This weeks guest post is an extract from Ben Morton’s new book, “The Little Book of Coaching Success” which is written for managers who believe in developing the people in the teams that they lead.

It Starts With Me

by Ben Morton

“Leadership is the simplest thing in the world because

it’s just plain you”

(Field Marshall The Viscount Slim)

Whilst I absolutely believe that coaching and leadership are not about you as an individual, I do believe that they both start with you.

As a leader, our role is to inspire and motivate those around us.  As a coach our role is to quieten our own thinking so that we can give all of our attention to supporting those we are coaching.  In either role, leader or coach, we are there to serve those with whom we have the privilege and pleasure to work with.

By looking after ourselves (Me) and managing our own ‘state’, we can look after and support our teams or coachee’s (Us) so that they can get on and do the ‘doing’, delivering the objectives (The Results) for the business.

I have introduced this model, or variations of it, in hundreds of training workshops and to numerous coaching clients.  In every one of these I have asked the participants to think about a typical day or week and estimate the amount of time that they allocate to each of the three elements.  The results are always the same.  The vast majority of managers spend around 70-80% of their time doing the doing themselves.  Sometimes this is even as high as 90 – 95%.  At best this leaves between 20-30% of their time to invest in themselves or their teams, which I’d suggest is far too little.

The ideal situation is to hold the three parts, on average, in balance.  By managing your time and allocating it between the three elements you are able to hit the sweet spot of leading and coaching.

This equal split of 33.3% of your time being allocated to you, your team and the results is of course somewhat unrealistic.  There will be times when the demands of a specific project mean that you need to place a lot more focus on the results yourself – and that is absolutely fine.  That is the correct thing to do in those circumstances. But, when the work has been delivered or the pressure eases then it is time to redress the balance.  You most likely will need to focus on supporting your team again. You will probably also need to focus on yourself and re-charging the batteries.

Consider this familiar situation.  It’s mid-December and you have been under a lot of pressure at work due to a number of major projects that you need to deliver.  You’ve not had any time off work, other than weekends, since August when you took a one-week holiday in the sun.  Your partner wanted you to take two weeks off but you said that you were just too busy at work- you really could only take one week.  The cumulative effect of this pressure and lack of time off is a build up of cortisol, the stress hormone, in your body.  Cortisol’s prime purpose is to prepare the human body for action – it controls our fight of flight response and makes us super alert.  In order to do this it ‘turns off’ what it considers to be non-vital bodily processes or functions.  One of these is our immune system.  We are not designed to have large quantities of cortisol pumping through our veins for protracted periods of time.  So, the effect of that pressure at work is a continual drip, drip, drip of cortisol into our body suppressing our immune system.  Christmas comes and your body shuts down – you suddenly have the flu, a cold or a sore throat.  Why does this always happen you ask yourself?   It’s because you have not got the balance right.

The first step in getting off the treadmill therefore has to be about getting really clear on where you currently invest your time and then looking to redress the balance. In doing this we start to take back some time, take back control enabling us to think, lead and coach our people to the best of our ability.

More about Ben’s new book “The Little Book of Coaching Success”

The Little Book of Coaching Success has been written for managers who believe in developing the people in the teams that they lead. Ultimately, it is a book designed to accelerate their development as a line manager coach.

It provides insights into what prevents line managers being great coaches and practical advice into how to overcome these obstacles. It makes sure that coaches, who are at the very beginning of their experience, are comfortable with GROW, but then offers guidance and challenge into how to move beyond the relatively simplistic basics and develop their own coaching style. Whether you are a beginner as a line manager coach, or one who is looking to enhance their skills, you will at the very least find some useful hints and tips within its pages.

The book is available to buy here:

About Ben Morton

Ben is a Chartered Member of the CIPD with approaching two decades of experience in leadership, learning and management. His broad range of experience is gained from roles including Group Head of HR and Training for a global subsidiary of TUI Travel and more recently 2-years in the Global Training Academy at Tesco.

He began his career in the British and trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Following two operational tours of Iraq, Ben retired his commission as a Captain leaving the Forces in 2006.

Ben specializes in two key areas. Helping individuals moving into their first leadership role or those whose careers have progressed rapidly, finding themselves leading large and often very experienced teams. Secondly, he works with clients to enable them to understand what is required to develop high performing, highly effective teams.

You can find out more about Ben’s work via his blog, Unlocking Team Potential, or via his LinkedIn profile.