Month: March 2024

As much as I advocate using a coaching approach whenever possible, it’s important to remember that it’s only one tool in your toolkit. In professional coaching, we talk about “coachability” – whether a person is ready and willing to be an active participant in their development in this area. This isn’t meant as judgment toward them, because there are many reasons a person might not be in a place to benefit from coaching. But it does mean that their energy would be better spent seeking other…

How do you coach employees in areas that are beyond your area of technical expertise? I’ve had this question come up in a couple of different contexts. It reflects some of the challenges of stepping out of your comfort zone as a leader. As an employee at any level, I don’t enjoy being told how to do my job by someone who doesn’t have expertise in my area, whether that sounds like a Provost telling the library as a whole how to manage a collection or like an Associate Dean with no teaching…