This is a very popular style. Ask most leaders whether they use it and the chances are that they’ll say yes. But the chances are that they’ll also be wrong, says Russell Hobby, an associate director at Hay Group.

Many so-called coaches are directive leaders or pacesetters who expect their people to do what they’re told (or shown) to do; others are affiliative types who are quite happy having a friendly chat but aren’t nearly as good at offering firm guidance when problems need to be sorted out.

“It’s easy to confuse coaching with the situation where you sit down and talk to people about their goals, but that’s not all of it,” Hobby says. “It’s about working with a team to build its long-term capabilities.”

The defining characteristics. Coaching leaders work to understand the strengths and abilities of each member of the team and look for ways to help them to grow and develop over the long term. Expect to see a lot of talking. “You see them discussing with team members what they hope to do and achieve, then building and shaping the work that they give them to meet those needs. You’d see careful thought going into who gets which assignment – it may not be who is best for the job but who it will stretch, who will grow with it.” People tend to like working for this type of leader but this doesn’t mean that they’re a soft touch: “These leaders can be quite challenging. It’s not about being nice.”

Good bosses can turn on the style

Can the essence of leadership be distilled to just six styles?

Background

• Leaders who put onus on the led

• Affiliation feels good if it works

• A new take on the big picture

• The direct route is not always best

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• Top players show perfect balance

Here’s one we prepared earlier. “The person who emphasises the hard edges of the coaching style is Gordon Ramsay [the chef]. Many people would associate him with the more coercive elements but if you look at what he does when he’s in a kitchen, there’s a huge amount of really honest feedback. He thinks about people’s vision for their restaurant and helps them to reach their goals; it’s not about him saying what he would do.” Equally, he could be expected to use the pacesetting style to quite an extent, but most of the time he does very little cooking himself .

It does more harm than good when... used with a team that lacks confidence, drive or ambition. “If people are just turning up at work to earn their pay cheque and go home again, they will simply want someone to tell them what to do.” It’s also not good when quick results and short-term clarity are needed.

Effect if overused. This can lead to the development of talented, capable staff whose ambitions and skills do not align with those of the company; it can also create a pleasant working environment that is supportive of individual development needs but “it’s hard to overuse this one [because] it’s one of the most effective long-term styles... but there are other elements needed. If you are just building on others’ aspirations, not on the organisation’s needs, you will be training people up but not having them where you need them to be.”

What to avoid when working for a coaching leader. Not knowing how you want to develop your career in the organisation; being unable to take feedback in a positive spirit. “You will have difficult feedback at times and if you sulk or storm off you are not getting the best out of it. It’s not about pleasing your leader but about getting the most out of what they can give you.”

How to impress a coaching leader. Do some self-analysis and be very clear about your strengths and weaknesses.

Next week: how the best leaders treat these styles as golf clubs and choose the right style for any given situation.

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