Leading By Coaching

In Gary Collins book "Christian Coaching" he states "Coaching is the key element in producing good leaders. To be a good leader you must be a good coach. And to be a good coach you must recognize that coaching is a significant form of leadership."

This is so true, whether you are coaching up a team of football players, a team of spiritual leaders, a team of business leaders, or leaders within your family. And a good coach is very intentional about the roles they play and methods they use. I've come up with four coaching cornerstones roles that I believe are critical to every coaching and coachee partnership.

1) Motivator Role - A coaching leader seeks to inspire and motivate others to become spiritually motivated to grow and develop themselves. A coach helps the coachee to paint a portrait of what could be, set growing pain goals and keeps them moving forward regardless of their pace or results. I Thessalonians 2:11-12

2) Assessor Role - In this role the coach assists the coachee in becoming more aware of how they are perceived by and the impact they have on others, as well as identifying their unique strengths and struggles stemming from their personality, giftedness, experiences and skills. The best way to accomplish this is by asking more questions and giving fewer answers. Romans 12:6a

3) Developer Role - Here the coach helps the coachee to identify development opportunities, objectives and outcomes. Proverbs 27:17

Opportunity:
- Improve my physical health

Objectives:
- Lose 30 pounds by June 20th, 2009
- Exercise 30 minutes a day three times a week
- Run in three 5k and one 10k road race by July 31, 2009

Outcome:
- Feel better, look better, more energy, more disciplined lifestyle

4) Guiding Role - The coach assists the coachee in becoming competent in their opportunity areas by guiding, fine tuning, and encouraging them throughout their journey. Acts 9:27

Lastly, a coachee has to believe in and respect their coach. This means the coach has to earn their respect throughout their collective journey. To do this a coach should speak with honesty, integrity and good intent, offer praise for who the coachee is and not just for their accomplishments, allow for learning through failure, provide engaging, non-threatening feedback, focus on what's missing rather than what's wrong, and finally coach/teach others through your life. "And you yourself must be an example to them by doing good deeds of every kind. Let everything you do reflect the integrity and seriousness of your teaching." Titus 2:7

Be an extraordinary leader today by seeking out opportunities to invest in others. You will learn more than you ever imagined!