Better Coaching Through Growth Mindset

The definition of coaching is “unlocking a person’s potential to maximize their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them,” according to Sir John Whitmore (1937–2017), the pioneer and godfather of coaching in the workplace.

It has been well established that when done right, coaching can increase employee engagement; as it is often more motivating to bring your knowledge, insight, and expertise to a situation than to be told what to do.

I had often wondered why some managers were better coaches than others – until I began studying EI (emotional intelligence) and more importantly, the EI and mindset of those in charge and how it greatly affected outcomes. Numerous workplace studies have uncovered that great coaching ability is not primarily found in hard skills, experience, or training. In fact, research suggests that poor coaches might not believe people can grow and change – themselves included – and place no faith in any efforts to change what they feel is ultimately unchangeable.

So, how do you tell the difference and what can you do to encourage managers beyond their own self-limiting beliefs?

To understand how this works, you first must understand the mindset psychological trait. This comes from Stanford University Professor Carol Dweck’s findings on people’s approach to learning and intelligence. Dweck found that a person either has a fixed mindset or a growth mindset when approaching learning.

Those with a fixed mindset believe that intelligence is a fixed trait that can’t be changed. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talents instead of developing them and believe that talent alone creates success—without effort.

Those with growth mindsets believe intelligence can grow through a process of development and hard work.

Better Coaching with Growth Mindset Managers

It’s natural to ask, “what does this have to do with my managers and their ability to coach?” It’s more about your managers and their inability to coach, as if you’re someone who doesn’t believe intelligence can be improved in self or direct reports, you likely won’t take any learning and development process seriously. In their book Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths and Total Nonsense, researchers Jeffery Pfeffer and Robert Sutton assert that people who see intelligence as fixed tend to see performance as a measure of their abilities, whereas people with a growth mindset see poor performance as an opportunity to apply more effort or learning to that area.

Managers with a fixed mindset are less likely to try and help their employees through coaching—but researchers did find that managers with a fixed mindset who participated in learning and development workshops illustrating how people can grow and positively change were more willing to coach, and their engagement in and quality of their coaching greatly improved. It emerges that coaching can be encouraged if you first convince managers it has the probability of making a difference.

Growth versus fixed mindset? Can you see it in your managers? How would you address the necessary shift?

Join us online at XFLLetter.com for a deeper discussion of this subject and solutions on how to maximize the likelihood that your managers will be willing and effective coaches for their team!