The Coaching Leadership Style (CLS)

Introduction

The concept of leadership has been investigated by researchers for over a century (Bass, 2009: Northouse, 2022). As a result, numerous studies have generated various leadership styles to distinguish one type of leader from another. These styles vary in focus from results-driven to employee-centered and feature a number of critical characteristics or behaviors for each different style.

Coaching as a concept, on the other hand, has existed a mere ten years longer than leadership. First developed in academia at Oxford University, the idea of coaching someone from where they are, to where they need to be, was conceptualized through tutorship. Assisting students to pass exams was the early goal of coaching in this environment (Nieuwerburgh, et al., 2018). Just a short twenty years later, coaching would start to be used in athletics in its most familiar form (Day & Carpenter, 2015). It would take almost a century for the fields of leadership studies, professional development, and psychology to embrace the concept even further.

Concurrently, leadership research evolved to examine factors outside of the leader itself, including relationships and the environment. Hersey and Blanchard were the first to identify a coaching component to their situational leadership theory. Within their model, there are four areas to the situational leader: directing, coaching, joining, and delegating (Hersey et al., 2001). This offered professionals a new concept to employ with their followers, which also aided the development of the mentorship and executive coaching realms.

Both concepts have continued to expand in depth and breadth of research, but in the last forty plus years their paths have finally crossed. Leadership coaching has developed into an extremely popular concept within executive ranks mainly due to executive coaching firms that perceived the need for the profession. These firms yielded to professional organizations who certify those who want to pursue professional coaching in various industries. One such organization is the International Coach Federation or ICF which was founded by Thomas Leonard in 1995. Currently, ICF is the world's largest organization of professionally trained coaches and actively promotes the profession (Brock, 2008, 2014; ICF, 2022).

Considering the history of both constructs, this then begs to ask the question, does one need to become a certified coach in order to practice leadership coaching? The answer is directly positioned between the two concepts, and the result is coaching leadership style or CLS. Sir John Whitmore has been credited with the development of CLS during the 1970s and in helping IBM executives be the first to learn and apply it (Correia, 2023). Nearly three decades later, Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee (2013) would connect coaching leadership style to emotional intelligence and its four domains which can drive and boost performance. enhancing additional interest in the style.

This chapter aims to examine coaching leadership style from its origins to common characteristics and skills, and to present a working definition of the style. To provide CLS additional context, both related and opposing leadership styles will be discussed. Understanding the development of coaching leadership, situations where it is more effectively applied, steps in employing this style, and its impact on followers will be examined as well as the benefits and challenges to utilizing this style as a leader. Finally, snapshots of four famous coaching leaders will be explored including lessons learned from these individuals in applying CLS in their careers and industries.