How to Be a Good Coach in the Hybrid World

By Jeremy Campbell, executive coach and CEO of Black Isle Group, a leadership and performance improvement business.

There is a huge growth in demand for coaching across the banking and finance world. It is driven by the perfect storm that so many of us find ourselves in. The business climate is mean and menacing right now. Buffeted by the ill winds of inflation, the looming clouds of recession and the stormy seas of hybrid working, things are tough out there.

Many trying to cope with the quantity, pace and complexity of change need help. The upsurge of focus on wellbeing and worklife balance which came to the fore during the pandemic is another powerful factor.

In a recent survey, 85% of companies said they were experiencing an increasing demand from their employees for coaching. It is partly driven by the realisation that interaction with a professional coach can make one heck of a difference.

According to Harvard Business Review, coaching can boost productivity of teams and individuals by 44%. While often the most powerful intervention will come from an external coach, attention has also been focused on the truth that to be a good leader you need to be a good coach.

So, how do you do it effectively in the hybrid world? Here are our top tips:

1. Coaching is not mentoring. The essence of coaching is helping the coachee on a path of self-discovery. It is not telling people how you would do it. It’s helping people to find the answer themselves.
2. Deep listening is key. Great coaches are great listeners. They focus on what is not being said as well as what is being said. They seek to understand what is going on beneath the surface. The real game changing stuff will be found in helping the coachee to reach into their subconscious for the answers.
3. Coaching without action is delusion. The road to progress is found in the actions which people take away from the coaching conversation. We are seeking to help people make fundamental shifts in how they behave and how they approach their working and personal lives. Key to this is identifying the blockers, which are preventing advancement.
4. Everyday actions are the best way of rapid improvement. Coachees often set themselves big hairy audacious goals (BHAGs), then fail to make progress because it is all a bit too daunting. The answer lies in breaking these goals down into small achievable and understandable first steps. When people climb Everest, the first step they take is to point their toes on the path.
5. Keep focus. Don’t be distracted. Coaches can be very effective in helping the people they work with to maintain focus and not be distracted by the urgent and unimportant.

These five tips will help you to become a good coach. In the hybrid world, the other thing which is becoming obvious is that we still need to do face-to-face. Often coaching spans six sessions in relatively quick succession. For the best outcomes, the first session, the mid-point review and the last session of the set should all be face-to-face. You miss so much by not being in the room together.

The other great truth about coaching is that the deeper the coach goes, the more answers will be revealed. This is about holding a mirror up to people; raising their awareness of themselves; and setting them on a new and different path. We are all like icebergs – only revealing a small amount about who we are. Often, we only understand a tiny bit about ourselves. Many people don’t even know how they behave never mind why they do what they do. There is great value in psychometrics and 360s with colleagues to surface this data.

There are three other deep truths about coaching which are well worth sharing and contemplating. The first is that there is a rationale behind every human act, but the chances are that it is not the one which is first presented by your coachee. The second deep truth is that we are all defined by our past. The present can normally be explained by confronting and understanding that past. And finally, the last deep truth is that our success as leaders is dependent on how we express or repress our emotions. Too much emotion and we’re a hot head. Too little emotion and we’re a cold fish.

As the demand for coaching rockets, there is a need for the quality of coaching to improve too. The best coaches are those who are professionally trained and qualified. After all you wouldn’t see a doctor who hasn’t been trained or use a lawyer with no qualifications. Likewise, don’t use a coach who isn’t professionally qualified and supervised.

Coaching changes lives. A great coaching engagement can transform people and their organisations. Yet, the true value of great coaching is only now being realised.