What Is A Coaching Mindset And How Can You Scale It In Your Organization?

Coaching Mindset Q&A

“Coaching mindset” ranked in the top five of the most in-demand skills for employees in organizations today, which you can learn more about in our Trends Report. So, what exactly is a “coaching mindset”? I spoke with two coaches about this skill set and what it means for employees and organizations today. Dané Johnson is a coach and senior culture consultant for SweetRush Transforming Leaders & Culture (TLC), and Joelle Jackson is a conscious leadership coach and author of Unlock Your Conscious Leadership.

How Do You Define “Coaching Mindset”?

Dané: Like a growth mindset, a coaching mindset is the belief that everyone can grow and expand their skills. In a coaching mindset, you believe that it’s an essential part of your role as a leader to help others realize and use their knowledge and skills and help them expand their capacity as individuals and as members of a team.

Joelle: The core competencies of a coaching mindset are: nonjudgement, active listening, curiosity, compassion, and empathy. To develop this skill, you need to do your inner work first. When you have conversations with others, if you are not at a place of peace with yourself—consciously leading your thoughts, emotions, energy blocks, and ego—how are you able to connect and listen (rather than trying to formulate an answer)?

A lot of discord we see in the world is rooted in fear, distrust, and a feeling of being threatened. With a coaching mindset, people don’t feel that way because it deepens psychological safety.

How Can An Organization Scale A Coaching Mindset?

Dané: Scaling a coaching mindset is a culture initiative. It starts with the top layers of leadership. How does leadership want to define success in achieving this goal? Once that’s defined, you roll out training and support to managers, providing motivation and inspiration for people to adopt this mindset. There needs to be strategic communication around the benefits. Determine how you can insert teaching moments in mechanisms and structures already in place, such as one-on-ones, all hands, and team meetings.

Joelle: Organizations can start implementing programs like culture transformation. In addition to the leaders, focus on new hires and individual contributors. Give everyone the skills to articulate the benefits of a coaching mindset. How can a person be expected to be promoted to a leader if they don’t have the ability to master their thoughts, emotions, and words in a conversation? This is one of the most important leadership competencies, which we teach in conscious leadership. Everything boils down to how you have conversations.

Let’s Picture An Organization That’s Already Scaled The Coaching Mindset Skill. What Does This Organization Look Like?

Dané: In an organization with a scaled coaching mindset, employees are experiencing more satisfaction, creativity, and innovation. Communication is better. There’s less in-fighting, defensiveness, and self-protection. There’s more knowledge sharing.

Employees embrace learning and growth. They are asking better questions, getting to the root of customer concerns more quickly, and solving problems with solutions that customers need.

Scaling a coaching mindset helps to future-proof your organization. Succession planning is more organic in this type of environment since people aren’t as protective of their perceived status. Leaders are able to identify who they want to eventually grow into their roles.

Joelle: It would be utopia! It would change everything. In this organization, employees are highly engaged. Productivity is high. It impacts the bottom line in a positive way. It’s a model to be emulated.

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