies and exploits an employee’s potential, develops their abilities, and helps them learn, with the aim of promoting the performance of both the employee and the organization as a whole.
Coaching leadership is a combination of cognition, attitudes and behavior; coaching leaders respect their employees’ skills and knowledge and consider them capable and able to develop. Coaching leaders influence their subordinate’s feelings and attitudes at work by encouragement, guidance, facilitation, and inspiration. They also enable their employees to take an independent and responsible work role, and their leadership behavior is based on asking for rather than providing readymade solutions and answers; they are good listeners and have analytical skills. Therefore, coaching leaders can identify the needs of their subordinates and encourage them to find their strengths and utilize them at work.
Benefits of coaching leadership
Coaching leadership facilitates employees’ personal learning and openness to change. Coaching leadership has also shown to strengthen employees’ voice behavior, i.e., employees’ willingness to offer their opinions on how to improve their organization and their constructive deviance, which is their voluntary behavior that violates existing norms with the aim of improving the well-being of an organization, its members or both. Coaching leadership has also been positively related to employees’ perceptions of the fairness of performance evaluations, objective and subjective career success, and work performance.
Coaching leadership has the potential to be an essential work resource and a source of organizational support of strength use. Thus, in line with the basis of COR theory, a coaching leader may improve strength use at work at both the individual and team level.
Considering individual team members’ characteristics and personal knowledge was crucial for leaders to effectively empower each employee to use their strengths for both their own individual good and that of their team. Thus, coaching leadership practices have the potential to support a positive resource accumulation process in a team: first, by promoting each team members’ personal resources like identifying individual strengths and developing skills, and second, by creating a work environment–– a conditional resource––in which the personal resources of several people are coordinated to complement each other.
Application of Coaching leadership
The research findings suggest that one of the most important factors in the process of identifying individual strengths and enabling their use was the leader’s knowledge of each of their subordinates’ personal characteristics. Through being interested and individual consideration, the leader got to know their subordinates and was able to identify individual strengths. In day-to-day leadership, the leader could use many strategies to obtain this knowledge of their subordinates. The leader’s interest was a focal element in identifying their subordinates’ individual strengths. The leaders used multiple methods to get to know their subordinates. It became clear that daily leadership, which meant showing interest in day-to-day situations through regular encounters, was essential. One important interaction routine was giving feedback, asking questions, and engaging in discussions about work. Coaching leaders discuss things with team members. Everyone should be valued.
On an individual level, supervisor support of strength use was perceived to be directed more towards the individual and their professional and personal growth. The strengths were often tied to the employees’ competence and perceived meaningfulness. On the individual level, team members experience strength identification and use as empowering and increasing work well- being. A focal viewpoint in being interested in and knowing the people was knowing their work. If the leader was familiar with the work and the particular work task, and their nature, they were better able to also identify which strengths were meaningful on an individual and/or team level.
Individual consideration was perceived in situations in which the work of a subordinate had to, for various reasons, be remodeled; for example, if the subordinate was unable to continue their usual tasks due to health-related issues. In many such instances, the leader was able to identify and support the use of the individual’s new strengths. An important element here was the work group’s consent to individually modify the tasks. Team-level strength use was also activated, as the individually modified tasks could be carried out on the team level.
The leader’s role in enabling strength use was not only to allow it. In some instances, the leader was more proactive in making suggestions about the possible routes the subordinates could take professionally. There was a notion of recognizing subordinates’ important roles and possibilities. However, it was also important that, despite enabling strength use and creating an atmosphere of opportunities to use different strengths, the leader also gave the subordinates autonomy to further develop the tasks in which they used their strengths. It was also imperative to build trust and allow autonomy. The supportive and enabling role of the leader seemed to be focal when the subordinate sought to develop their strengths through training opportunities.
In the process of identifying each employees’ strengths, the leader’s accessibility was perceived as essential. Acknowledging the strengths on an individual level often also required activity on the part of the subordinate. Through a closer leader—follower relationship, the parties could engage in open dialogue about the employee’s professional possibilities and interests. Within this domain, the leader’s accessibility, openness, and reliability were perceived as important.
On the team level, it was essential that the leader had a good overall idea of the team and their individual strengths to provide support for the shared coordination of individuals’ strength use. Coaching leaders make individual competences and strengths visible through shared team meetings and discussions.
The role of the leader is that of a facilitator or enabler of best practices for organizing work, and as empowering the design of work and people’s roles to best promote team-level functioning. This creates team-level autonomy for employees to best fit their strength use to their work. In an ideal situation, the leader would enable strength use and team-level coordination of use, empowering the team to adjust and innovate in team-level decisions.
Disadvantages when Coaching leadership is not applied
On the negative side, if the leader was not, for some reason, keen on or active in getting to know their subordinates, many subordinates interpreted this as a lack of interest. In these situations, the subordinates also felt that their opportunities to use their strengths were limited, mainly as the leader did not recognize them. The inability to recognize one’s subordinate’s strength often reflected low trust in their decisions or information. This could influence the subordinates’ professional self-esteem and perception of their own competence and strengths.
If the team-level atmosphere did not support common strength use and openness, some strong individuals might steer their direction behind the leader’s back. In these situations, it seemed the subordinates bypassed the leader and formulated their own methods for team-level strength use. In these teams, strength use was self-regulated and autonomous, and in some cases, strengths could be used unfairly.
Conclusion and action steps
Several people are involved in the leadership of employees. It is important that they understand their leadership role and include essential leadership dimensions in their continuous professional development (CPD).
Just like the human body needs a regular portion of essential nutrients to stay healthy, every leader needs a regular reminder and refresher exercise in essential leadership dimensions. The LICENSE TO LEAD development program is such a solution with practical applications in the real workplace which positions the learner for success and career progress, and it offers international certificates in leadership and CPD points verified by SAIOSH.
Enrol: visit www.learn-protalent.co.za and do the module COACHING LEADERSHIP in the course LICENSE TO LEAD 2027 PART 1 – ACHIEVEMENT LEADERSHIP
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