How Great Leaders Create Urgency On Their Team
December 17, 2025
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You have been there before: frustrated by a lack of support from your manager. No real direction, unsure of how to do what needs to be done next, or having work redone without an explanation as to why.
What you think you need is a new manager, but what you really need is your manager to start acting like a coach.
Unfortunately, too few managers have developed their coaching skills and effectively use them. Research shows 84% of employees want better coaching from their boss. This is a massive problem because you know who provides effective coaching? ChatGPT and other AI tools, so if managers don’t get on board, they will find themselves replaced.
Coaching someone entails connection, direction, and time. It can be lived out through questions, insights, and demonstrations.
Contrary to popular belief, being an effective coach isn’t something you are born with. Coaching is a skill that leaders work to develop and master. To ensure we are on the same page, the definition of coaching we use in the Coaching for Excellence skill mastery workshop is as follows:
Improving the current and future performance of others to achieve higher levels of excellence.
This definition is important because the vast majority of people will only go to the point where they get uncomfortable, then they will stop. We often need someone else to help us raise our game and reach the next level. Said differently:
Someone else’s success tomorrow requires your best coaching today.
Want proof? Research indicates that 70% of employees who receive consistent coaching experience improved performance, compared to 30% who do not. Additionally, employees who receive daily coaching from their manager are three times more engaged at work.
There isn’t a lack of information or knowledge in the workplace; there is a lack of managers who are unable or unwilling to help others acquire and apply it.
Take Rebecca, a manager of a mid-sized company, as an example. Their workplace is fast-paced, with a lot going on. It’s difficult with her 12 direct reports to help them solve their problems, answer questions, and do her own job. So her typical leadership behavior each day looks more like someone who doesn’t know how to swim, drowning in the pool, versus a great swimmer calmly swimming laps. Unfortunately, this led to high voluntary turnover, low employee engagement, and her being burned out. Finally, at her wits’ end, her HR department hired us to provide 1-1 coaching.
It didn’t take long to share a key idea to help her: Instead of her being responsible for delivering the results, she had to make the shift that her responsibility was coaching the team members who were responsible for delivering the results.
When I asked her why she wasn’t coaching her people these were what she said:
All of these are legitimate reasons she wasn’t properly coaching people, but they don’t excuse the fact that it’s a requirement of the job. Every leader in the world is responsible for two things, at a minimum, recruiting and coaching.
If you are looking for tactics and strategies to develop your coaching skills as a leader, it doesn’t have to be complicated. There are all kinds of great coaching models like G.R.O.W. and others, but for today we are going to make it even simpler.
It’s an instantaneous technique that has three parts.
Ask: “What have you done up until this point?”
Listen: “Tell me more.”
Coach: “What do you think we should do to create the best result for everyone?”
If you find yourself frustrated by a lack of coaching for your manager, try not to judge them, but plan on being better when you get the opportunity. If you are a manager and are struggling with underperforming team members, focus on coaching them up instead of moving them out.
Use the fantastic insight from Michael Bungay Stanier: “Stay curious a little bit longer and rush to advice giving a little bit slower.”
Allow yourself to ask, listen, and coach instead of just giving the answer.
Accelerate Leadership Blueprint: The Accelerate Leadership Blueprint is built around the six key fundamentals of Accelerating Leadership: Talent, Culture, Execution, Relationships, Coaching, and Accountability. Inside, you’ll get six principles and six practical tools to help you lead yourself and others with clarity. It’s a cheat code to align your team and improve performance in less than 10 minutes. Get the full blueprint for just $17. Download it here.
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About the Author: John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft and The Sales Infrastructure. He was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices. John is also the author of Building the Best: 8 Proven Leadership Principles to Elevate Others to Success. You can follow him on Instagram @johngeades.
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