When a hospital CEO incorporated a Married at First Sight Clip, along with a scene from The Office into their presentation at a Leadership Forum earlier this year, the audience was immediately engaged.

It was an example of the kind of supportive leadership that builds a culture of trust, according to the Director of FIREUP Coaching, Kathy McKenzie, who was invited to facilitate the forum for the 60 leaders of a large women’s hospital.

“The CEO used humour well to highlight what happens when you are not present in a conversation and only thinking of yourself,” says Ms McKenzie.

“The ability to engage with your leaders needs careful consideration and a high level of skill and knowledge. 

“Thankfully now in Healthcare the investment is being made in ensuring leaders do know how to coach and mentor.”

The challenge that leaders in any business face, is how to disrupt the kind of thinking that fosters an organisational culture of judgement and prejudice.

Jacinda Ardern’s recent act of courageous leadership in horrendous circumstances is a prime example of how a quality leader can steer daring conversations, while both demonstrating and managing emotion simultaneously.

She wasn’t turning on compassion for the cameras – she is compassionate.  So how we prepare our business managers to be able to lead positively and with the willing participation of their team?

How do we prepare our leaders to have courageous conversations and to manage their emotions as well as Jacinda Ardern demonstrated recently in the most horrendous circumstances. 

The answer is simple: coaching.

“One of the expected skills of all leaders now is the ability to coach,” says Ms McKenzie.

“Coaching is now becoming a main stream approach for business. 

“A recent whitepaper by Korn Ferry on the impact of leadership styles on organisational climate found that a coaching style enhanced a positive, engaged organisation culture by 50%. 

“Developing a coaching culture has been shown to improve communication by 63%, team effectiveness by 68%,self esteem by 29% and performance management by 77%.”

Ms McKenzie has developed a new coaching model designed to teach leaders to have conversations that create trust.

The REACH Model, an acronym for Rapport, Explore, Action, Clarify and Honour, aims to support health professionals to have better conversations with their peers and patients.

“This foundational coaching conversation model is a holistic model that incorporates the evidence that research around positive psychology, emotional intelligence and neuroscience.

The REACH© Coaching Conversation Model

Rapport: Building rapport is essential to get coachees engaged and in the space of trusting and opening up.

Explore: Most of a coaching conversation is questioning and exploring the topic at deeper and deeper levels. Various tools and techniques can be applied to access the sub conscious. The key to quality answers is asking quality questions that are solution oriented and focused on possibilities not problems.

Action: An effective coaching conversation leads to action steps which can be measured and monitored.

Clarify: Clarifying the value in achieving the outcome cements the importance of realising each goal and builds the desire to make it happen.

Honour: Reflecting on the value of the coaching conversation and authentically validating and honouring the coachee means they leave the session feeling good about who they are and believing they can achieve their goals.

The proof is in – it is no longer just about return on investment, but return on intelligence - and coaching is an ideal method for creating emotionally and socially intelligent leaders.  

If you would like to know more about customising a program for your team, contact FIREUP at [email protected] OR 1300 347387 – For Accredited Programs commencing near you see www.fireup.com.au