Are You Using the Coach Approach?
I’m getting ready to lead a new 2026 Thriving Leaders Circle cohort, and it’s got me thinking about the heart of my message: coach-like leadership.
If you’ve been following me for a long time, you may know exactly what I mean by that.
But if not, I want to share the philosophy behind everything I do.
Coach-like leadership is the key to…
- Fostering deeper team relationships
- Unlocking productivity within your team
- Turning your intention into maximum impact
Whether you’re a new manager or a senior leader, this approach will drastically change the way you show up in the workplace.
The Coach Approach: What Is It?
First, let’s look at what it’s not.
❌ It’s not just training. Training is one of the key responsibilities of a leader…but if all you do is train, that makes you a teacher, not a coach-like leader.
❌ It’s not just mentoring. Mentoring is important! But if you just focus on giving advice, you’re not reaping the benefits of coach-like leadership.
❌ It’s not just managing. Leadership is so much more than just assigning tasks and making decisions.
So what is it?
At its core, taking a coach approach means working with someone in conversation to help them find their own best answers. It’s equipping them to take ownership of their ideas, and supporting them so they can develop their own best path forward.
It works because people are motivated by autonomy. They want to be supported but they will be more enthusiastic about their own solutions than the ones that are dictated to them.
It’s a difficult balance to hold.
Which explains why you don’t see coach-like leadership very often. Because it requires simultaneously investing heavily in your team AND letting go of control.
That’s not just hard. It’s scary!
Trusting your team isn’t easy when their results are tied to yours. But it makes all the difference in your team dynamics and growth.
The Result: Relationship-Centric Leadership
In my first leadership role, I was an extreme micromanager. And I learned the hard way that employees burn out when they aren’t allowed to bring their own thoughts and ideas to the table.
Ironically, I was the biggest roadblock to their growth.
When I started taking a coach approach to leadership, I invested in building relationships between me and my team members.
Slowly I transitioned from…
Pushing my team to perform ➡️ ➡️ ➡️ coming alongside them to foster success.
This doesn’t come naturally.
As leaders, I think it’s easy to get crushed under our responsibilities. We’re under pressure to provide results, and that can lead us to overlook what our team really needs.
But we’re looking at it backwards.
A coach approach focuses on relationships before results. And when you take time to build the relationships, the results will come.
Putting It Into Practice
If you want to grow into a confident, coach-like leader, I hope you take a minute to learn about the upcoming Thriving Leaders Circle cohort! We’ll start in February 2026, and spend the next 5 months covering ten critical elements of coach-like leadership.
Without exception, every person who has applied themselves and done the work in Thriving Leaders Circle has reported they became more confident in their leadership role.
They learned how to be less directive and more coach-like in their management style. And they gained specific frameworks and models for leadership skills like delegation and feedback that they can refer to anytime they need them.
Now, this Thriving Leaders Circle cohort will be a little bit different from the previous versions, which have traditionally been a full year. But after receiving a lot of feedback on the length of the program, I have transitioned to a 5-month track that will be more accommodating for busy professionals who can’t commit to a full year.