Everything You Need to Know About the Coaching Leadership Style

The coaching leadership style is when leaders guide, support and develop team members by focusing on their individual growth while working towards shared goals. This approach is less about giving orders and more about encouraging learning, feedback and open communication.

The coaching style of leadership puts people first and builds trust. You become a mentor, which can boost motivation and teamwork. Many organisations are now turning to a coaching style because it increases staff engagement, job satisfaction and long-term success.

By exploring how coaching leadership works, its benefits and when to use it, you’ll learn practical ways to make your leadership more effective and supportive.

The coaching leadership style is based on developing people and supporting growth in the workplace. This approach values communication, feedback and building trust between leaders and team members. It is designed to help individuals reach their full potential over time, rather than only focusing on immediate results.

The coaching leadership style is built on a foundation of support, feedback and guidance. Coaching leaders spend time actively listening and asking thoughtful questions. This helps team members find solutions on their own, which boosts confidence and independence.

A coaching leader places importance on regular one-on-one meetings to discuss progress, share feedback and set personal goals. The feedback provided is honest and positive, aimed at helping team members improve specific skills. Emotional intelligence is a core element of this leadership style; coaching leaders are aware of their own feelings and pay attention to the emotions of others.

Mutual trust and respect are at the heart of coaching leadership. This type of leader works to create a safe work environment where open discussion and mistakes are accepted as part of learning. They focus on team members’ long-term success by encouraging growth, mentoring and personal development opportunities.

Coaching leadership stands out from more directive or autocratic leadership styles by emphasising support rather than control. Instead of giving strict orders or making every decision, a coaching leader encourages team members to find answers and learn from experiences.

Other styles, like transactional leadership, focus on clear rules, rewards and penalties. In contrast, the coaching management style is more about development than discipline. It aims to create an atmosphere where feedback and dialogue are ongoing, not occasional.

This distinction makes the coaching leadership style a good fit for environments where learning and teamwork are important. 

Coaching leadership centres on building trust, supporting growth and ensuring meaningful dialogue. It prioritises clear communication, thoughtful feedback and strong relationships between leaders and their team.

To be an effective coaching leader, you need to practise active listening at all times. This means giving your full attention, not interrupting and showing you value your team’s ideas. Active listening builds trust and makes team members feel heard.

Open communication is another key focus. You create a safe space for your team to express concerns and share openly. Encouraging honest dialogue supports psychological empowerment, allowing team members to feel comfortable sharing new ideas and risk-taking.

Use open-ended questions to prompt discussion. For example:

• “What do you think would work best here?”
• “Can you walk me through your thought process?”

Using these techniques helps identify challenges early and offers support when needed.

You provide feedback in a way that encourages improvement, not discouragement. Feedback needs to be timely, specific and focused on behaviour rather than personal traits. This ensures your team members understand what actions they can change.

Adopting the constructive feedback approach means:

• highlighting strengths before discussing areas for improvement
• using real examples to make feedback clear
• offering guidance without criticising or judging.

Constructive feedback is not one-sided. Encourage your team to ask questions or share their perspective. This makes feedback a two-way process that helps both you and your team grow.

Successful coaching leadership requires you to understand both your emotions and those of your team. Emotional intelligence involves recognising emotional cues, regulating your own reactions, and responding appropriately to others.

Empathy means you can place yourself in another person’s situation. This allows you to offer genuine support and encouragement. If a team member is struggling, responding with empathy builds trust and motivation.

By recognising emotions, you create better dialogue and can solve conflicts early. Emotion regulation also helps maintain a calm and positive work environment. Your leadership becomes more effective as you adapt to diverse needs and challenges through both emotional intelligence and empathy.

Coaching leadership is most effective when leaders focus on supporting their team members as individuals, encouraging a learning culture, and using clear goals to drive performance. Effective coaching leaders help create a work environment where employees feel valued and motivated to develop their skills.

Coaching leaders play a key role in improving employee engagement by building trust and showing genuine interest in each team member’s growth. They do not just delegate tasks; they act as a mentor, offering one-on-one development plans and making themselves available for support.

If you are looking to adopt this leadership style, you can boost empowerment by listening actively and providing regular, constructive feedback. This opens the door for team members to share challenges and ideas. Providing feedback frequently, rather than only during formal reviews, increases motivation and helps employees feel secure about their personal growth and contributions.

A strong sense of belonging and open communication are at the heart of this approach. By treating employees as valuable individuals, coaching leaders create a culture where engagement thrives, and team members feel empowered to take ownership of their work.

Those practising the coaching leadership style nurture a growth mindset across their team by encouraging learning from both successes and failures. Adopting a coaching leadership style helps normalise continuous learning.

Instead of punishing mistakes, coaching leaders encourage reflection and discussion. This creates a safer environment for risk-taking, experimentation and creative thinking. Team members who see learning as a constant process will take more initiative in developing their skills and capabilities.

