6 Questions to Unlock a Coaching Mindset

We hear a lot about the need for coaching as a leadership competency.

Written By

Scott Miller

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We hear a lot about the need for coaching as a leadership competency.

On the surface, it seems reasonable, but for it to truly become part of our daily actions, we first need to address our mindsets around it. It’s imperative that we believe our key role as leaders is to achieve results with and through others.

Again, seems simple and reasonable, but it’s a belief system we need to adopt. It requires us to fundamentally believe that we must develop the capabilities of others and thus increase the capacity of our teams.

Is your mindset where it needs to be to move into a coaching and mentoring role? Here are six questions to ask yourself:

              • Do you genuinely delight in the success of others on your team, even those who may be
                poised to eclipse you in recognition and compensation?
              • Are your thoughts and actions aligned with an abundant or scarce point of view when it
                comes to those around you who might be competing with your time and attention?
              • Are you willing to acknowledge that there are different paths to the same level of success
                and that some of them are better than yours?
              • Can you look introspectively at how you’re lifting and building others and balance that with
                your own needs to grow and learn?
              • How effective are you at championing your team members for new roles, even those outside
                your own division or area of responsibility?
              • Do you remember what it was like to struggle early in your career and relate to the feeling
                of having a leader who shamed or humiliated you for your lack of experience?

Moving into a mindset that ignites your energy and efforts to build others is the starting gate to becoming an effective leader. Add more questions to the ones listed above and wrestle with them.

Which questions did you answer “no” to? Confronting those questions is key to moving into a coaching state of mind.


The best leaders are curious. But they don’t just ask a lot of questions. They ask the right questions—the kind that focus their team’s brainpower on the right problems.

AUTHOR Scott Miller

Scott Miller is a 25-year associate of FranklinCovey and serves as Senior Advisor, Thought Leadership. Scott hosts the world’s largest and fastest-growing podcast/newsletter devoted to leadership development, On Leadership. Additionally, Scott is the author of the multi-week Amazon #1 New Release, Management Mess to Leadership Success: 30 Challenges to Become the Leader You Would Follow, and the Wall Street Journal bestseller, Everyone Deserves a Great Manager: The 6 Critical Practices for Leading a Team. Previously, Scott worked for the Disney Development Company and grew up in Central Florida. He lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with his wife and three sons.

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