Training Archives

The most impactful approach to the coaching opportunity…I now have the skills to ask a question in a way so the team can hear the question and transfer ownership to the team. I’ve gained the confidence to be okay with not having the answers to questions.

~ Chris Kaeberlein, Coaching Agility From Within Cohort Participant

As a cohort participant, Chris gained confidence to lead, even without having all the answers. He gained confidence to lead a team while being on his own continuous leadership journey. How can you, a leader, gain (more) confidence as a team leader, too?

Here are 5 ways to do it!

1 Setting Goals Will Help You Gain Confidence

Goal setting is a vital part of gaining confidence in your ability to lead others. Knowing where you want to end up, will help you create a path to get there.

Setting goals for yourself, setting goals with your team, and experiencing the success of productive team meetings can boost confidence.

Start small, then think big picture.

What are some things you want to accomplish as a team leader? What actions will get you there? What would be a positive outcome of your next team meeting?

Gain confidence by creating a roadmap to a goal.

2 Focusing on Your Strengths Will Help You Gain Confidence

Not everyone is good at everything. You’ve heard that expression:

“Jack of all trades, master of none.”

Being a generalist can be a good thing, but as you lead a team and if your confidence is challenged, write down your strengths; it may help you renew that confidence in leading the team to success.

If you don’t know your strengths, or are troubled with how to optimize them, why not look to a mentor, colleagues, or a fellow coach? Ask them what they think your strengths are. This can be an enlightening exercise at any time, but especially if you are struggling to identify or reconnect with your strengths.

3 Learning New Skills Will Help You Gain Confidence

Leaders learning new skills can boost your confidence and it models for your team in a variety of ways, but mostly by demonstrating that you don’t know it all and are willing to learn.

Have you ever taken an advanced facilitation class?
Do you know how to stay neutral in a team meeting?
Can you lead sustainable change, even when the stakes are high?

As leaders, we should never stop learning. Identifying what you want to learn next can be challenging. Look at problems in your career, problems or friction within your team or in your coaching practice you want to solve.

Now find a way to solve these problems with new skills!

According to psychologist Maud Purcell, sticking with what you learn also improves your confidence, She explains, “true confidence develops from an increasing belief that you can rely on yourself to take action and follow-through, no matter what the result.” Teaching yourself something new always leads to more confidence.

Source: theladders.com

4 Leaving Your Comfort Zone Will Help You Gain Confidence

In order to grow, you have to do things you’ve never done before! That means leaving your comfort zone and stepping into the unknown.

It can be scary!

I recently started a podcast. That was something outside of my comfort zone. I thought about it for a long time. I eventually made a move and I am loving the process of interviewing and having conversation with my amazing guests!

Need some motivation to get out of your comfort zone?

“As you move outside of your comfort zone, what was once the unknown and frightening becomes your new normal.” ~ Robin S. Sharma

“I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy, I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.” ~ Anonymous Quote

“The comfort zone is nothing else but a graveyard for your dreams and ideas.” ~ Anonymous

“Do one thing every day that scares you.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

And my personal favorite:

“You can choose courage or you can choose comfort. You cannot have both.”
~ Brene Brown

What have you been waiting for? What is it that you are scared of, want to learn or need to address? Go and do it! Leave your comfort zone and gain confidence along the way!

5 Attending Leadership Training Will Help You Gain Confidence

Last but not least, surrounding yourself with other leaders is a great way to gain confidence in your own skill set.

As the world has been cooped up and isolated for two years, I recognize the importance of leadership training as a way to meet up with leaders to gain confidence in what is working for you, and more importantly learn where there is room for improvement. Shared experiences will lift your spirits, and will facilitate your clarity and confidence in your own leadership skills.

As an example, I want to highlight our TeamCatapult Cohort Program.

This is an in-depth, 9-month leadership program emphasizing rigorous practice and rich feedback opportunities including skill drills, peer coaching, team coaching, ongoing group work, professional one-on-one coaching, and one-on-one supervision of actual Agile coaching sessions in your own work environment.

