LP763-L1 - week 10

The Leader as Coach TRUE NORTH · CHAPTER 10 & HELPING · CHAPTER 8

Great leaders don't just manage — they develop people. Drawing from two powerful frameworks, this session explores how authentic

leaders use the C.O.A.C.H model to bring out the best in their teams, and how the principles of process consultation deepen a leader's

ability to create lasting, meaningful change. Together, these insights offer a practical roadmap for leading through relationships, inquiry,

and trust — not positional authority.

True North; Chpt. 10 - The C.O.A.C.H Framework Authentic leaders don't rely on positional power. Instead, they lead through collaboration, trust, empathy, mentoring, and feedback — and they

do it intentionally through five core practices.

Care

Understand each person's strengths,

weaknesses, and motivations through

genuine dialogue and perspective-taking.

Organize

Get people playing as a team in their

individual sweet spots — matching talent

to role.

Align

Unite your team around a common

purpose that inspires them to show up

fully every day.

Challenge

Summon each person's best work by creating stretch goals that

push growth without breaking confidence.

Help

Work alongside your team to solve problems — and celebrate

every win together.

Why Caring is the Foundation

C — CARE

The best discussions and most creative ideas don't emerge from back-to-back conference room meetings. They come from informal,

human interaction. A leader who genuinely cares creates the psychological safety where people do their best thinking.

Career & Development

I understand each direct report's career objectives and how

their current role helps them grow toward those goals.

Motivations & Challenges

I understand both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, and I'm

aware of the real challenges each person faces.

Depth of Conversation

My one-on-ones go beyond status updates. We have honest,

meaningful conversations — including moments of shared

humility.

Whole Person Awareness

I know something real about my colleagues' lives outside of

work — their families, pressures, and what matters most to

them.

Coaching at the Right Altitude

CONTEXT-SENSITIVE LEADERSHIP

Effective coaching is never one-size-fits-all. The most skilled leaders constantly read the context and adjust how involved they are —

neither hovering nor disappearing. The right level of engagement depends on the person, the task, and the moment.

Too Little Involvement

Team members feel unsupported,

directionless, or disconnected.

Opportunities for growth are missed and

small problems grow unchecked.

Engaged Leadership

The sweet spot. The leader coaches with

curiosity, provides timely feedback,

removes obstacles, and creates space for

ownership and accountability.

Too Much Involvement

Micromanagement stifles autonomy and

creativity. People disengage, trust erodes,

and the leader becomes a bottleneck.

Leadership Principle: Determine the context first — then adjust your involvement accordingly. The goal is always to build

capability, not dependency.

Helping; Chpt. 8-Understanding Organizational Reality HELPING · CHAPTER 8

The Phenomenon of Practical Drift

Organizations rarely operate the way their policies say they do. Over time, actual practices diverge from stated intentions — a phenomenon

called practical drift. This invisible gap between policy and reality is one of the most common barriers to effective leadership and change.

What New Leaders Often Miss

New leaders frequently arrive with change agendas before

understanding the terrain. Without first learning the informal

systems and cultural norms, even well-intentioned changes can

fall flat or create resistance.

What Leaders Must Do First

• Observe the culture before trying to change it

• Learn the informal norms and unwritten rules

• Identify where traditions and practical drifts exist

• Build trust before initiating major shifts

The Leader as Process Consultant

CORE DILEMMA

A central challenge for organizational consultants — and for leaders themselves — is recognizing that how work happens matters just as

much as what gets done. Process consultation asks leaders to pay attention to the dynamics, relationships, and communication patterns

that shape outcomes, not just the task deliverables.

Task Focus

What gets done — deliverables,

outcomes, KPIs, and measurable results.

Most leaders are highly skilled here.

Process Focus

How work happens — communication,

collaboration patterns, decision-making

dynamics, and interpersonal trust. Often

overlooked.

The Integration

Effective leaders hold both

simultaneously. They drive results while

actively managing the human processes

that make great work sustainable.

Many leaders struggle to accept process consultation as a legitimate part of their role. The goal is to help leaders recognize that attending

to process is the work — not a distraction from it.

The Client Dilemma in Consulting

A COMMON AMBIGUITY

Consulting engagements rarely stay as tidy as they begin. One of the most disorienting challenges arises when the boundaries of the client

relationship become ambiguous — and the consultant must navigate competing loyalties with care.

1

The Setup

A department head hires a consultant to

improve team performance. The

engagement begins with a clear scope

and defined client.