Practical ways to promote a growth mindset include offering mentoring opportunities, sharing resources and supporting individual development goals. Creating this culture of learning ensures that teams remain adaptable and ready to meet new challenges.

Clear goal setting is essential in the coaching leadership style. Leaders work with each employee to set SMART objectives (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) so expectations are clear, and progress can be tracked.

Regular feedback cycles form the backbone of effective performance management. Instead of only reviewing performance at the end of the year, coaching leaders schedule ongoing check-ins to talk about progress, barriers, and next steps. This transparent feedback process increases accountability and confidence.

Establishing shared goals that encourage both employee development and business growth strengthens the mentor-mentee relationship. By focusing on both the short-term milestones and long-term aspirations, these leaders help employees align their personal growth with the overall goals of the team and organisation.

Whether you are an aspiring or an established leader, you and your team can benefit from a coaching manager. To adopt this style most effectively, you’ll need training and the ability to blend it with other leadership styles when required.

Training can benefit leaders at all stages in their career — including future leaders — especially if they are adapting to a new approach. Our ILM-accredited courses offer training for managers at every level:

A great way to learn how to become a coaching leader is through personalised leadership coaching. Coaching offers a personalised approach to developing your skills as a leader, and you’ll also see how the coaching style works in practice. Our coaching, like our courses, is underpinned by neuroscience, giving you a unique edge in your leadership career. You’ll get insights from some of the most qualified experts in the business, tailored to your own personal style and ambitions.

The best approach to implementing any leadership style is learning when to incorporate strategies from other styles. The coaching leadership style is overwhelmingly positive, but there are situations that call for a different approach.

Because of the heavy focus on continual feedback and improvement, coaching leaders spend a lot of time on feeding back to employees. When it comes to decisions or projects that require speed, this can impede progress. In these scenarios, leaders should inform their team that they may be providing less feedback throughout the process — however, once the project is over, they can conduct a post-project review and focus on what went well and where they can improve.

Some team members may also find themselves heavily reliant on coaching leaders. In this instance, leaders can choose certain projects or periods where they take a step back, allowing employees to find their own way. Again, once this work or period is over, manager and team member can reconvene and analyse its success.

The coaching leadership style helps managers support and develop their teams by providing guidance, feedback and growth opportunities. This style works best when matched with the right context, compared to other approaches, and used to navigate change.

If you’re exploring the coaching leadership style, you should use it when you want to help your team members build new skills or adapt to new roles. This approach is valuable during times of growth, such as the onboarding process or when restructuring teams. It is especially effective in environments focused on learning, innovation or continuous improvement.

Teams in creative fields or innovation-driven industries benefit the most, as coaching encourages problem-solving and autonomy. If you manage employees who need personalised development plans or are transitioning due to technological changes, coaching can smooth the process and boost morale. This style also works well when managers need to align team members’ personal goals with broader company objectives.

Periods of technological or organisational change create uncertainty for many teams. Coaching leadership helps guide your team step-by-step, making transitions easier and reducing resistance to change.

Coaching managers help team members by setting clear goals and providing feedback as they learn new systems or processes. In workplaces integrating new software or tools, the coaching method helps employees gain confidence by encouraging questions and offering support.

By focusing on individual needs during change, leaders increase creative performance and help employees view new challenges as growth opportunities. Open communication, regular feedback and mentorship are key to a successful adaptation process during times of change. This style supports both personal and organisational resilience, making it well-suited for periods of disruption or technological evolution.

To succeed with coaching leadership, managers need clear ways to measure progress and identify roadblocks. Using data and feedback helps leaders track growth, make better decisions, and improve results for everyone.

Measuring employee growth goes beyond simple performance reviews. Leaders need to look at how staff develop new skills, achieve their career goals and respond to feedback. Using regular performance cycles helps track changes across set time frames, but feedback shouldn’t just be given in these sessions. Coaching leaders should proactively share feedback with team members for continuous improvement.

Employee engagement is another important marker. Survey data can reveal changes in morale and motivation. For example, managers can compare engagement scores before and after leadership development programmes. Improvements in teamwork, social skills and positive connections within teams can reflect that coaching leadership works in your business.

Several common obstacles can make it difficult to measure coaching leadership. Lack of clear goals, time management problems and resistance to feedback can hold back progress.

To overcome these barriers, leaders can:

• make goals specific and measurable using the SMART framework.
• improve communication by offering safe spaces for discussion.
• address time restraints by embedding coaching into daily work routines.
• use leadership assessment tools to identify growth areas and track progress.

Leadership development can sometimes face scepticism, especially if results are hard to prove. Providing real examples of impact, such as higher team performance or success in performance cycles, can help show the bottom-line benefits.

The coaching leadership style builds trust, supports team growth and strengthens communication between leaders and employees. You can use it to help people develop skills, boost long-term performance and make workplaces more positive.