The Leader As Coach – Trust & Rapport
4 August 2021
How Can Leaders Become Coaches
Or at the very least, adopt a coach-leadership style in their day to day conversations?
Today, we’d explore the Trust & Rapport building. I have always maintained that Trust is the foundation of coaching. Without Trust, the client will hold back information. Without Trust, we’d not be able to dig deeper and will only touch the surface. As Diamonds lie in ordinary rocks, even if they have the most powerful questions and the best active listening skills, we’d not be able to have an authentic, transformative conversation.
So how do we build Trust?
It’s not about Us
.
In a coaching conversation, we focus on the client’s Agenda. It helps to be curious. Start with small talk. Share about your personal life or embarrassing moments. Share unconditionally, When we go deeper into our hearts & feelings, we experience real emotions. The key is to be vulnerable. Slowly but surely, the client will open up.
Be Present. Cut off all distractions.
One HR study quoted that one excellent way of building trust is “Ask how are you doing, shut up and listen”. Be curious about the person, be interested, be present, put away your phone & share your empathetic ear.
Provide a Safe & Supportive Place
….for the person to share their stories. Take away your judgement, give attention, have a beginner’s mind (Shoshin), be open to new ideas and perspectives. Acknowledge & appreciate what they share. Even if you think you know and are an expert, be curious and find out more.
Be Self Aware.
All of us have different life experiences. As long as we have more self-awareness of our strengths & limitations, personalities, likes & dislikes, we would embrace each other’s quirks & nuances. Nobody’s perfect! We are all on a learning & growing journey. I found that when I have learnt something new, there comes more new stuff that I do not know.
How can we build on from here? I would love to hear from you stories and insights about how we can build Trust.
 |
