Barnabas File

Do you have what it takes to be a coaching leader?  A coaching leader is someone who encourages another person to identify his or her goals, discover the resources available to pursue those goals, develop action plans together, and then walk along beside that person in the process of achieving the person’s goals.  A coaching leader can apply these skills in working with groups and teams as well, multiplying his or her impact as a coach by including others in the process.   A coaching leader is strong in the elements that Daniel Goleman attributes to emotional intelligence:   Self-awareness. Self-regulation. Motivation. Empathy. Social skills.   These are skills that can be learned once a person understands his or her own emotional intelligence profile.  The more that you, as a leader, can manage each of these areas, the higher your emotional intelligence.  Emotional intelligence is essential to be an effective coaching leader. In ad...

Do you have what it takes to be a coaching leader?   A coaching leader is someone who encourages another person to identify his or her goals, discover the resources available to pursue those goals, develop action plans together, and then walk along beside that person in the process of achieving the person’s goals.     A coaching leader can apply these skills in working with groups and teams as well, multiplying his or her impact as a coach by including others in the process.   A coaching leader is strong in the elements that Daniel Goleman attributes to emotional intelligence:   Self-awareness. Self-regulation. Motivation. Empathy. Social skills.   These are skills that can be learned once a person understands his or her own emotional intelligence profile.  The more that you, as a leader, can manage each of these areas, the higher your emotional intelligence.  Emotional intelligence is essential to be an effective coaching leader. These ...

The best coaches are really teachers.     Marcia Reynolds writes, “The best coaches make us recognize we have gaps in our reasoning.     The moment we become unsure of what we know learning happens.    This is good coaching.” Reynolds is a good coach.  In Coach the Person Not the Problem:  A Guide to Using Reflective Inquiry, she draws on learning theory, neuroscience, and her considerable experience in coaching to provide a practical and productive model for coaching--The Five Essential Coaching Practices. She provides some interesting insights.  For example, she writes, “Thinking is the enemy of the coach.”  The work of analyzing the client’s story belongs to the client, not the coach. The role of the coach is to help the client revisit, review, and reframe the narrative in order to generate a learning moment and then to act on it. Reynolds uses case studies to illustrate her observations and each ch...

In a blog for the International Coach Federation, Diane Craig discussed leadership styles for aspiring leaders.  Some are suited for short-term situations where immediate impact is needed. Others are best when there is time and space to provide leadership over the long term.  Most pastors find themselves in situations where long term strategies of leadership can be implemented.  Craig identifies those as Visionary, Participative, and Coaching. According to Craig, a visionary style “establishes standards and monitors performance in relation to the larger vision.” This might be called an inspirational or aspirational style.  The participative leader “invites employees to participate in the development of decisions and actively seeks opportunities for consensus.” The goal here is to develop a smoothly functioning, cohesive team of people to accomplish something.  This often complements a visionary style. Participat...

Leadership is a vital need for any endeavor.  Whether we are talking about a church, an organization, a working team, or a group, someone needs to step up and provide some structure.  Of course, there are many types of leaders--autocratic, democratic, lassiez-faire, participative, facilitative, charismatic--to name a few. I would like to make the case for being a coaching leader.  A coaching leader is one who challenges, calls out, and encourages the best in those she or he leads.  For the coaching leader to be successful, those with whom the leader works must be successful first. What are the advantages of being a coaching leader? 1.  You allow space for people to discover the strengths they bring to the table.  Each of us is very different with unique skills and abilities. Rather than forcing a person to fit into a certain box in the organizational chart, the coaching leader helps the person discover how she or he can make the greatest co...

If you stay around long enough in an organization, you will find yourself moved to management.  This is not a bad thing.  Managers have responsibility.  They can direct resources to meet needs and to move toward the accomplishment of goals.  Managers do more than deal with money, space, and materials, however.  They must deal with people When you become a manager, you will have people on your team who report to you.  You are expected to be their supervisor.  If you look up the word “supervision” in a dictionary, you will find synonyms such as “control,” “regulation,” and “govern.” This reflects one particular approach to being a supervisor, but I suggest that you consider a different paradigm. What if you saw yourself as a coach rather than a supervisor?   Both coaches and supervisors are leaders, but they take a different approach to their responsibilities.  The synonyms that go with coach are “teacher,” “trainer,” “educato...

In a recent blog for the International Coach Federation, Diane Craig discussed leadership styles for aspiring leaders.   Some are suited for short-term situations where immediate impact is needed.   Others are best when there is time and space to provide leadership over the long term.   Most pastors find themselves in situations where long term strategies of leadership can be implemented.   Craig identifies those as Visionary, Participative, and Coaching. According to Craig, a visionary style “establishes standards and monitors performance in relation to the larger vision.”  This might be called an inspirational or aspirational style.  The participative leader “invites employees to participate in the development of decisions and actively seeks opportunities for consensus.” The goal here is to develop a smoothly functioning, cohesive team of people to accomplish something.  This often complements a visionary style. Participat...