As part of her work in Leadership Development, Rachel Cooke (your Modern Mentor) runs a group coaching program for organizations called SIMPLE coaching. She calls it this partly because it’s an acronym for the concepts she covers, but mostly because she thinks we’ve vastly overcomplicated leadership—and we’ve left too many new leaders feeling like deer in headlights. SIMPLE coaching leans just a little bit on teaching concepts, but focuses mostly on practicing, challenging, and problem-solving as leaders actually start using the concepts. Also… they spend a lot time on leaders’ questions. Because they have lot of them! This is a safe forum for them to just ask. And she answers.
This week, she's sharing a few of her favorite questions she's gotten from participants in recent cohorts—to hear her answers, check out her latest episode. Chances are you’ve struggled with one or more of these questions and so here’s hoping you find some value in the conversation!
1) “We’ve talked a lot in this group about how important empathy is—how much we need to listen and show humility and ask great questions and all that stuff. But also, isn’t it my job to show up with confidence? To assure my team it’s safe to follow me? Don’t they need to believe I have the answers? I’m struggling with how to balance these ideas and would love any advice.”
2) “Every time I ask my team for feedback—and I swear I do it on the regular—whether it’s about how I’m leading or what ideas they have on a project plan, or anything else that may be on their minds, my team doesn’t seem to have anything to say. I want their feedback—I really do—so how can I change the conversation, make it more of a two-way street?”
3) “I really get how important delegation is—both for me in freeing up some strategic time, and for my team member who gets the opportunity to learn a new thing. But the last few times I delegated, I ended up getting burned. For one reason or another, the result wasn’t exactly what I wanted. And now I’m anxious about trying again.”
For Rachel's answers to these questions, check out this week's episode here,or if you're more of a reader than a listener, a transcript is available here.
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