Why leaders should learn to coach

Most leaders, especially technical leaders, assume they have to have all the answers. People have climbed the ladder in whatever realm they're in because they've been dependable, reliable, the smartest person in the room. But great leaders know that when you try to advise and have the answer all the time, you're not actually equipping your team to go solve the hard problems. You're training your team to come to you with all of the hard problems. Coaching is a different way. It's an alternative path that unlocks brilliance in your team and is way more motivating for the people around around you. Coaching is actually a learnable skill, but you don't have to coach in the same way that an executive coaches. You can shift your energy into curiosity when someone brings you a hard problem to solve and create space to get curious and help them solve their own problem.