Leaders who use a coaching leadership style open their hearts and doors for people. They believe that everyone has power within themselves. A coaching leader gives people a little direction to help them tap into their ability to achieve all that they're capable of. In the long run, this leader focuses on creating strong teams that can communicate well and embrace each other's unique skill sets in order to get work done.
Similar to a sports team's coach, this leader focuses on identifying and nurturing the individual strengths of each member on his or her team. They also focus on strategies that will enable their team to work better together. This style offers strong similarities to strategic and democratic leadership, but puts more emphasis on the growth and success of individual employees.
Coaching leadership is positive in nature. It promotes the development of new skills, free-thinking, empowerment, revisits company objectives and fosters a confident company culture. Leaders who coach are often seen as valuable mentors.
While this style has many advantages, it is more time consuming as it requires one-on-one time with employees. This may be difficult to obtain in a fast-paced environment with time-sensitive priorities.