Coaching made me a better people leader
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Coaching enabled a small newly formed and diverse team to deliver more, more quickly and of higher quality in a very complex, fast-paced environment. It fostered high-value, innovative and cohesive contributions and facilitated pro-active and nimble adaptation to changing circumstances.
I was an “OK” people leader before becoming a coach. My teams have been high-performing and most team members seemed to appreciate my “style”. However, the circumstances in which I found myself in early 2020 begged a challenging question: If I am on this coaching journey, if I really believe it capable of transformative change, could I utilize it to build and lead a small team of very diverse expertise to accomplish what was required in a critically small window of time?
Up for most challenges, I was in!
Context: A single Project Management Office in a very large, complex, fast paced IT transformation supporting two diverse technical delivery programs of very different cultures and priorities: One program was well established, the other relatively fresh. Both had the same implementation date and they shared inter-dependent functionality. Communication between the two wasn’t optimal. The delivery date was non-negotiable and looming!
In this very compressed timeline, my role was to build and lead a core team to provide high-value expertise and consistent functionality that would pull – and hold – together the two divergent programs.
The tight timeline constrained the hiring process, and as I was getting started Covid 19 hit.
The computer screen became my sole window for interviewing, hiring, on-boarding, and creating a cohesive, collaborative and trusting team culture. We went from a team of 3 to 12 in six weeks.
While the required expertise landed at the table, the vast diversity of personalities on the team raised the risk of competition that could shut down valuable contributions.
It would have been easy under these circumstances to have slid into my old leadership style (a bit of a pacesetter combined with servant leadership), or even to have taken on a driving, pushing command-and-control leadership style. The risk was that under these constraints and pressures and the enormity of the challenges, either approach would have limited our output, and in all likelihood, would have resulted in too much on my shoulders alone. Success would have been weak and limited.
Restraint was not easy! The rewards, however, were swift and very apparent: the strengths and expertise of each core-team member quickly sprang into action and in fairly short order they began to appreciate – and leverage - the strengths of their colleagues, ultimately allowing them to deliver more, of higher value, faster. The solutions were more innovative, effective and elegant than I would have developed using my old methods. Furthermore, within six months this crew was markedly and positively shifting cultures in the massive programs.
When we brought together players from various corners of the programs, animosity could have erupted rather than the constructive dialogue desperately needed between the interdependent partners . All participants were under enormous pressure to complete their components under the very challenging circumstances, many of whom had experienced each other as competitors for constrained resources or in some cases the instigators of costly rework due to uncommunicated change. Utilizing open questions, holding each capable, holding the space for conversation without judgment we began the collaborative dialogue that enabled cohesive delivery.
How did Coaching Help?
Holding each member of the team fully capable, and aligning with the RACI (Responsible/ Accountable/ Consulted/ Informed) for each service our team was providing, ensured each core team member had ownership of and commitment to their goals.
They were motivated to actively create opportunities to work collaboratively to find ways to augment the value they were providing.
My leadership job became easier: While providing the vision, feedback, coaching and support, my role was to enable and empower their efforts while holding and protecting their space: each member was accountable, enormously capable and understood the value of their contributions.
The real magic was the culture shifting. Coaching the core team in a coach-approach in their interaction with “clients” began to shift the programs from the well established silo structure, rich with salvos of criticism and competition for resources, to collaborative conversations and the promising signs of cohesion.
Added benefits?
Higher Quality through leveraged diversity: The team swiftly utilized their individual strengths and sought help where they were less strong. There was no competition but mutual support allowing each to achieve their goals with confidence.
Innovation: Team members were approaching situations with curiosity rather than judgment, gaining clarity with every question and seizing opportunities to build on what each was doing to augment our services. They were more than the sum of their parts.
Satisfaction: They didn’t shy away from challenges, celebrated accomplishments, and there was a good deal of laughter!
Increased Agility, Collaboration and Cohesion.
It was not nirvana: It was a very heavy workload for everyone.
The program delivered, and I’m back coaching with hands on experience that coaching enables more effective people leadership and the development of high-value teams that provide value in chaotic and complex environments along with the substance for innovation and growth.
(First published May 2021)