The time to think
In my work as a coach, one thing that comes up time and again is the value of taking the time to reflect on the work we are doing – rather than only approaching our work as a long series of tasks to be completed. The same can apply when team leaders coach members of their own team. The one-to-one conversations demonstrate the importance and value of thinking about work practices. As a leader and coach, it may be useful to take in a few questions that will lead to some strategic thinking.
For example, I was recently working with a leader and we were thinking through the best approach to a team management issue, and we addressed the following question: “What question could we ask ourselves that would be most helpful to this matter?” This allowed us to generate a list of things like:
Who is affected by this issue – within the team and outside of the team?
How can we ensure that members feel heard and understood as we try to make progress as a group?
What is the core business of this team?
We only spent about 10 minutes talking like this, and we went on to talk through next steps. But pausing to think about the questions to address, before heading straight into solutions, enabled us to target, prioritize and select our approach.
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