“An enormous number of books and articles have been written about coaching. Virtually nothing has been written about the other side of the equation—the receptivity of the person being coached… Coachability: The Leadership Superpower is an enormously helpful gift to all coaches and leadership development professionals.”
John Zenger
The Definition of a Coachable Leader
The Challenge
Every year, billions of dollars and millions of training and coaching hours are spent in pursuit of developing leaders. So why do CEOs still complain that a lack of sufficient leadership talent continues to be a top threat to business success?
As coaches and talent development professionals, we do everything we can to provide leaders with support and training to help, but in many cases, our efforts fall short. Perhaps helping leaders warm up their coachability would keep the training and coaching investments on track.
Coachability isn’t a common topic for coaching and leadership development
There is an overwhelming amount of material constantly published on how to coach someone or give improvement messages skillfully — but scant posts on receiving it well.
Training to help leaders become better coaches is commonplace — but you'll have a hard time finding a workshop on receiving feedback and “Being a More Coachable Leader”.
How to Increase Coachability
1. Help set the learning zone
At the onset of a coaching engagement or training program, share the concepts of coachability.
Have leaders complete the Learning Zone exercise and discuss how they can leverage their learning zone while participating in the coaching or training.
2. Provide the GPS ‘You Are Here’
Your coaching or leadership development effort is taking a leader on a journey of improvement.
Have the leader complete the Coachability Practices Review (CPR) self-assessment to gain greater self-awareness and ownership of their learning readiness. Discuss the implications of their profile as part of the coaching or training. For cohort-based programs, use a collective CPR profile to fine-tune the training and diagnose areas needing support, such as collective low scores in the Respond or Act dimensions.
3. Start a book club
Use Coachability: The Leadership Superpower as pre-reading before a coaching engagement or leadership development program.
Discuss the summary questions at the end of each and complete the worksheet exercises.
Material can also be integrated at various phases of the coaching or training program, such as Value and Respond when debriefing a 360-assessment, or Reflect and Act towards the end of the engagement to enhance the transfer of learning for follow-through application.
We’d Love To Hear Your Ideas!
What have you found helpful to increase leader coachability in your coaching clients or training program participants? Please join us on LinkedIn and share your tips!
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