Coaching for Culture: How To Act On Leadership Content [video]

We all seek out helpful new information.

You’re on ChatGPT or Google, seeking out some sort of content to help you with a leadership challenge or workplace situation that’s going on. And you see that blank search field on Google. Or the ChatGPT cursor blinking, with the prompt “What can I help with?”

At times it can feel like I’m inspired and I get a good idea. For example, I read a piece of content or see a video – and I think, “Oh, that’s it!”

Once you find it, close the knowing-doing gap.

So you found a great idea you can use. Congratulations, that’s the first step. But then becomes the gap between two factors – aspiration and action:

• What I’m inspired by and the person I want to become.
• What’s the work?

We call that the knowing-doing gap. Basically, “I know it now, but I need to do it” – there’s a gap in between.

“Learning is defined as a change in behavior. You haven’t learned a thing until you take action and use it.”

Kenneth H. Blanchard

How does coaching help bring new insights to life?

You might be searching through LinkedIn, where there are so many incredible people leaders, and maybe you’re feeling inspired. Or, maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the people sharing things you should be doing, like I show in the video above. Regardless of why or how you find it, information is only as consequential as how you choose to put it to use.

Let’s use a recent example of thought leadership from an ADVISA colleague as a way for me to share how I view valuable content through a coach’s lens.

Real world example: a leader development article

Let’s say you run across an article from Mandy Haskett, a Leadership Consultant on our team who is also an Indianapolis Business Journal columnist. Every month she has a great article. There’s just so much wisdom and gold and ideas in her contributions.

For example, Mandy’s article shown below, which you can read through here.

You read Mandy’s article, and you start thinking about the idea of being a leader who lives under the waterline or above the waterline and the types of characters that we find ourselves in.

That’s a great model to understand, but now how do you actually do something about it? Understanding a concept can be easier than knowing how to implement new behaviors to support it.

How I would coach through an article like this

We call this Coaching for Culture, because culture is the reality of your actions.

In this world, there are so many things out there selling to you the idea of who I am and who I want to be – and these are the bridges. There are endless paths. But really when it comes down to it, you’re going to have to do some work.

Culture – in your life for yourself, for your business, for your team – is at the core of it. Think of culture as repeated skills and behavior over time. Or, my favorite:

Your culture is the sum of things you tolerate and celebrate.

So the things you’re tolerating are, in essence, giving you a result. Or, you celebrate. It’s going to tell people what’s important. Because most culture is what most people say and do most of the time. You’re seeing a theme here: Action. And done over time.

What we all need to remember is this: Just because I read something or watched something, it’s not a magic pill that automatically effects change. I’m going to have to do the work.

How I would coach you to shift your culture

One of the things I always do when I start a session is I quickly want to get to the topic. Often we’re inspired, but we don’t really know why we’re inspired or why this is a problem. So I start with this:

What is the big question you’re asking yourself after researching this challenge you’re having?

AKA, what’s the solution you’re seeking?

As adults, we are inspired to change because of a problem that we want to solve. So I start by asking that big question. So if you’re looking at a piece of content, that’s the thing I would start with. What about this? What are you asking yourself? What’s the big question?

If we were in a coaching session and you brought Mandy’s article to me, I would walk you through a process like this:

• I would help you determine the big question. Then we would begin to unpack.
• We’d start below the waterline. Then we work our way above the waterline to the person you want to be.
• We’d uncover the barriers.
• We’d uncover who you want to be.
• We’d uncover the story that you’re telling yourself.
• Then we would build an infrastructure for you to implement, piece by piece, ultimately helping you bring the new behavior to life.

Next time you see an intriguing piece of content…

Ask yourself that big question.

Then start to think about moving from below the water line (not doing the behavior) to above it – activating the behavior you want to do.

These are really helpful scenarios.

That’s what coaching is all about. It’s getting a person from the outside to take this idea and then bring it to life through doing the work that it takes to build culture.

Any time you’re interested in learning about how to go from an idea to a reality, coaching – especially leadership coaching – is a really effective way of doing that.

Need help with a leadership problem?

Feel free to send me an email any time. I’d love to collaborate with you to solve it.

Cheers!