I’d like to encourage you to subscribe to my podcast Defining Moments of Leadership: Inspiring stories and tangible lessons from leaders growing their leadership range, clarifying and refining their model for leadership and daring to define a moment rather than let a moment define them.

Foundation of Agile Coaching

Asking powerful questions over giving advice is the foundation of a coaching approach.

The days of the rambling monologue are over. Thankfully. Agile team leaders today are expected to stimulate conversation and collaboration. As Forbes Magazine describes, “today’s great leaders understand how to unlock hidden value and unleash creativity and passion with the use of well-timed questions.”

Timing of Questions

Knowing when to ask a question is a useful skill.

Knowing how to ask a powerful question is a critical skill.

Asking powerful questions over giving advice is the foundation of a coaching approach. Whether the coaching is a one-on-one coaching conversation or a team-coaching conversation, the belief is the same: People have their own answers within. They are naturally creative, resourceful and complete. Leaders, like coaches, who hold this belief seek to unlock other’s perspectives, contributions and answers.

The Role of the “Unlocker”

This starts with assuming good intent, i.e., the person is doing his or her best. Assuming good intent is inherent to effective listening. Effective listening will:

Suspend judgment and communicate curiosity and respect
Channel the attention
Bring to the surface any underlying assumptions
Invite new possibilities
Generate energy and forward movement

Ultimately, when done well, a coaching conversation using effective listening creates deep meaning and evokes more powerful questions.

Some skeptics doubt the value of powerful questions. It could be that they don’t hold the belief that people have their own answers within. As Peter Drucker, well-known management consultant, educator and author says, “Asking questions invites creativity, is empowering, and inspires us to consider alternatives…[it] helps us to calibrate and access our own capability to solve problems…building our self-confidence and self-efficacy.” Let’s look at what happens when we ask powerful questions.

What Makes a Question Powerful?

It’s short. It is only 7 words or less.
It’s open-ended. It cannot be answered with a yes or no.
It focuses on the future, rather than the past.
It starts with “What” or “How”.

What Makes a Question Less Powerful or Not Powerful At All?

It starts with “Why”. To some people, the word “Why”, sounds blaming (flashback to “Why did you spill your milk?!”) and they can take a defensive stance, even without meaning to.
It is closed-ended or seeks to gather data that the person already knows, and doesn’t require any reflection.

A: “How many people are on your team?”

B: “Ten.”

A: “How long have you been doing that?”

B: “Two years.”

These are not inherently bad questions, but they are stronger when followed by a powerful question.

A: “How many people are on your team?”

B: “Ten.”

A: “What is your pattern with this team?” *

B: “I tend to let the two most outspoken people dominate.”

A: “How long have you been doing that?”

B: “Two years.”

A: “What works well about using that method?” *

B: “Some team members have started coming to the meetings more prepared to speak up.”

Notice the two questions with * are open-ended and more powerful, especially when following a closed-ended or data gathering question. Other elements, tones, or unintended stances that a close-ended question reveals:

The question asker is looking for a specific answer or tone (even inadvertently).
The question asker stops listening and responds to his or her own question, sometimes not leaving any space for the other to respond.
“What could we do about tomorrow’s meeting? I’m only asking because I think we should…”
The question is not a question at all, it’s a suggestion or disguised opinion. We call them “que-gestions!” Beware of anybody who starts a question that way!
“Don’t you think you should pick this option?”
“Doesn’t it seem obvious that you are heading in the wrong direction?”

Instead, prepare to inspire a great conversation by having a few powerful and versatile questions in your back pocket. Here are some to get started, but remember, the best questions come from careful listening and deep curiosity.

Powerful Questions

What is important about that?
What’s frustrating you?
What’s inspiring you?
What help do you need?
What makes you see it that way?
How could that go wrong?
How will you know when you’ve achieved that?
How will you plan for success?
How are others seeing the situation?
How will this impact others?

Practice Asking the Right Questions

As you practice using powerful questions, notice how the conversation goes. Does it feel different than other conversations? In what way? Notice how much you can learn about the other person.

Did they tell you anything surprising? Notice where the other person takes the conversation…and remain curious.

As we coaches like to say… “Notice what you notice!”

Training

5 Ways To Regain Confidence as a Team Leader