Are you now being judged on how you lead?
Creating value through your technical expertise is something you know you’re good at. Creating value through other people is where you’re looking to grow.
That’s where coach-like leadership makes all the difference.
As technical leaders move from doing to leading, success becomes less about having the right answers and more about helping others find theirs. But that transition isn’t always straightforward. Many of the people I work with were promoted because they’re brilliant at solving problems. Now they’re expected to lead others who need space, clarity, and confidence, not micromanagement.
This is where coaching skills come in. Not to turn you into a coach, but to give you the tools to lead in a more intentional way.
How do we know?
Because over 10 years we’ve coached hundreds of leaders in technical and professional services and helped them discover what works.
Coach-like leaders know how to ask better questions, listen without rushing to fix, and help others think clearly and act with more ownership. They create clarity where there’s confusion, reduce friction, and build the kind of trust that allows performance to thrive.
The evidence is clear. Leaders who adopt coaching behaviours like deep listening, empathy and collaborative goal-setting see measurable improvements in trust, team relationships, and performance. One study found significant gains in role clarity, team cohesion and individual contribution. Another found that organisations with coaching-style leadership experience higher engagement and better retention.
More importantly, these behaviours protect performance in times of stress and change. When people feel safe to think, speak, and take risks, innovation and growth follow.
So what does coach-like leadership look like in practice?
It’s knowing how to co-create clarity with your team. When you slow down to ask the right questions, you uncover assumptions, reveal blind spots, and align around expectations. Judith E. Glaser’s research on Conversational Intelligence shows that high-trust conversations literally change brain chemistry. When people feel heard, they move from protection to connection. Thinking improves. So does performance.
It’s listening with empathy, not just to be kind, but to create the psychological safety that lets people contribute ideas and raise issues before they spiral. It’s setting goals together, creating accountability not through pressure but through shared ownership.
It’s presence. Not just showing up to the meeting, but really being there. Focused. Attentive. Curious. Nancy Kline calls this “a thinking environment.” The kind of space where people surprise themselves with the quality of their own ideas—because you gave them room to breathe.
And it’s asking better questions. Not to interrogate, but to invite reflection, unlock insight, and shift dynamics. Questions help people take responsibility, find solutions, and grow.
These are the core skills we focus on in the Coaching Skills for Leaders programme. It’s a short, practical leadership development offer designed to help you:
- strengthen your communication in high-stakes moments
- improve how you run 1:1s and feedback conversations
- build trust and accountability through better dialogue
- lead with more clarity and less stress
You’ll leave with tools you can use immediately—in conversations that matter. Because the way you lead those conversations shapes how your team performs, collaborates, and shows up.
This work isn’t about fixing people. It’s about leading in a way that helps people do their best work, consistently.