2

The Complication

During the engagement, employees

indicate that the CEO's behavior is the

real source of dysfunction — but the

CEO never requested help and has no

formal consulting relationship.

3

The Dilemma

The consultant now faces three hard

questions: Who is the real client? What

do I do with this data? How do I deliver

feedback responsibly without

overstepping?

Building a Helping Relationship with Leadership When the consulting terrain shifts and a senior leader becomes implicated, the consultant's most important move is to build a genuine,

trust-based relationship with that leader — before taking any action. This transforms consulting from external critique into collaborative

partnership.

Establish Trust and Openness

Create a safe environment where the leader feels heard and respected, not evaluated or judged. Trust must come before truth-

telling.

Create Space for Honest Dialogue

Surface concerns in a way that invites curiosity rather than defensiveness. Frame observations as data, not verdicts.

Decide Next Steps Together

Never act unilaterally on sensitive findings. Co-create the path forward with the leader so that change feels owned, not imposed.

Reframing Change as a Helping Process A KEY TRUISM

"People don't mind change. They just don't want others to change them."

This insight is at the heart of why so many change initiatives fail. When people feel that change is being done to them, resistance is a

natural and rational response. The moment change is reframed as helping — and the person experiencing it becomes a genuine participant

in the process — the dynamic shifts entirely.

Frame Change as Helping

Language and framing matter.

Approach change conversations

with genuine curiosity about what

the person needs, not what you've

already decided must happen.

Make Them the Client

The target of change should

become an active participant in

shaping it. When people have

agency, they invest — and

resistance gives way to

commitment.

Reduce Resistance Through Ownership

Ownership is the most powerful

change accelerator. People

implement what they helped design.

Give people a real role in the

solution.

When the Client Shifts — and Why Hierarchy Matters

The Shifting Client

In organizational work, who you're truly serving can evolve

unexpectedly. What begins as a department-level engagement

may expand to involve the executive team, the CEO, or an entirely

different group. Effective consultants stay flexible and attentive to

these shifts — and don't assume the original client definition

remains fixed throughout the work.

Respecting Organizational Hierarchy

A critical principle: do not skip levels in the formal hierarchy. If the

CEO is the contact client, any decisions to engage lower levels

must be made jointly. Bypassing levels creates real problems:

• People feel excluded and out of the loop

• Confusion about what is happening and why

• Passive or active resistance to the change effort

• Potential subversion of the helping process entirely

Principle to Remember: Authority flows through structure. Honor the hierarchy — even when you're trying to help the organization

transcend it.

Organizations Are Systems of Subcultures One of the most consequential misconceptions in leadership is treating an organization as a single, unified culture. In reality, every

organization is a collection of subcultures — each with its own norms, assumptions, unwritten rules, and relationship to change.

The Implication

Nothing will change until leaders

understand the specific culture of the

group where change is expected. A

strategy that works in one department

may fail entirely in another.

The Practice

Before rolling out any initiative, invest

time in learning each subgroup's norms,

concerns, and informal power dynamics.

Diagnosis before prescription.

The Payoff

Leaders who respect cultural nuance

build credibility, reduce resistance, and

create change that actually sticks —

because it's grounded in how people

actually work.

Leaders Must Also Change THE FINAL LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLE

If you want your organization to change — be prepared to change alongside it.

Perhaps the most humbling insight from organizational consulting is this: leaders are not outside the system — they are part of it. Any meaningful organizational change will inevitably require the leader to examine and shift their own behaviors, assumptions, and patterns. Leadership development and organizational change are not separate tracks — they are one journey.

Sustainable Change

Organizational Learning

Self- Awareness

Leaders who model personal change create the conditions for organizational transformation. Those who exempt themselves from the process undermine it — no matter how sophisticated the change strategy.

Two Frameworks, One Core Truth

SYNTHESIS & TAKEAWAY

Though True North and Schein's Helping approach leadership from different angles, they converge on a powerful shared insight: leadership

development happens through relationships, inquiry, and reflection — not authority or quick solutions.

True North — Leader as Coach

• Focus on developing the team through coaching

conversations

• Builds employee growth, engagement, and accountability

• Leaders ask powerful questions to unlock potential in others

• C.O.A.C.H model: Care, Organize, Align, Challenge, Help

Schein — Helping Leaders

• Focus on supporting leaders through process consultation

• Builds organizational learning and leadership capability

• Helpers ask questions to develop leaders' self-awareness

• Process matters as much as task; hierarchy must be

respected

Shared Theme: Whether coaching a team member or consulting a senior leader, the most powerful interventions are relational,

curious, and built on trust — not directives.